Maryland Redistricting Under Scrutiny

George Wenschhof

Thomas Schaller, in a column published recently in the Baltimore Sun, hit the nail on the head when he summed up the current redistricting process with the following:

"In a democracy, voters are supposed to pick the politicians who represent them. But gerrymandering too often inverts this relationship: Politicians pick their voters, typically with incumbent-protection and party-expansion objectives in mind. Is it any wonder that a Congress full of mostly safe incumbents representing contorted districts suffers from record-low approval ratings?".

In Maryland, the Democratic controlled General Assembly will meet next week in a special session called by Governor Martin O'Malley to decide on the redistricting of the congressional districts required by the U.S. constitution.

Democrats hold 35 of the 47 senate seats and 98 of the 141 delegate seats in the state of Maryland, giving them a marked edge when it comes to redistricting.

As a result, 6 of the 8 congressional districts are currently held by Democrats. Prior to the last election, Democrats for one congressional term, represented 7 of the 8 districts.

The lone exception for the Democrats is district 6 where Republican Roscoe Bartlett has served since first being elected in 1992. It is this district that is receiving the most drastic change in the proposed redistricting.

Democratic state senate Majority Leader Robert J. Garagiola (District 15) is the rumored beneficiary of the offered change which adds parts of heavily Democratic voter registered Montgomery County to the 6th district.

While, voters in the sixth district deserve more effective representation than they have received over the past 19 years, the proposed gerrymandered district will almost certainly be challenged in the courts.

Sympathy also goes to those Democratic candidates who courageously battled against odds over the past nine elections, only to be pushed aside by a rumored favorite of state senate president Thomas V. Mike Miller.

In an expected move, Republicans will propose their own redistricting map when the special session convenes on Monday.

Update 10:30 AM - In addition, Democratic Representative Donna Edwards (4th district) and Montgomery Council Democratic President Valerie Ervin are challenging the proposed redistricting on behalf of minorities with concern it may violate the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Interestingly, a former member of the Montgomery County Council may have impact on this upcoming redistricting proposal. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez oversees the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. RollCall.com published a piece recently on his role in the redistricting taking place across the county.

What would make more sense and help avoid politicians picking their voters, would be for state legislatures to appoint a bipartisan committee to oversee redistricting.

Stay Tuned....

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