This week's Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling throwing out a redrawn map of all state House and Senate districts could force Lancaster County Republican Committee to seek re-votes on all of its legislative endorsements.

A redo would be unprecedented in modern history and could alter the race for state House in retiring Rep. Tom Creighton's 37th Legislative District; the GOP was deadlocked earlier this week over which of two candidates to back for that post.

GOP Chairman Ethan Demme said he has put the party's area chairpeople on notice that such a re-vote could occur, depending on how the state's high court and redistricting panel decide to handle this year's elections.

"We're in uncharted territory," Demme said.

The court, in a decision announced late Wednesday, voted 4-3 to declare the newly redrawn map of 50 Senate and 203 House districts invalid, raising the real possibility it could be months or longer until a new plan is enacted.

Just the night before, on Tuesday night, nearly 250 members of the Republican committee, broken into their newly redrawn legislative districts, voted to endorse candidates for state House and Senate.

Though most of the candidates here were running unopposed for the party backing, there were races for two seats — Creighton's 37th seat and retiring state Rep. Scott Boyd's seat in the 43rd. In the latter district, the GOP easily endorsed county Controller Keith Greiner.

But in the 37th, the committee spent hours deadlocked over whether to back Manheim sales executive Mindy Fee or builder Stephen Black of Elizabeth Township.

The divided committee finally voted to recommend both for consideration.

The Supreme Court ruling, however, ordered the old district maps, approved in 2001, restored until a new one can pass muster. That means that several Republican committeepeople who met to consider the two candidates Tuesday night were booted from the legislative district Wednesday.

Committee members are required to live in the districts represented by the legislators they are endorsing.

The redistricting put part of East Hempfield Township and all of East Petersburg Borough into the 37th, while cutting East Cocalico Township and Adamstown Borough out of it.

On Tuesday night, before the Supreme Court ruling, the GOP's eight committeepeople in East Petersburg and East Hempfield Township's Petersburg voting district took part in the endorsement process along with the remainder of the Republican rank-and-file in the 37th.

By the next day, the state high court had invalidated the new map, meaning that the 37th no longer included those two municipalities — and that those eight committeepeople were back to being in their former legislative districts.

Meantime, the 10 members of the GOP in East Cocalico Township and Adamstown placed back in the 37th by the ruling hadn't taken part in the endorsement race between Fee and Black.

Black said he's unsure whether a re-vote would result in an endorsement, which requires a two-thirds majority.

"I have gotten to know a lot of people in Adamstown and that area," he said. "I think the results will end up to be the same, but I would hope I would get the endorsement."

Fee said she remains positive about the race and confident that she has significant support among voters in the 37th. Asked whether she thought a re-vote including the GOP from East Cocalico and Adamstown would dramatically change the endorsement results, she said: "I feel I had support up in that area. We'll see."

Demme said that if the court ruling forces a re-vote on endorsements, it would be across all legislative and congressional districts.

"If we would have to do it for one, we would have to do it for all of them," he said.

tmurse@lnpnews.com