State House Democrats say Mercer County can no longer justify having three House districts due to its shrinking population and it's time for two of those districts to be combined.

A Democratic reapportionment proposal would merge the 17th and 8th Districts -- represented by Republicans Rod Wilt and Dick Stevenson respectively -- and leave Democrat Michael Gruitza's 7th District, which covers the Shenango Valley, intact. Mercer County's population of 120,293 is equivalent to the ideal population for two House districts, says a Democratic caucus staffer who requested anonymity.

But a competing plan put forth by House Republicans calls for maintaining the core of the 7th, 8th and 17th districts much as they are, with a few changes in the borders.

Mercer County will continue to have three voices in the House when all is said and done, says Wilt, of Sugar Grove Township, who dismisses the seriousness of the Democratic proposal.

"This is more of a smokescreen than anything else," he said.

The party caucuses are submitting and fine-tuning remapping plans. The Legislative Reapportionment Commission has a Sept. 25 deadline to approve a preliminary plan to draw new boundaries for 203 House districts and 50 Senate districts to reflect population shifts during the past decade.

The five-member commission consists of the four legislative leaders -- House and Senate majority and minority party leaders -- and a chairman, Philadelphia Judge Frank Montemuro, who casts a tie-breaking vote. Republicans have the upper hand in this process since they control both chambers of the General Assembly and the chairman traditionally doesn't vote for plans that would throw control of a chamber to the minority party.

But Democrats also have an eye to the legal arena. If they think the reapportionment plan creates districts that provide Republicans with an unfair advantage -- a process known as gerrymandering -- they can appeal elements of it to the state Supreme Court, which is nominally in Democratic hands.

Even Gruitza thinks his caucus leaders would face a tough time selling the merger of the 8th and 17th Districts in the face of determined opposition from the majority party.

"I'd find it pretty hard to imagine the Republicans would ever approve," he said. "Nobody involved in that process has called me."

The Democratic proposal for merging Wilt's and Stevenson's districts can be viewed in the context of partisan maneuvering for advantage over Pennsylvania's entire political landscape. Republican legislative leaders have talked openly about merging Democratic districts in the population-losing Wilkes-Barre area, for example, and creating new districts in growth areas presumably more favorable to electing GOP candidates.

"The GOP says we're losing people in the cities," says a Democratic staffer. "In some rural areas, we're losing population as well. In areas like Mercer County, they can't justify keeping the number of Republicans they have."

The Democratic proposal basically reconstitutes the old 8th House district that encompassed eastern Mercer County in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the 1990 reapportionment, the 8th District shifted southward to encompass its present zigzag course from Grove City to Kittanning in Armstrong County. The 17th District was created to include most of eastern and central Mercer County and part of Crawford County.

Wilt, Gruitza and Stevenson see these changes as likely under the final reapportionment plan:

• Gruitza's 7th House District will remain based in the Shenango Valley. It will expand to include Delaware Township and the western half of Jefferson Township. The district has a 56,021 population, about 4,500 under the ideal.

• Wilt's 17th House District will add Mercer borough and Liberty Township and lose Delaware Township and part of Jefferson Township in Mercer County. It will pick up North Shenango Township in Crawford County. This would unify Jamestown Area School District, which straddles two counties, under one legislative district. The district has a 58,973 population, about 2,500 under the ideal.
• Stevenson's 8th House District would keep Grove City, his home base, but lose the Armstrong County portion. The district would expand some in Butler County where population is growing. The district is on target with a 60,988 population.