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October 4, 2022

The Chestertown Spy

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Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission Sends State Legislative Map to General Assembly

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The Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission voted along party lines Friday to send their state legislative redistricting proposal to the General Assembly, with a new single-member district around Owings Mills in Baltimore County.

Baltimore County resident Linda Dorsey-Walker requested at a December public hearing that District 11 in Baltimore County, which is currently a multi-member district, be redrawn to include a single-member, majority Black district around Owings Mills.

“Owings Mills has 39,000 African Americans living in and around the area,” said Dorsey-Walker, who ran for the district in 2018 and finished fifth in a six-way primary. “That is almost enough for a single-member district by itself. Because of that, there is no particular reason why we should continue going on not having a minority elected.”

District 11 is currently represented by Democratic Dels. Lisa M. Belcastro, Jon S. Cardin and Dana M. Stein.

Commission Chair Karl Aro, a former head of the nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services, said at a virtual meeting Friday that the commission opted to include a single-member district around Owings Mills in response to that feedback and to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act.

There were other “minor changes” and tweaks to the proposed legislative map based on public feedback at the December hearing, Aro said, such as keeping a small area near Aberdeen in District 34 rather than moving it to District 35.

“It is based really on the districts that have been in existence for a long time, making the necessary changes for population, Voting Rights Act concerns,” and complying with constitutional requirements, Aro said.

Other changes the map makes from the current legislative districts include:

  • Allocating just four full state Senate districts wholly within Baltimore City, while a fifth shared with Baltimore County. The city lost population over the last decade, and currently contains five full state Senate districts and a portion of another.
  • District 9A, which currently includes roughly the northwestern half of Howard County and part of southern Carroll County, would lose Carroll County and instead extend into northern Montgomery County. The county retains eight state Senate districts in addition to gaining part of District 9.
  • The city of Frederick would remain contained within District 3, which would become a strong Democratic multi-member district that would be completely encircled by the Republican-leaning multi-member District 4.
  • Anne Arundel County’s District 33, which is currently a purplish district represented by Republican Sen. Edward R. Reilly, would be chopped into three subdistricts and become more favorable to Democrats.
  • In Baltimore County, District 8, traditionally a competitive district, appears to have become more Democratic, while District 42, which leans Republican, appears to have become more conservative.

Commission members ultimately voted to send the proposal to the General Assembly, with the four Democratic lawmakers on the commission in favor of the plan and the two Republican lawmakers against it.

Senate Minority Leader Bryan W. Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel) said he felt that map was “still gerrymandered” in voting against the proposal, and House Minority Leader Jason C. Buckel (R-Allegany) said he opposed the map because he supports more single-member House districts statewide.

“They best reflect the concept of one-person, one-vote,” Buckel said of single-member districts.

The Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission was convened by Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County). Jones and Ferguson were both members of the commission alongside House Majority Leader Eric G. Luedtke (D-Montgomery) Senate President Pro Tem Melony G. Griffith (D-Prince George’s), Buckel and Simonaire.

Ferguson said continuity of representation was key in drawing the map, and noted that in the proposal “the overwhelming majority of Marylanders are in their existing districts.”

Lawmakers will take up the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission’s proposal when they kick off the regular legislative session next week. Also up for consideration will be the legislative proposal from the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, a multi-partisan panel created by Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) earlier this year to draw up congressional and legislative redistricting proposals that he would then submit to the General Assembly.

The Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission’s congressional proposal did not advance out of committee during a special session in early December.

Maryland’s constitution requires the governor to submit a legislative redistricting proposal and allows the General Assembly 45 days to make their own changes. If lawmakers don’t agree on changes to the map, the governor’s proposal automatically becomes law. Constitutionally, Hogan can’t veto the General Assembly’s legislative maps.

By Bennett Leckrone

Report: Analysts Say New Map May Not be Enough to Flip First District as Three Democrats Seek Nomination Against Harris

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From The Washington Post comes this analysis of the First District congressional race following the approval of new congressional districts for the state:

“Flipping the 1st District to blue in 2022 became an urgent priority of Maryland Democrats,” Meagan Flynn writes in the Post.

Democratic leaders were outraged by Harris objecting to certifying the 2020 presidential election results following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as well as his vote against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the police agencies that responded to that attack.

Two Democratic challengers, Heather Mizeur and Dave Harden, cited his “actions in the aftermath of the insurrection” as factors in their decisions to run. Jennifer Pingley, the third Democrat in the race, is seeking the Democratic nomination for the second time.

The Maryland General Assembly recently approved “a new congressional map that will put the conservative Eastern Shore-anchored 1st District in play for Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections,” Flynn writes. However, she notes that Harris is still considered the favorite according to many political analysts.

The new congressional map already faces two legal challenges, but the U.S. Supreme Court has been reluctant to interfere with partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts.

At Public Hearing, Marylanders Request Changes to Commission’s Proposed Legislative Boundaries

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The Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission released its proposed state legislative map Monday evening — and by Wednesday afternoon, members of the public weighed in on how the proposal would affect their home districts.

