PoliticsPA reports that Republicans scored a big victory today as the Chairman of the panel charged with drawing new legislative districts voted to advance preliminary maps drawn by the Republican caucuses.  The maps would make a Democratic comeback in the Pa. House, not to mention the Pa. Senate, more difficult.  Stephen McEwen, a retired Judge of the Pa. Superior Court, voted with Majority Leaders Dominic Pileggi of the Senate and Mike Turzai of the House over the objection of the panel’s two Democrats.  Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa and House Minority Leader Frank Dermody said the maps represented a sharp departure from terms previously negotiated by both parties and amounted to a partisan power grab.

Several lawmakers crowded large copies of the new maps printed on poster boards to see how their districts – and their colleagues – had turned out.