The Reapportionment Commission has a new deadline - noon on Dec. 21 - to reduce the state's six House districts to five.

The nine-member bipartisan Reapportionment Commission had tentatively agreed to merge the Fifth and Sixth Districts, but was stalled tonight over how to accomplish the merger while maintaining a balance between Republicans and Democrats.

The nine members of the Reapportionment Commission, appointed by Gov. John G. Rowland, were deadlocked in the hours before the panel's midnight deadline.

Beginning in 2014, pursuant to the 2012 Revised Final Plan adopted by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission and approved by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the 103rd Legislative District will consist of:

The Supreme Court, as Nix had suggested in 1981, remanded the plan back to the Reapportionment Commission.

Legislative [Single-Member Districts and Reapportionment Commission] (rev. Art.

The suit contends that the Reapportionment Commission failed to abide by a state constitutional requirement that legislative districts fall within town borders whenever possible.

Although most meetings of the nine-member Reapportionment Commission have been private, legislators and party leaders are working behind the scenes to protect their own interests.

The Reapportionment Commission was appointed by Gov. John G. Rowland, who selected four Democrats, four Republicans and a ninth member approved by both parties.

Senator DeLuca noted that, in the event the committee can't come to a decision by Sept. 15, the committee would become a Reapportionment Commission and would choose a ninth member.