Much of the testimony at Wednesday’s public hearing revolved around granular details of individual districts. Del. Christian J. Miele (R-Baltimore County) urged commission members to retain a small area near Aberdeen in District 34 rather than moving it to District 35; Baltimore County resident Linda Dorsey-Walker said commission members should draw a single-member delegate district around Owings Mills in District 11; Kevin Burke of Anne Arundel County criticized the way Severna Park is drawn in the proposed map and said the community is “carved up like a Christmas turkey.”

Reginald Benbow, a Baltimore resident who has launched a House campaign in District 43, said he was concerned that adding Towson in Baltimore County to the existing district, which currently includes parts of north-central Baltimore City, would dilute the voice of historically redlined and marginalized communities. He noted that the city lost population over the past decade, but said most of that population loss was in the eastern and western areas of the city.

“You just have the potential of a more affluent community in Towson mixed in with some of the affluent communities already from the 43rd district that could overwhelm the interest of some of the neighborhoods that have historically been marginalized,” Benbow said.

The commission released its legislative map Monday evening, and the deadline to sign up to testify at the public hearing was 10 a.m. Wednesday. Beth Hufnagel of the League of Women Voters said the amount of time the public had to analyze the map before the hearing was “woefully inadequate.”

Legislative redistricting in Maryland is subject to a slightly different set of rules compared to congressional redistricting, which was just handled in a special legislative session and is now subject of a legal challenge.

In writing legislative districts, the Maryland Constitution expressly requires respect for political and geographic boundaries, requires that delegate districts must be nested in senatorial districts, and allows for the use of both single- and multi-member delegate districts.

Additionally, lawmakers have more leeway over differences in population between legislative districts, compared to stringent margins required in congressional districting. Lawmakers are allowed to create population variances of plus or minus 5% in legislative districts — although Karl Aro, the chair of the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission and a former head of the nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services, said the new legislative maps keep that figure to plus or minus 4%.

Aro said this map keeps population variances smaller than previous legislative maps that he worked on while he worked for the Department of Legislative Services.

“In my previous four rounds of redistricting, this is the smallest maximum deviation that we’ve ever achieved,” Aro said.

Del. Jason C. Buckel (R-Allegany), the House minority leader and a member of the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission, questioned whether the new proposed District 4 would pass muster for compactness. The proposed District 4 would encompass much of Frederick County around the city of Frederick, which is contained within District 3, creating what Buckel described as a “donut effect.”

Aro said he didn’t think the proposed District 4 “is a compactness issue at all.”

By Bennett Leckrone

Md. General Assembly Overrides Gov. Hogan’s Veto of Congressional Redistricting Plan

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Heading into the special session this week, two congressional redistricting proposals were on the table: one put forward by Democratic legislative leaders’ Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission, and another from Republican Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr.’s Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission.

On Monday, lawmakers advanced the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission (LRAC) proposal out of the House Rules and Executive Nominations Committee and didn’t move the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission (MCRC) redistricting plan forward.

On Tuesday, the House of Delegates approved the LRAC proposal following an unsuccessful attempt by Republicans to amend it by replacing its map with the map proposed by the MCRC.

On Wednesday, the Senate passed the LRAC redistricting plan after Republican senators made a similar attempt to amend it.

Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) pushes a veto stamp onto the congressional redistricting proposal passed by the Democratic supermajority in the General Assembly. Photo by Danielle E. Gaines, Maryland Matters

On Thursday, Hogan vetoed the LRAC redistricting plan at a press conference at 2:15 p.m.

And the General Assembly swiftly overrode Hogan’s veto, roughly an hour and a half after he announced it. The House voted 96-41 in favor of an override, the Senate supported the move 32-14.

Hogan’s veto was not a surprise. The governor had promised to oppose any redistricting proposal that differed from the one put forward by his Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, a panel that included three Republicans, three Democrats and three unaffiliated voters. Hogan appointed the three co-chairs of that commission.

Democrats hold a veto-proof majority in both the House of Delegates and the state Senate. And they also overrode Hogan’s vetoes of several measures from the 2021 legislative session during the special session.

Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) convened the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission, which they are members of.

The debate over Maryland’s congressional maps won’t end with the override votes. Fair Maps Maryland, an organization with ties to Hogan, announced plans for a lawsuit challenging the congressional redistricting plan just moments after the state Senate approved it Wednesday evening.

Hogan said he opted to veto the maps Thursday rather than waiting until the end of the legislative session to “allow the court process to begin.”

On Monday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced a lawsuit challenging the Texas’ redistricting plan that the state’s Republican-led legislature approved in October. Garland charged that plan would disempower Black and Latino voters.

Hogan echoed Sen. Stephen S. Hershey (R-Middle Shore), who suggested on Wednesday that Garland should also scrutinize the Maryland General Assembly’s redistricting plan.

“He needs to take a look at exactly what we’re doing here in Maryland with respect to the same reason that he’s suing the state of Texas,” Hershey said Wednesday.

The LRAC map includes two majority Black districts — the 4th and the 7th — and creates a 5th Congressional District with a Black plurality for a total of three districts with a majority people of color.

In the current congressional map, the 4th and 7th are majority Black and the 5th has a white plurality. The Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission map would have included one majority Black district and three additional districts with a majority people of color.

“These gerrymandered maps will be challenged in both the federal and the state courts,” Hogan said Thursday.

The congressional map adopted by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission. Screenshot from the Maryland General Assembly website.

