Dividing Up the American Pie.

• Author: Sample, Herbert A.

It looks like the Republicans are going to control the bulk of redistricting in 2001, unless Democrats can pull off some election victories in key races.

Mike Veon has a problem, and it could be a big one. If he doesn't win a few Pennsylvania House elections next year, his fellow Democrats in the state's congressional delegation will find themselves in considerable political trouble.

It's a stark challenge facing Veon, Democratic whip in the Pennsylvania House who is plotting to swipe control of the state House from Republicans in next year's election. He knows that if he fails, the state's GOP leaders will do in Democratic members of the U.S. House from the Keystone State when political boundaries are redrawn in early 2001.

"If Republicans control the redistricting process, they could take the [state's Democratic U.S. House] delegation down to five or six" from the current 11, said Veon. "D-Day of the [state] Democratic Party is on Election Day 2000."

Pennsylvania Republicans, though, have no intention of losing the complete control over redistricting they now enjoy. "It's always a battle in Pennsylvania for the House no matter who is in control," said Stephen Drachler, an aide to John Perzel, House GOP leader.

But, he added, "The plain fact is that Pennsylvania is tilting Republican. The growth in Pennsylvania is occurring in areas that are Republican. The losses in population are coming in the cities, which are overwhelmingly Democratic."

Pennsylvania's state capitol is just one of many battle zones that will erupt next year as the parties jockey for advantage over the redistricting process in 2001 and the partisan makeup of Congress during the rest of the decade.

WHO'S GOING TO DRAW THE LINES

"The lower-level offices on the ballot [next year] are actually in many ways the crucial contests," said Kim Brace, president of Election Data Services, a Washington consulting firm that specializes in redistricting. The winners of those elections "will be dictating who will be in the game."

As of now, the 2001 round of redistricting is still bubbling below the radar of many political activists who are focused on the race for the White House. But with control of the U.S. House over the next decade at stake, state races are likely to attract growing attention during the next year.

Republicans currently hold just an 11-seat majority in the 435-member House--not counting one independent who usually sides with Democrats and a vacancy in a Democratic-leaning seat in...