Dave Kralle at the November 2011 Parkwood Civic Association meeting. Photo/Shannon McDonald

If you go to your neighborhood civic association meeting, chances are you know Dave Kralle. Holme Circle, Bustleton, Parkwood – the residents there know the aide to Councilman Denny O’Brien by name. Before O’Brien’s election to Council, Kralle worked for him at the state level when O’Brien served the 169th Legislative District.

The rest of the city got to meet Kralle earlier this year during O’Brien’s campaign for Council-at-large. Average height, on the thin side and always in a suit and tie, Kralle is as recognizable to district constituents as O’Brien is. That’s likely to work to his advantage if Kralle enters a bid for the now-vacant 169th District seat.

“Denny wants me to run for his old seat in the House of Representatives,” Kralle announced at last night’s Holme Circle Civic Association. continue reading »

Pennsylvania's redistricting map shows the current location of the 169th District (in green) and its new location (in blue).

Just like the City of Philadelphia’s councilmanic district, Pennsylvania moves it legislative districts around every 10 years. This time around, the Northeast stands to lose an entire district.

The 169th Legislative District, currently represented by Rep. Denny O’Brien, will move to the growing York County under the new plan. O’Brien, who told NEast Philly back in November, ”This redistricting proposal is not good for the Northeast or the Republican Party,” will no longer hold the House seat, anyway. He’s been elected to hold one of the Republican City Council-at-large seats in Philadelphia.

In the video below, see O’Brien’s aide Dave Kralle explain to the Parkwood Civic Association how the transfer will affect some of O’Brien’s former constituents.

Pennsylvania legislative district 172, as it stands today. Click to visit Redistricting the Nation.

This is part of ongoing coverage in “District 172: The Politics of Change after State Rep. John Perzel,” a collaborative effort with Philadelphia Neighborhoods funded by J-Lab.

Shaping legislative districts is by no means illegal. It’s a part of the democratic process.

After each U.S. Census informs leaders about population and demographic shifts throughout the country, each state, county and municipality is meant to see subtle movement in its boundaries to better reflect the realities there, from balancing population totals and community divides. For example, in the post-1990-census redistricting, Philadelphia lost two House seats to its western suburbs due to population growth there.

Where redistricting has earned the more negatively connoted term of ‘gerrymandering’ — coined in 1812 after a partisan Massachusetts governor — has been when political, not population, shifts seem to motivate legislative rewiring.

Now again, Pennsylvania is revisiting its boundaries, like the rest of the country, following the 2010 census. In April, a former Superior Court president was named the independent chair of the state’s Legislative Reapportionment Commission, which by October is due to send to the state Supreme Court its reapportionment draft of state legislative districts.

One district that will be watched by some insiders is the Pennsylvania 172nd State House Legislative district, formerly the precinct of John Perzel.

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