Democratic lawmakers have defended the LRAC congressional map. Senate President Pro Tem Melony G. Griffith (D-Prince George’s), a member of the LRAC, said during Wednesday’s floor debate that the commission was “very mindful” of complying with the Voting Rights Act.

“I’m confident that we have provided the opportunity for minority voters to vote for their preferred candidate, as we intended,” Griffith said.

While Republicans have highlighted the fact that the MCRC aimed to minimize county splits in its congressional redistricting proposal, Democratic lawmakers have said compactness is secondary to compliance with the Voting Rights Act and minimizing population variances.

The legislative panel also aimed to keep as many voters in current districts as possible while the MCRC opted to not consider existing districts at all when drawing up maps.

“Maryland’s geography is unique, and our population is varied,” Senate Majority Leader Nancy J. King (D-Montgomery) said Wednesday. “Taking all that into consideration, I am confident that this map is a fair one, and one that reflects the lived experience of Marylanders.”

Just one Democratic lawmaker in either the House of Delegates or the Senate voted to sustain Hogan’s veto: Del. Gabriel T. Acevero (D-Montgomery). Acevero said in an interview that “gerrymandering is wrong no matter the party.”

Acevero said that, despite his objections to the LRAC map, he didn’t find the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission map any better.

“The commission was pretty much chosen by Hogan,” Acevero said. “It’s not independent.”

Acevero said all lawmakers and Hogan should support the federal For The People Act, which would require nonpartisan redistricting commissions across the country. That legislation, sponsored by Maryland Rep. John P. Sarbanes (D), passed the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year but has been blocked by Republicans in the Senate.

“What we need is both parties calling on the U.S. Senate to abolish or reform the filibuster and pass the Freedom to Vote Act, which does away with partisan redistricting,” Acevero said. “I believe in democracy and I think the democratic thing to do is for senators to do their job.”

Asked if he had received or worried about blowback from his fellow Democrats, Acevero replied, “Come on, man. I’m always going to do what I think is the right thing.”

The General Assembly isn’t done with redistricting, either: Lawmakers will tackle state legislative redistricting when they return for their regular session in January. As with congressional redistricting, lawmakers will weigh proposals from both the MCRC and the LRAC.

The LRAC hasn’t released a legislative redistricting proposal yet.

Like the MCRC’s congressional proposal, that panel’s legislative redistricting proposal received an “A” rating from the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which scored the plan based on competitiveness, partisan fairness and geographic features. The LRAC congressional map received an “F” based on those criteria. Democratic lawmakers took issues with Princeton’s scoring system because it doesn’t factor in Voting Rights Act compliance.

Constitutionally, Hogan can’t veto the General Assembly’s legislative maps, but his proposed maps become law if the General Assembly doesn’t pick an alternative within the first half of the 2022 legislative session.

By Bennett Leckrone, Josh Kurtz, and Danielle E. Gaines

Hogan-Aligned Group Announces Plans for Lawsuit Against Just-Approved Congressional Redistricting Plan

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An organization with ties to Republican Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. announced Wednesday that it will seek to overturn the congressional redistricting plan approved by the Democratic supermajority in the General Assembly.

The announcement, from Fair Maps Maryland, came just moments after the state Senate followed the House of Delegates in voting to accept a map drawn by a legislative panel made up of four Democratic leaders, two Republican leaders and a non-voting former top staffer.

Under that map, crafted by Legislative Redistricting Advisory Committee (LRAC), Democrats would maintain electoral advantages in seven of the state’s eight congressional districts.

Many of those districts would be abstractly shaped, in keeping with the long practice of both parties to maximize the once-a-decade map-drawing process for maximum benefit.

The biggest changes from the state’s current congressional map involve the Eastern Shore-based 1st District, represented by Rep. Andrew P. Harris (R), a Trump-aligned conservative. It was refashioned by the Assembly to pull in portions of Anne Arundel County, giving it a roughly equal number of Republicans and Democratic voters.

The congressional map adopted by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission. Screenshot from the Maryland General Assembly website.

In announcing its plan to sue, Fair Maps Maryland spokesman Doug Mayer said, “this level of gerrymandering is voter suppression.”

According to Maryland State Board of Elections voter registration statistics, about 55% of Maryland voters are Democrats and 24% are Republicans.

“It’s a sad day in Maryland,” said Mayer, a Hogan strategist and former communications director, in a statement. “The General Assembly has ignored the will of the overwhelming majority of Marylanders.”

He said the organization has hired attorneys to pursue “suits on both the state and federal levels that will prosecute the obvious Voting Rights Act and many other illegal partisan partisan gerrymandering violations.”

Many courts have been reluctant to wade into the politically charged districting process — and while Maryland’s districts may be ungainly, success in court is far from guaranteed.

“A lot depends on how willing courts are going to be to create new causes of action and how — I’ll be frank — how politicized the courts are,” said Michael Li, senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “Some courts are more willing to be honest brokers and some are very partisan.”

In January, Hogan created the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission (MCRC), made up of three Republicans, three Democrats and three independents. Lawmakers held a hearing but didn’t vote on the panel’s proposal, and rejected GOP amendments to replace the legislature’s map with the MCRC proposal.

