Amid Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom's Prop. 50 gerrymandering push, and other blue states like Illinois signaling a desire to join in on the effort, Maryland Democrats have been pressing forth with their own plans to redistrict.
Maryland has eight congressional districts. The idea would be to make the state's 1st Congressional District, currently represented by longtime Republican Rep. Andy Harris, a sure pick-up for Democrats in the 2026 midterms.
State Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Anne Arundel and Howard) introduced legislation in August along these lines, following House Majority Leader David Moon (D-Montgomery) noting in July that he would be "introducing legislation to redraw Maryland congressional districts if any other state cheats and draws new maps outside of the census period."
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But even though Democrat Gov. Wes Moore, too, agreed in August that "all options are on the table" when it comes to redistricting, the push to redraw the state's maps has been shut down by Maryland Democrat Senate Leader Bill Ferguson (Baltimore City), who said Tuesday that doing so would lead to more problems than it's worth, suggesting that "the downside risk to Democrats is catastrophic":
“I want to … provide some additional clarity regarding why; after speaking with many of you individually, the Senate is choosing not to move forward with mid-cycle redistricting,” Ferguson wrote in a three-page letter sent Tuesday evening to all members of the chamber’s Democrats.
“Despite deeply shared frustrations about the state of our country, mid-cycle redistricting for Maryland presents a reality where the legal risks are too high, the timeline for action is dangerous, the downside risk to Democrats is catastrophic, and the certainty of our existing map would be undermined,” he wrote.
Though one reason he cited was a concern about diluting the black vote (which Sen. Lam pushed back on), the most telling reason why Ferguson is rejecting calls is that he fears it could potentially lead to Maryland's current map being called into question, a map which was drawn in 2022 (bolded emphasis added by me):
As many of you recall, during the December 2021 Special Session, the General Assembly passed a new congressional map that we were confident complied with federal and Maryland law. As expected, Republicans challenged the map (see Szeliga v. Lamone, No. C-02-CV-21-001816 (Md. Cir. Ct. Mar. 25, 2022)). Unexpectedly, however, Senior Judge Lynne A. Battaglia from the Supreme Court of Maryland, who was designated to be the trial judge in the case, struck down the map, finding that the map violated the Maryland Constitution and was “a product of extreme partisan gerrymandering.” In this 94-page opinion, she applied a novel standard to congressional redistricting, expressly tying map-making on the basis of political party to violations of Maryland’s Declaration of Rights.
In response, we passed a new congressional map before the end of the 2022 Legislative Session, and all parties withdrew their legal claims. It is important to note this, because the withdrawal of the challenges meant that Maryland’s highest court has never reviewed the current congressional map. That means that any redrawing of the current map could reopen the ability for someone to challenge the current map and give the court the opportunity to strike it down, or even worse, redraw the map itself.
In Maryland, 31.5% of registered voters are registered Republicans. We do not know how a court would assess a revised midcycle map and whether the court would use party affiliation as a measure. We do, however, have certainty under the current map; that evaporates the moment we start down the path of redistricting mid-cycle with an unclear legal landscape and an even more unclear legal timeline.
In other words, he's saying it would be unwise for Maryland to redraw their map for the third time in four years because he's unsure if the maps they drew three years ago and which ended a legal challenge by Republicans over maps drawn before that might not withstand legal scrutiny.
Basically, Maryland Democrats have gerrymandered themselves into a corner to the point that they can't do it anymore, absent more potential legal repercussions that possibly could lead to actually losing seats. This has resulted in them being unable to help other blue states in the current redistricting wars due to the risk that Maryland might actually lose seats by the time all is said and done.
You truly can't make it up, and it couldn't be happening to a more deserving state, in my opinion.
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