One Last Time to Complain About New Districts

It has been a few months since the new Congressional and Legislative maps were finalized, but it is time to look back at what happened in the middle of April.

We all know how the Maryland General Assembly created its own Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission (LRAC) Congressional map and Governor Larry Hogan appointed an independent commission to draw up what was known as the Citizens’ Map. The LRAC maps were drawn by Democrats and the maps were created to benefit Democrats. The Citizen’s Maps never stood a chance, and the General Assembly could pick and pass the maps of their choice.

As expected, the Democratic General Assembly legally passed the gerrymandered maps for both the Congressional and State Legislative districts.

There wasn’t anything shocking for Republicans. We knew the Democrats were going to pass their maps, but we were hoping to receive some help from the Judicial Branch.

When the lawsuits were filed, some Republicans were optimistic that the maps would be overturned, and others thought it would be thrown out such as previous gerrymandering lawsuits in the past.

Republicans were fortune when a judge threw out the Congressional Map and had the General Assembly redraw new maps. The second version (and later the final version of the map) was still gerrymandered but Congressional Seats in District 6 and District 2 are now in play, and District 3 was more competitive for Republicans.

It was far from a perfect map, but it was less gerrymandered than the original map. It was a compromise.

Many Republicans thought it was more likely that the state legislative maps would be overturned. The big issue is the inconsistency of the single member vs three member districts. Many believe that there should be either 47 three-member districts or 141 single-member districts.

When the LRAC Congressional Maps were overturned, Republicans thought there was a great chance that the entire 47 Districts could be redrawn. There was a lot of gerrymandering in the LRAC map. For example, District 3 was drawn as a big circle out in Frederick (and will now remain that way).

In fairness to the Democratic General Assembly, it is their legal right to make the districts as favorable as they can for Democrats. We were all hoping that the courts could reel in that map and force the General Assembly to create a new less gerrymandered map, as we saw for Congress. It didn’t work out that way.

Instead the courts decided not to act and it was a devastating blow for Republicans.

If the gerrymandered maps were going to remain, it would have been nice to see some adjustments and consistency with single-member districts. Many were hoping the courts would force either 141 single-member districts or 47 three-member districts.

The only exception to multi-districts is when a Senatorial District borders two counties. For example, District 7 is in Baltimore and Harford County. The Baltimore County District is 7A and the Harford County is now 7B. That is good common-sense district, but there is no reason why District 33 (which was a three-member district in 2012) in Anne Arundel County is now split into three single-member districts. Of course, we know that the Democrats want to protect a Democratic member of the House who would have lost her seat if District 33 remained three-member.

Again, we know that the maps would not be fair, but we were hoping the courts would have stepped in and at least have the LRAC map “less gerrymandered”.

That is the end of the complaining. It is time to go to work and take advantage of a red-wave that is likely to happen to November.