Because Democrats have long had lopsided advantages in both chambers of the legislature, it has been a forgone conclusion for years that they would have the votes to do as they please when the once-a-decade process of redrawing the state’s congressional districts rolled around.

Cognizant of that reality, Republicans in the General Assembly have been plotting their post-session strategy for some time. Their hope is to find something in the LRAC map that violates state or federal law.

In an interview on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Jason C. Buckel (R-Allegany) conceded that the Supreme Court’s refusal — in Benisek vs. Lamone — to strike down Maryland’s 2011 redistricting plan creates challenges.

“Under the Benisek decision, you don’t really have partisan gerrymandering claims in federal court that are cognizable under the Equal Protection Act or other clauses,” he said. “But I think it’s an open question whether you do under Maryland law — under our free and fair elections clause, which really has never been interpreted in this context.”

Sen. Michael Hough (R-Frederick) suggested attorneys will consider asking the Maryland Court of Appeals to apply the requirement that state legislative districts be compact to congressional districts, a strategy that gerrymandering foes have pursued successfully in other states.

“That happened in Pennsylvania and North Carolina,” he said. “They basically took the constitutions of those states and applied them to the federal maps. If they used the state standards of continuity and compactness, that would be your best case of getting in front of a state court.”

“The federal courts aren’t going to get involved,” he predicted.

Buckel also conceded that race-based challenges under the federal Voting Rights Act are unlikely to succeed. “It tends to neither unduly pack [voters of color] so you’re isolating them… and they’re also not cracking those communities,” he said of the map lawmakers approved.

At Monday’s public hearing on the dueling redistricting proposals, Del. Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore and Harford counties) asked LRAC Chair Karl Aro and a legislative staffer to disclose who guided them through the map-drawing process.

“Someone had to put their finger on the mouse,” the former House minority whip said. “Who did that?”

“We have various staff,” senior legislative analyst Michelle Davis replied.

In an interview, Szeliga said Republicans will seek to determine, through litigation, the motives used to craft the legislature’s map.

“Everything that they said in that hearing, I’m sure there will be depositions that will further investigate what the people [in the Department of Legislative Services] did to create these maps,” she said.

“We will find out about the computer program they used,” Szeliga added. “We will find out who clicked the mouse.”

By Bruce DePuyt

House Democrats Advance Congressional District Map Opposed by Hogan, Republicans

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Maryland’s House of Delegates advanced a congressional district map drafted by a legislative advisory panel on Tuesday evening, over objections from Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. and the Republican caucus.

The 97-42 vote came after nearly an hour of floor debate and just hours after Democrats in the chamber predictably rejected an amendment that would have replaced the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission’s map with one put forward by the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission established by Hogan.

The legislative panel’s proposal would create seven districts likely to favor Democrats and would move the solidly Republican 1st District into tossup territory.

The congressional map adopted by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission. Screenshot from the Maryland General Assembly website.

House Minority Leader Jason C. Buckel (R-Washington) introduced the amendment that would have switched the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission’s proposed congressional map in House Bill 1 with the map proposed by the multi-partisan panel Hogan created.

“It’s really very compact, and it’s really very contiguous, and it represents communities of interest,” Buckel said of the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission map.

Buckel, one of two Republicans on the seven-member Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission (LRAC), said he opposes the maps that commission created because the districts aren’t compact.

Buckel’s amendment was ultimately voted down, largely along partisan lines, 93-43.

In a joint committee hearing Monday, lawmakers advanced the LRAC proposal and didn’t vote on the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission proposal.

The LRAC was created by Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County). Jones and Ferguson are both members of that panel alongside two other Democratic legislative leaders, the two Republican legislative leaders and Karl Aro, the commission chair and former head of the nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services.

Compactness of U.S. House districts has been a key aspect of the debate on the state’s next set of congressional maps. Republicans have highlighted the fact that the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission sought to minimize county splits in drawing their congressional proposal, but at the Monday committee hearing on both map proposals, Aro said compactness isn’t as important a factor in congressional maps compared to population equality and compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act.

Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) defended the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission map during the Tuesday morning floor debate on Buckel’s amendment, and said panelists focused on preserving communities of interest, protecting the voting power of people of color and keeping as many people as possible in their current districts over compactness. Wilson added that the LRAC map still marks a “dramatic change” because it is more compact than current maps, but also said Maryland’s borders don’t lend themselves to neatly drawn districts.

“The shape of Maryland isn’t pleasing to the eye,” Wilson said. “It’s misshapen and out of proportion.”

House Majority Leader Eric G. Luedtke (D-Montgomery) urged lawmakers to reject Buckel’s amendment, and said that if Hogan and Republicans in the General Assembly oppose gerrymandering they should support the federal For The People Act, which would require nonpartisan redistricting commissions across the country. That legislation, sponsored by Maryland Rep. John P. Sarbanes (D), passed the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year but has been blocked by Republicans in the Senate.

Luedtke noted that Hogan recently took credit for the bipartisan infrastructure bill that recently passed Congress and was signed into law by President Biden, and sarcastically wondered why Hogan wouldn’t do the same for the Sarbanes bill if he was so concerned about gerrymandering.

“If he’s that influential in the [U.S.] Senate, I would urge him to call for the passage of the For the People Act,” Luedtke said.

