Maryland House GOP Releases Statement on Ferguson’s Redistricting Decision

The Maryland House Republicans sent out the following statements regarding Senate President Bill Ferguson’s decision not to move forward with redistricting.

There was speculation that Maryland Democrats could redraw the Congressional Map that could take their 7-1 majority in Maryland and increase it to 8-0

House Minority Leader Delegate Jason Buckel:

“Senate President Ferguson has realized what we have known for years: Maryland is already one of the most partisanly gerrymandered states in the U.S., and trying to redistrict even further to wholly eliminate the voices of Republicans and trying to subvert the votes of the Eastern Shore solely in an effort to play D.C. politics is a terrible idea. Legally, we believe Judge Battaglia’s opinion from four years ago would be availing and subject our current congressional map to a much more searching analysis by Maryland’s highest court. Politically, we suspect that existing Democratic members of Congress did not want to see their own gerrymandered districts ‘weakened’ to reflect their true partisan nature. Maryland is not a 7-1 Democratic state by registration, voting history, or geography, and it is surely not an ‘all-Democrat’ state. We commend President Ferguson for recognizing the folly of this type of extremism, and hope this ends the speculation and veiled threats from Governor Moore and other Annapolis Democrats.”

House Minority Whip Delegate Jesse Pippy:

“We agree with Senate President Ferguson that for Democratic leaders to gerrymander out the only Republican in our Federal Delegation would be the height of hypocrisy, especially when roughly 40% of Marylanders vote Republican.”