He was out, and not a vote had been cast. Houghton never even got a chance to deliver his speech at a meeting Wednesday night in West Chester.
Scattered stories such as Houghton's arose around the state after the Supreme Court's surprising 4-3 ruling rejected the new legislative map that the Legislative Reapportionment Commission adopted Dec. 11.
It's the first time that has happened since the state adopted a revised constitution in 1968.
With the expected district boundaries shifting by blocks, or even whole neighborhoods, "people who were going to run can't run, and people who weren't going to run - now they can," said U.S. Rep. Robert Brady, chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic Party.
He used the same terminology that Michael Meehan, the city's Republican leader, used to describe the ruling's impact.
"We're reshuffling."
The Supreme Court ruling had no impact on new congressional district maps for Pennsylvania, which were drawn up separately by the legislature and which haven't been questioned in court.
The state and federal constitutions require electoral districts to be redrawn after every 10-year census to reflect population shifts. All districts must have approximately the same population under the U.S. court's one-man, one-vote rule.
Republicans, because of their majority in both houses, were largely in the driver's seat when the maps were drawn. Democrats complained that some districts were altered - or moved from one county to another - to benefit GOP candidates. (However, some acknowledged they'd have done the same had they been in charge.)
Some areas lost population; others grew. One Senate seat was to be shifted from Allegheny County (the Pittsburgh area) to Monroe County (the Poconos).