Other House Republicans took issue with the partisan breakdown of the proposed LRAC map and the state’s current congressional districts. Current maps create a 7-1 partisan breakdown favoring Democrats, and with the 1st Congressional District redrawn to be much more competitive, the LRAC’s proposal could result in an 8-0 partisan breakdown.

“There’s definitely more Democrats than Republicans in the state of Maryland, but it’s not 7-1,” said Del. Matthew Morgan (R-St. Mary’s). He noted that after the 1990 Census, Maryland had a 4-4 partisan split in its congressional delegation, which moved to 6-2 in favor of Democrats following the 2000 Census.

House Republicans renewed their criticism of the LRAC map at the Tuesday evening floor session: Del. Haven N. Shoemaker Jr. (R-Carroll) was particularly critical of the 1st District, which in the proposed map crosses the Bay Bridge to include parts of Anne Arundel County with the Eastern Shore, and the 8th District, which as in current maps runs from the state’s border with D.C. to the border with Pennsylvania, although it would include more of Carroll County in the LRAC proposal.

“Just because something is legal doesn’t necessarily make it right,” Shoemaker said.

Susan W. Krebs (R-Carroll County) pushed back on the idea that county boundaries aren’t important in congressional maps.

“We have county delegations,” Krebs said. “We have county school boards. We do everything by counties in Maryland.”

Luedtke said Tuesday evening it isn’t that counties don’t matter — but that there are a slew of different considerations that need to be considered in redistricting, including keeping voters in current congressional districts to the extent possible and complying with the Voting Rights Act.

“There should not be any single factor that governs everything we do on these maps,” Luedtke said.

Del. Jheanelle K. Wilkins (D-Montgomery) noted that recent U.S. Census data showed that Maryland is among the most diverse states in the country, and said the LRAC proposal reflects that growing diversity.

“When I look at this map, something that I believe is absolutely critical is that we have a map that represents that diversity … and what I see here is a map that increases our diversity in several really critical congressional districts,” Wilkins said, adding that the proposed congressional map is more compact than the current one.

She noted that the number of Black residents increases in Districts 4, 5 and 7 in the LRAC map. Districts 4 and 7 would be majority Black in the LRAC proposal, and District 5 would include a Black plurality.

The Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission map minimizes county splits and received an “A” from the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which evaluated the proposal based on geographical features, competitiveness and partisan fairness. The Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission’s final proposed congressional map received an “F” based on those same criteria from analysts at Princeton. Luedtke on Tuesday morning questioned Princeton’s rating system during the floor debate because it doesn’t include Voting Rights Act compliance.

The LRAC proposal is now set to be taken up by the decennial Senate Standing Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting on Wednesday morning before heading to the Senate floor.

By Bennett Leckrone

On Special Session’s First Day, Lawmakers Advance Democratic Congressional Map

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On the first day of a special session, the Maryland General Assembly took steps to advance a congressional redistricting proposal that is likely to replicate the current split in the state’s U.S. House delegation — seven Democrats and one Republican.

After more than two hours of public testimony, the House Rules Committee voted 18-6 on Monday in support of House Bill 1, setting the stage for further action later in the week.

HB1 was crafted by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission (LRAC), a panel made up of House and Senate leaders — four Democrats, two Republicans and a non-voting chairman, a former top staffer.

The congressional map adopted by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission. Screenshot from the Maryland General Assembly website.

In its current form, the measure would make a series of noticeable changes to the state’s current — and controversial — congressional map. But like that map, in use since 2012 and the subject of much litigation, several districts wander the state in circuitous fashion.

Republicans and gerrymandering foes have criticized the proposal, saying it still comes off looking like a map drafted by politicians in search of electoral advantage.

Undaunted, House Majority Leader Eric G. Luedtke (D-Montgomery), a member of the LRAC, told his colleagues the proposal represents an improvement over the current map.

“This map is more compact and contiguous and continues our decades-long commitment to diverse representation…,” he said. “Six of the eight districts under this map are more competitive than they are under the current map.”

Luedtke also said HB1 (and the companion Senate Bill 1) “keeps significant majorities” of voters in their current districts.

Karl Aro, former head of the Department of Legislative Services and the chair of the LRAC, said voters “don’t necessarily like current lines, but they do like their current representation.”

The full House could act on the measure as early as today.

Monday’s vote in House Rules followed a joint hearing with the Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee. The lopsided nature of the vote reinforced the strong hand that Democrats hold in the politically charged process of redrawing the state’s congressional districts.

Republicans — including Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. — have acknowledged for weeks that Democrats have the numbers to work their will at this stage in the process. If the map preferred by legislative leaders and their allies in Congress is to be stopped, it is likely to be in the courts, GOP officials have said.

A map crafted by a second panel, the Hogan-created Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission (MCRC), differed greatly from the legislature’s.

The nine-member MCRC consisted of an equal number of Democrats, Republicans and independents and adopted a start-from-scratch approach. Their proposal, House Bill 2/Senate Bill 2, contains districts that are far more compact and intuitive.

Stanford University law professor Nathaniel Persily, a nationally-recognized redistricting expert who assisted the MCRC, praised the panel for the way it went about its business — and the map it ultimately produced.

