House and Senate Republicans made one last pitch to try to forestall a fast-approaching state court takeover of Pennsylvania's Congressional maps, but were rebuffed by Gov. Tom Wolf.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre County, told reporters he and his House GOP counterpart Dave Reed, R-Indiana County, asked Wolf Thursday to make a joint appeal with them to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for more time.

Under the GOP's offer, the 2018 election cycle would proceed under the existing maps that the state court last month found in violation of state constitutional guarantees of "free and equal" elections.

The leaders and Wolf would then commit to a redraw -- after a full, legislative process that would by definition require both major parties' buy-in -- that would take effect for the 2020 campaign cycle.

Corman said Wolf rejected the offer, though that could not be immediately corroborated by Wolf's office.

The court, of course, had given Democrat Wolf and the Republican-controlled General Assembly about three weeks to approve a fast-tracked plan in its initial Jan. 22 order.

Neither side was able to take advantage of that window, which sets up the next, and very controversial, step in the court's order: Its own imposition of new district lines by Feb. 19.

Corman said if that happens, there will then likely be another legal fight over that aspect of the case.

"This is far more important to me than Congressional redistricting," Corman said.

"The separation of powers and the duties of each branch of government is laid out by the framers of our Constitution. And I am going to stand up for the powers that have been vested in the legislative branch," Corman continued.

"This is an issue of one branch taking over the other two branches and I think that's completely unacceptable."

The case arose from a lawsuit filed last summer by 18 registered Democrat voters and the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, who alleged that partisan cutting of the Congressional lines after the 2010 census amounted to "viewpoint discrimination" against Democratic voters.

In a December trial, they presented evidence that a series of 500 maps built on traditional redistricting principles and past vote counts never replicated the current 13 Republican- five Democrat split in Pennsylvania's Congressional delegation.

Defenders of the 2011 map -- drafted by a Republican-controlled General Assembly and then-Gov. Tom Corbett -- have said it checks all Constitutional requirements, and argued the Democrat plaintiffs are simply seeking guarantees of proportional representation that do not exist.

The court, however, held in a Feb. 7 majority opinion that far from making a reckless power grab, they were honoring Pennsylvania's longstanding tradition of representative democracy.