The congressional redistricting map for which Gov. O’Malley is seeking legislative approval ignores standards of continuity and compactness and puts together far-flung communities that do not share common interests or anything else in common.
And adding insult to injury, the governor has either forgotten or brazenly ignored Maryland’s ethnic and racial diversity in the process of redistricting.
The map is nothing but a political instrument which seeks to gain the ruling democrats a Republican congressional seat in Western Maryland and keep the seats of incumbent Democrats safe and sound. Redistricting continues to make a mockery of “one-man-one-vote.”
Redistricting has become and continues to be a vehicle for building partisan power in Congress.
On the plus side, the map keeps the Eastern Shore in the First Congressional District. However, the new map of the First District drops Anne Arundel County and goes west to include a large part of Carroll County, Baltimore and Harford County.
Certainly, the Eastern Shore has more in common with Anne Arundel County than Carroll County which is located in Western Maryland.
The heavy Republican Sixth District used to stretch across the northern border of the state.
The new map keeps rural Western Maryland in the district, but dumps one-third of Montgomery County residents (330,000 people) into the Sixth District, threatening Republican Congressman Roscoe Bartlett’s seat and making it possible for a Democrat to win the seat and difficult for a Republican to keep it.
Montgomery County is heavily Democratic, liberal, rich, college educated and racially and ethnically diverse. By contrast, Garrett County residents are overwhelmingly Republican, conservative, modestly educated and white. Montgomery and Garrett County could not be further apart.
If there is a community of interest between Garrett and Montgomery County I wish someone would tell me what it is.
Those who drew the map wanted to dilute both the First and Sixth District with Democrat populations to capture the two congressional seats.
Although the map drawers possessed awesome agility, they found that task beyond their talents. So, they contented themselves with destroying only the conservative Sixth District.
The map has several weird configurations where lines become loops to allow Congressman Steny Hoyer to have the University of Maryland, College Park in his district and to assure that Congressman Dutch Ruppersburger’s home is in the Second District, as are Fort Meade and Aberdeen, which he requested.
The Second District is made up of parts of Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County and Harford County. Baltimore city Congressman John Sarbanes, who represents the Third Congressional District wanted the city of Annapolis in his district, and the new map gives it to him.
When the special session convenes, I will submit a redistricted map that that is geographically, racially and culturally compact and cohesive.
This map will have rural Maryland represented by three districts:
The First District includes the Eastern Shore, Harford County and portions of Baltimore County.
The Sixth District includes the five Western Maryland counties of Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Frederick and Carroll, plus portions of Northern Baltimore County.
The Third District will be composed mainly of the historically tobacco producing rural counties of Anne Arundel, Calvert and St. Mary’s.
This map’s three Majority-Minority districts: Districts 4, 5 and 7 contains African-American populations of 52 percent, 56 percent and 57 percent, respectively. Their total minority population represents 74 percent, 68 percent and 64 percent, respectively.
The Fourth District is a DC Beltway District. The Fifth District is a Suburban Washington, DC/I-95 District. The Seventh District is the Baltimore City District. The remaining Districts, the Second and Eighth, are both geographically suburban.
If the goal of redistricting is to be fair and accurate representation, the governor’s plan misses by a country mile. My plan meets these goals and fully represents the citizens of Maryland.
Sen. E.J. Pipkin
District 36
More here.
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