Protesters with Occupy Harrisburg disrupted the start of a public hearing held today by the commission charged with redrawing Senate and House districts throughout Pennsylvania.





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Seconds after the commission chairman called the hearing to order and began speaking, about 50 Occupy Harrisburg members, mostly young people, started chanting slogans loudly, drowning out the chairman.

Among the call-and-response chants were excerpts from a section of the Pennsylvania Constitution that says towns and incorporated municipalities are not to be divided by redistricting.

As the chanting continued and the commission members stood and watched, a handful of Capitol police officers entered the hearing room. However, the officers left without incident and the commission allowed the chanting to continue.

After about 40 minutes Chairman Stephen McEwen Jr. resumed efforts to begin the hearing. He made a few introductory remarks that could not be heard over the protesters, and then asked the hearing’s first witness, Barry Kauffman of Common Cause Pennsylvania, to begin his testimony.

Kauffman couldn’t be heard either for about the first five minutes, but then the protesters agreed to stop chanting and filed out of the room.

The scheduled speakers for the hearing spoke in a softer voice than the protesters, but their words were just as critical.

Lora Lavin, vice president for issues and action for the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, called the proposed new Senate 15th District in the midstate “a new poster child for partisan gerrymandering.”

The district as proposed would no longer include Harrisburg, which would become part of the 48th District, but instead meandor through portions of Dauphin, Cumberland, Perry, Adams and York counties.

Critics say the commission created the new 15th to protect incumbent Republican Sen. Jeff Piccola, who would no longer have to worry about getting support from Harrisburg voters. On Nov. 11, Piccola announced that he would not seek re-election.

Speakers said the new district cobbles together urban and rural populations that are too far apart geographically and too diverse culturally.

“Even the most gifted public servant in the Senate will find it difficult if not impossible” to adequately represent the entire 15th district, said Jay Nenninger, a plumber who lives in Lower Paxton Township.

Cumberland County Commissioner Rick Rovegno gave the panel a copy of a letter that asks for reconsideration of the 15th District and is jointly signed by commissioners from Cumberland, Dauphin, Perry, Adams and York counties. Rovegno noted the commissioners represent the Republican and Democratic parties.