At Monday’s meeting he said the panel’s maps achieved Voting Rights Act compliance “without having to sort of draw contorted districts” and minimizing county splits.

“It is refreshing to see this kind of bipartisan and independent work being done in the public interest,” he said. “It really is a model for how this work could be done in the future.”

House Bill 2 did not receive a vote on Monday. Members of the Senate Republican Caucus told reporters that they intend to introduce the MCRC alternative as a substitute when the legislature’s preferred bill reaches the Senate floor later this week.

In an interview, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), who served on the LRAC, appeared unmoved by complaints that the commission’s work product isn’t “pretty.”

“I don’t think that pretty is a standard in any statutory or constitutional authority,” he said. “What it is about is ensuring that communities of interest are protected and that Marylanders are accurately reflected in the maps that are passed.”

Many of the people who testified on Monday said they prefer the tighter, cleaner approach taken by the MCRC.

“The citizens commission did a fantastic job defining a fair map for everyone,” said Deb Rey, a former Republican state delegate from St. Mary’s County. “It’s bipartisan. They quickly responded to citizen input. The districts are compact, keeping all but five counties whole and in one district. And each district total is within one person. I am amazed by that.”

District 1’s Bay Watch

The most high-profile change the LRAC map makes is the inclusion of parts of Anne Arundel County in the 1st District, the seat currently held by conservative Rep. Andrew P. Harris (R).

The LRAC’s 1st District has a 51% edge for Democrats and has the potential to make Harris’s re-election bid more competitive. A Trump-aligned conservative, he is the lone Republican in the Maryland congressional delegation.

A handful of 1st District residents told lawmakers they should include even more of Anne Arundel County in the 1st Congressional District, to create a true Bay-centered district.

“The eastern shore has a lot more in common with Annapolis… than some of those northern areas that are close to Pennsylvania,” said Louise Miller, a Chestertown resident, a reference to the district’s current lines.

She said she regularly visits Annapolis and noted that many Eastern Shore residents commute there.

Luedtke insisted that the LRAC proposal has a lot going for it:

  • Western Maryland’s 6th District, which he dubbed a “Potomac district,” “would pull in more of Frederick County while uniting communities along the river.
  • Anne Arundel and Baltimore Counties would be split into three ways, instead of the current four.
  • The lines in Baltimore City “are significantly more functional.”
  • Fast-growing Howard County “becomes the center of a newly-drawn 3rd District” and Columbia is united into a single district.
  • Prince George’s County dominates two districts.

“County lines drawn by colonial surveyors 300 years ago simply aren’t an accurate reflection of how people live their lives in modern-day Maryland,” Luedtke said.

By Bruce DePuyt, Bennett Leckrone, and Josh Kurtz

Once-in-a-Decade Congressional Redistricting Effort Will Be the Focus at Special Session

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Lawmakers will take swift action on new congressional district boundaries when the General Assembly convenes today in Annapolis for a rare December special session.

Partisan tension is expected to run high, as legislators deliberate maps crafted by commissions convened by Republican Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) and Democratic legislative leaders — and consider whether to override the governor’s vetoes of more than 20 bills passed earlier this year.

Democrats hold wide majorities in the legislature, and are likely to have enough support to enact their preferred congressional map, even over a likely veto from Hogan — though an override of the redistricting plan may not happen until the 2022 regular legislative session begins in January.

Republican lawmakers have charged that the redistricting map released by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission created by Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County), is a partisan gerrymander. Their complaints have been bolstered by Hogan, online ads from his political action committee, and Fair Maps Maryland, an advocacy group populated with Hogan allies.

The proposal from the legislative advisory committee — a Democratic-majority panel that included leaders from both parties in Annapolis — would smooth the edges of some of the state’s currently twisty and contorted district lines, and set districts with the possibility of electing only Democrats to Capitol Hill.

In the proposed map, the 1st Congressional District, home to the state’s sole Republican in Congress, Rep. Andrew P. Harris, would shift from solidly Republican to tossup territory by crossing the Chesapeake Bay at the Bay Bridge and incorporating part of Anne Arundel County.

The Princeton Gerrymandering Project — which graded the legislative panel’s proposal as an ‘F’ and Hogan’s as an ‘A’ — said the legislature’s congressional map would create a near-equal partisan split, with 50.9% Democrats and 49% Republican, for the 1st District.

The map created by the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission and favored by Hogan would likely create a 6-2 Democratic partisan advantage.

The map approved by lawmakers this week will guide congressional elections in the state for the next decade. And lawmakers will decide which map to approve against a backdrop of a slim Democratic majority in the U.S. House and an evenly divided U.S. Senate. Throughout the country, maps in Republican-controlled states have strengthened that party’s advantage. Republicans are in control of more than 180 districts nationwide, compared to about 75 districts controlled by Democrats, according to Nathan L. Gonzales, the editor and publisher of Inside Elections, which provides nonpartisan political analysis of state and national campaigns.

Maryland Democrats are under some pressure to add to the party’s congressional tally, while Hogan has vowed to veto the legislative commission’s “disgracefully gerrymandered” maps.

Dozens of residents signed up to testify during a brief 35-hour sign-up period last week.

A joint hearing on two congressional redistricting plans is set for 12:30 p.m.

For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the public will be allowed to watch floor sessions in the State House galleries, though seating is limited. Committee hearings will remain virtual during the special session.

