2020 Redistricting in Pennsylvania

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Is it possible to shore up Susan Wild and Matt Cartwright?

In theory I'd love if PA-01 could become bluer but the unfortunate fact is that it's already lean blue but Fitz still has a hold on it.

You kind of have to axe one or the other unfortunately--or give both somewhat competitive districts. PA-08 doesn't really have any adjacent Democratic areas except the Lehigh Valley.

If Dems had full control, they could use the Lehigh Valley to shore up PA-8 and then shore up PA-7 by moving into it some parts of Montgomery County (PA-4) or draw a tendril to add Reading. This breaks up communities of interest though so it would be a D gerrymander, and R's would be unlikely to agree to it without compensation. Wasserman suggested a possible deal where Conor Lamb's district is cut in exchange for this configuration in eastern PA.

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I think some of the discussion here about what the PASC might do is a bit off base. We saw what they did in 2018; they removed the hilarious shapes (like PA-7 "Goofy Kicking Donald Duck") and created compact districts broadly around communities of interest, like PA-1 is Bucks County, PA-7 is the Lehigh Valley, PA-8 is NEPA, PA-4 is Montgomery County, etc. So it's pretty unlikely they would do things like Allentown with PA-1 or Scranton with PA-7 since that breaks up communities of interest, this kind of arrangement is more likely to result from a deal between Wolf and the legislature.

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https://twitter.com/StephenJ_Caruso/status/1470813556362948609
Cleaned up  R map which also makes PA06 more red. Not sure what the point of these antics are when all this does is antagonize Dems who might be interested in a compromise.

Why should we compromise when we control the State Supreme Court?

Because they'll probably draw a map that resembles the current map (that they drew) with a red seat in the middle cut out but with PA-7, PA-8, and PA-17 taking in more red territory. So a mostly fair map that has some competitive districts. It could be better to lock in an incumbent protection gerrymander type map.

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Good choice. The only choice that's unfavorable to Dems is the Wild seat, which I get is frustrating, but given the pretty D-friendly choices elsewhere it's hard to complain. Overall, a pretty good COI map in the vein of the Persily one.

The Wild seat has basically nowhere else to go but there of course on a CoI-driven map. Carbon County is part of the Lehigh Valley.
This map is very, very reminiscient of the Persily one. And as you said, there's a lot of Dem-friendly choices on this map too.
Ds are well positioned for 2022 and beyond with this one.

In addition to the COI consideration, if Monroe County were given to PA-7 to make it more D then PA-8 would be more R in compensation. This way it splits the difference and keeps both competitive, which to me is fine.