Babette Josephs

State Rep. Babette Josephs will hold a hearing today to determine whether the state is prepared to handle the huge turnout of voters expected on Election Day.

Josephs, who chairs the House State Government Committee, will take testimony from the U.S. Postal Service, government watchdog groups and state election officials.

The hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at the Ethical Society in downtown Philadelphia.

The candidates in Philadelphia's 182nd Legislative District are scheduled to debate Wednesday night in South Philadelphia.

State Rep. Babette Josephs (D-Philadelphia) is facing a challenge from Republican challenger Wally Zimolong. The district is overwhelmingly Democratic, leaving little hope for Zimolong's chances.

But he can take some solace in recent voter discontent over Josephs' stance on reform legislation.

The debate is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Palumbo Recreation Center at 10th and Fitzwater Streets.

HARRISBURG -- Gene Stilp wanted everyone to know what he thought of Tuesday morning's meeting of the House State Government Committee meeting. So the longtime reform activist made an announcement to the handful of legislators and staffers moments before they began debating a bill that would reduce the General Assembly's size.

The whole hearing was a sham, he said, designed for political posturing rather than reform.

"Absolutely nothing will happen" for reform today, he said while standing next to fellow reformer Don Baylor.

Each held a picture of the committee's chairwoman, Babette Josephs (D-Philadelphia), with her head superimposed on a beauty pageant contestant's body, a picture meant to deride her efforts at reforming state government. Josephs has become the favorite target of many state reformers because they accuse her of stalling reform legislation in her committee.

Lawmakers dismissed Stilp's antics as showmanship from someone dedicated more to himself than his cause. But they also just as easily dismissed, if much more politely, the bill from state Rep. Mark Mustio (R-Allegheny County) that would reduce the number of state lawmakers to 201, 20 percent fewer than the 253 who serve today.

What was supposed to be a non-controversial resolution on the House floor Wednesday has become the genesis of a budding controversy.

And conservative lightning rod state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler County) is in the middle of it.

The lawmaker challenged a resolution that would have sponsored a Muslim group's convention in Philadelphia this weekend in Harrisburg.

"The Muslims do not recognize Jesus Christ as God, and I will be voting negative," he said on the House floor. The resolution was passed over after state Rep. Gordon Denlinger (R-Lancaster County) suggested it be sent to committee, saying the resolution was controversial in light of the attacks of Sept. 11.

Harrisburg continues to be embroiled in a dispute over redistricting reform after Gov. Ed Rendell recently urged lawmakers to reconsider recently tabled legislation that would fix how Pennsylvania's congressional districts are drawn.

Adding to the long-running drama, Rendell, a Democrat, wrote to the chairs of the House and Senate's State Government committees last week, imploring them to address the chronic problem of gerrymandering -- carving up districts to the advantage of incumbents and majority parties -- before the 2010 census. State Rep. Babette JosephsPennsylvania is the second-most gerrymandered state in the country, according to the League of Women Voters.

"The Commonwealth's existing redistricting process undermines democracy by institutionalizing a powerful system of incumbent protection," Rendell wrote in a letter to state Sens. Anthony H. Williams (D-Philadelphia) and Jeffrey Piccola (R-Dauphin), and Reps. Babette Josephs (D-Philadelphia) and Mathew E. Baker (R-Bradford). "For every vote to truly count, we must have competitive elections where voters have the opportunity to choose between viable candidates. I am convinced that the only way to ensure meaningful elections is to take politics out of the process of drawing legislative boundaries.

"This issue is neither arcane nor academic; how we draw legislative boundaries impacts the daily lives of Pennsylvanians because competitive elections in rationally drawn districts are the only way that voters can make their voices heard on the issues that matter to them," he added.

After lawmakers in Harrisburg tabled a measure to reform the way legislative districts are redrawn, Republican candidates in Philadelphia are speaking out in favor of the reform and hammering Democrats for putting it off.

 
The measure was tabled by a state House committee last week and by its counterpart committee in the state Senate this week. Critics of the measure have called it flawed reform, while others have called it a necessary move to stop the process of "gerrymandering," or redrawing districts to the advantage of incumbents and majority parties. Pennsylvania is the second-most gerrymandered state in the country, according to the League of Women Voters.

Following a similar action in the state House that was criticized by government reform advocates, a state Senate committee on Tuesday tabled a proposal to take politics out of redistricting.

The Senate's State Government Committee put off a vote on the measure, which would have taken elected officials out of the process of redrawing districts.

Known as "gerrymandering," the process most often involves splitting up and redrawing districts to the electoral advantage of incumbents and majority parties. Pennsylvania is the second-most gerrymandered state in the nation.

A proposal, sponsored by State Rep. Steve Samuelson (D-Northampton), would prohibit lawmakers from serving on the panel that oversees redistricting. It would also bar the panel from considering party registration or voting records when redrawing district lines.

The proposal won't be seeing daylight before the State Government Committee, The Post-Gazette reports, after chairwoman Rep. Babette Josephs (D-Philadelphia) tabled it.

"While I am doubtful that there is enough support in the General Assembly to pass even the most carefully drafted redistricting legislation, I am certain that the chances of passing flawed legislation ... are, in my opinion, nonexistent," Josephs wrote in a memo to colleagues.