While redistricting is the marquee topic for the special session, the General Assembly’s days will be full. Lawmakers have been told to prepare for long days on the floor on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The session is expected to end by Friday, though extended deliberation could push the meeting into the weekend.

Among the vetoed bills under consideration are measures that would remove the governor from the state’s parole process, allowed tiered county-level income tax rates, expand collective bargaining rights for community college professors and employees.

Lawmakers are unlikely to pass emergency bills proposed by Hogan that he said are intended to curb violence in the city of Baltimore.

The brief session could also bring substantial change to the legislative chamber – Economic Matters Chair Dereck E. Davis (D-Prince George’s) is favored to win a secret ballot election as the state’s new treasurer, following the retirement of Nancy K. Kopp, who has held the position for nearly two decades.

Davis was recommended for the position by a Special Joint Legislative Committee to Select the State Treasurer that met late last month.

By Danielle E. Gaines

Congressional Redistricting: A History of Jumping the Bay

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The Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission, created by legislative leaders to draw up congressional and legislative maps for the General Assembly to consider, proposed a 1st Congressional District that would cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to include portions of Anne Arundel County with the Eastern Shore.

The 1st District currently loops north through Harford County, but crossing the Chesapeake Bay in congressional maps is nothing new. Prior to the current maps, the 1st District crossed the bay into either Anne Arundel County or southern Maryland for decades.

Proponents of such a configuration argue the Eastern Shore and Anne Arundel County are intrinsically connected via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, since many commute daily between the two regions for work and shopping.

“Both regions have the same economic and environmental interest in protecting the Bay,” Anne Arundel County resident Marnette Finn said at a Nov. 15 Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission virtual hearing.

Many who testified at that statewide virtual public hearing in November also urged lawmakers to draw a more competitive 1st District to challenge incumbent Rep. Andrew P. Harris, the state’s lone congressional Republican, citing his vote against certifying the 2020 election results after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Wayne T. Gilchrest, a Republican former congressman who represented the 1st District from 1991 until 2009, said the 1st District proposed by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission is “very similar” to the districts he represented, which also included parts of Anne Arundel County.

“I think they’re connected by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge,” Gilchrest said, “And yes, they are contiguous if you want to look at it that way.”

Gilchrest noted that the Eastern Shore of Maryland doesn’t have a high enough population to justify its own congressional district.

He was ousted by Harris in the 2008 primary elections. Harris subsequently lost to Democratic contender Frank Kratovil, but ran again and won in 2010 by a wide margin.

The 1st District was redrawn to be more solidly Republican in 2012, with Democratic lawmakers opting to draw a Democratic-leaning 6th District in Western Maryland at the time to achieve a 7-1 advantage. Harris has handily won reelection in the current 1st District since.

Under the congressional map proposed by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission, however, the 1st District is slated to become significantly more competitive, though it doesn’t favor Democrats as much as another configuration the panel was mulling. According to the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which gave the map an “F” grade, the proposed 1st District favors Democrats by a thin margin, roughly 51% to 49%.

In the congressional map proposed by Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, which was created by Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R), the 1st District does not cross the Bay at Anne Arundel County but instead includes Harford County and northern Baltimore County.

Here’s a brief history of the 1st Congressional District’s boundaries and when they’ve crossed the Chesapeake Bay in the past. All maps were provided by the Maryland Department of Planning.

1966-1970: The first crossing

The 1966 congressional map marked a shift away from districts that strictly adhered to county boundaries in Maryland following Maryland Citizens Committee for Fair Congressional Redistricting v. Tawes, a court case influenced by the 1964 Wesberry v. Sanders U.S. Supreme Court case, in which justices ruled that U.S. House of Representatives districts need to be roughly equal in population.

Congressional districts had been held steady for decades before that court case. The 1st District had long included only the Eastern Shore, starting with Cecil County in the north and extending south to the border with Virginia. In the consequential 1966 map, the Eastern Shore was kept whole but a large portion of Anne Arundel County, alongside all of Calvert and St. Mary’s counties, were added to the 1st District.

1972-1990: Southern Maryland with the Eastern Shore

In the two subsequent rounds of redistricting, Anne Arundel County was kept with portions of Prince George’s County and the 1st Congressional District crossed at Calvert County rather than at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Between 1972 and 1990, Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties were kept whole and included with the Eastern Shore. Harford County was entirely included with the Eastern Shore in the 1972-1980 map, while just roughly the western half of the county was included in the 1st District between 1982 and 1990.

1992-2000: Crossing returns to Anne Arundel County and parts of Baltimore City

In 1992, Democratic U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer’s 5th District began to take on its current, familiar shape, encompassing all of southern Maryland and looping up to include the area around College Park in Prince George’s County. It also took in large portions of western Anne Arundel County and parts of southern and eastern Prince George’s County.

The portion of the 1st District on the western shore was drastically reduced, including parts of central and northern Anne Arundel County and a small portion of far southern Baltimore City. This configuration included Harford County with the 2nd District as opposed to with the Eastern Shore.

As recently as 2000, this map resulted in a 4-4 partisan breakdown, with the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 8th districts electing Republicans.

2002-2010: The most recent crossing at Anne Arundel County

The 2002 map included even less of Anne Arundel County with the 1st District. The 1st District also began to take in more of northeastern Maryland, snaking through central Harford County and reaching portions of Baltimore County, where Harris resides.

This map favored Democrats 6-2.

2012-present

The current map is the first to not cross the Chesapeake Bay at Anne Arundel County in decades, and instead includes a larger portion of northeastern Maryland. A large portion of Harford County, parts of Baltimore County and the northern and eastern portions of Carroll County are all included in the 1st District as it is currently drawn.

This represents the state’s current 7-1 partisan breakdown after the 6th District was redrawn to favor Democrats.

Bonus: Every congressional map in Maryland’s history

Here’s every congressional map Maryland has ever had. Note that the number of U.S. Representatives has varied over the years.

By Bennett Leckrone

Marylanders Urge Redistricting Commission To Draw More Competitive 1st Congressional District

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Marylanders said the state’s solidly Republican 1st Congressional District should be redrawn to be more competitive at a Monday evening Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission hearing, citing U.S. Rep. Andrew P. Harris’ vote earlier this year against certifying the 2020 presidential election results.

Harris, the state’s lone Republican in Congress, was among a majority of U.S. House Republicans who objected to certifying the 2020 presidential election results after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. People who testified at Monday’s meeting cited that vote, alongside Harris’ vote against awarding Congressional Gold Medals to police officers who protected the Capitol that day, as reasons to draw a more competitive 1st District.

The Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission (LRAC) released four “concept” congressional maps last week. While two of those maps would likely maintain Democrats’ current 7-1 advantage in the state, two would combine the Eastern Shore with portions of Anne Arundel County to create a more competitive 1st District.

“The existing congressional map has empowered an extremist to represent us with little fear of retribution for any of his actions or comments,” Queen Anne’s County resident Peter Behringer said at a statewide virtual LRAC hearing Monday.

Behringer said lawmakers should draw up a 1st District that is “competitive and balanced” and empowers people of color.

Those who testified overwhelmingly supported Plan 3, boundaries proposed by the commission that include a large portion of Anne Arundel County with the Eastern Shore and is the closest to an 8-0 Democratic map. That plan would include a 1st District that would favor Democrats 55%-45%, according to an analysis by the Princeton Gerrymandering Project.

Plan 2, which includes a smaller portion of Anne Arundel County with the Eastern Shore, would favor Democrats 51% to 49%, according to the analysts at Princeton. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave all four maps a failing grade after researchers rated them based on “partisan fairness,” “competitiveness” and “geographic features.”

Harris has handily won re-election bids in the 1st District since he ousted Democratic Rep. Frank Kratovil by a wide margin in the 2010 election, and garnered 63.4% of the vote against challenger Mia Mason’s 36.4% in the 2020 election. His current Democratic challengers include former state Del. Heather R. Mizeur and foreign policy strategist R. David Harden.

The 1st District currently includes the entire Eastern Shore before looping north to include parts of Harford, Baltimore and Carroll counties.

“He can lean extremely far to the right since the current map stacks Republicans together in District 1,” Felicia Martin, a Harford County resident, said. “Districts should be drawn so that representatives can contemplate a spectrum of issues and be willing to work with both parties.”

Judy Wixted, an Eastern Shore resident, said Plan 3 is “somewhat acceptable,” but added that she doesn’t think the plan goes far enough to challenge Harris.

“This district, as it was drawn ten years ago, packed MD-1 in such a way that only the most radical Republican could win a primary,” she said.

Mason likewise urged lawmakers to draw a more competitive 1st District at the meeting, and also noted the vast geographic size of the district as it’s currently drawn, comparing it to “two Delawares.”

Some who testified at the meeting said it makes sense to combine the Eastern Shore with Anne Arundel County, since the regions are connected by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Marnette Finn, an Anne Arundel County resident, said the Eastern Shore is linked “culturally and economically” with Anne Arundel County because of the bridge. She said it makes more sense to connect the Eastern Shore with the rest of Maryland at the bridge rather than by going north through Harford County.

“Both regions have the same economic and environmental interest in protecting the Bay,” Finn said.

Paul Berman noted that Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) has said he wants the planned third span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to be built at the current site.

“Governor Hogan’s insistence on expanding the connection between the Eastern Shore and Anne Arundel County offers clear confirmation of this commission’s [Plan 3]. Linking the Eastern Shore with Annapolis and a large portion of Anne Arundel County would provide the best configuration for Maryland’s 1st Congressional District,” Berman said.

The congressional map proposed by Hogan’s Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission (MCRC) keeps the Eastern Shore linked with parts of northern Maryland. That map received high marks from the Princeton Gerrymandering Project for partisan fairness, and Hogan has said he will oppose any maps from the General Assembly that differ from the MCRC’s proposal.

While Hogan could veto congressional maps, Democrats hold a veto-proof majority in both the House of Delegates and the State Senate and have complete control over the redistricting process in Maryland. Lawmakers are set to tackle congressional redistricting at a special session beginning Dec. 6.

Maryland’s current congressional district map was challenged as an illegal partisan gerrymander in federal court and considered by the Supreme Court twice, with justices ultimately decided not to set a standard for what constitutes extreme gerrymandering.

By Bennett Leckrone