Gov.-elect Larry Hogan will soon take office facing a number of daunting challenges: soaring deficits, runaway spending, excessive taxes and a business climate unfavorable to job retention and growth.
The new governor's dance card is certainly crowded. That said, he should add another important item to the list of immediate priorities: bringing lasting legislative and congressional redistricting reform to the state.
In Maryland, the last redistricting cycle immediately following the 2010 census was an unabashed display of muscle politics by the state's ruling Democratic establishment.
They began the process with two bare-knuckle objectives. First, bump off one of the state's two remaining GOP congressmen. Second, protect the state's Democratic incumbents.
In the end, they largely succeeded, dividing counties and communities. But they also sacrificed the principles of geographic integrity and compactness in the process.
Indeed, one of the federal appellate judges who reviewed Maryland's congressional redistricting map said of the new, sprawling Third Congressional District: "In form, the original Massachusetts Gerrymander looks tame by comparison, as this is more reminiscent of a broken-winged pterodactyl, lying prostrate across the center of the state."
Speaking of gerrymandering, the legislative redistricting plan enacted by state Democrats after the 2000 census was such an egregious example that it was tossed out and rewritten by Maryland's highest court.
Maryland has its own redistricting "advisory commission," but it is dominated by gubernatorial appointees and the presiding officers of the legislature. It is a vehicle intended to preserve the status quo.
Reform-minded Marylanders should look to other states for solutions.
In Iowa, for example, electoral maps are drawn by the state's Legislative Service Agency, using computer software that factors in population as its sole criteria. Other factors that typically dominate a legislature-driven process — including partisanship and incumbency — are disregarded. A bipartisan Temporary Redistricting Commission is impaneled to assist the process, but it only offers advice when asked to do so.
Since passing its program in 1980, Iowa has avoided the kind of high-profile redistricting drama witnessed in states like Texas and Colorado. Even as Iowa lost a congressional seat due to the 2010 census, the state's new legislative and congressional maps overwhelmingly passed the state legislature and were quickly signed into law by Iowa's governor.
California also moved to a nonpartisan redistricting system. The state's Citizens Redistricting Commission includes five Republicans, five Democrats and four unaffiliated citizens. Though the state is a relative newcomer to nonpartisan redistricting, the impact of the new process is already being felt.
During a recent 10 year period, only one California congressional seat changed partisan hands. Shortly after the new map was unveiled, six veteran California members of Congress announced their retirements.
Simply put, nonpartisan redistricting results in more competitive elections. According to a report issued by the New York-based No Labels committee, nonpartisan redistricting translates into a 14 percent reduction in the average margin of victory in contested elections and a 21 percent drop in the number of uncontested elections.
Of course, the biggest obstacle to bringing nonpartisan redistricting to Maryland or any other state with a gubernatorial- or legislature-driven process is its own political leaders.
Further, people are generally apathetic about arcane matters involving the mechanics of the political process, especially those that arise only once every decade.
However, the transformative nature of the 2014 elections — in which the state's insurgent minority party won the governorship, five county executives races, eight new delegate seats and two new senate seats — may have created a window for reform.
For nonpartisan redistricting to become a reality, it is going to take strong leadership from a reform-minded governor willing to elevate it among other priorities, and to expend political capital forcing recalcitrant legislators to go in a direction they simply don't want to go.
A good first step would be to impanel a bipartisan commission to review legislative solutions to the redistricting process in Maryland. This need not become a partisan exercise as many Democrats — including recent gubernatorial candidate Heather Mizeur — have expressed support for redistricting reform from a good governance perspective. This should be an open process in which all voices should be heard and all solutions explored.
Governor-elect Hogan's victory has made him the man of the moment. For many Marylanders, he personifies political reform. Achieving redistricting reform would complete the process of change his election began.
Richard J. Cross III, a Baltimore resident, is a former Capitol Hill press secretary and Communications Director and gubernatorial speechwriter. He blogs at rjc-crosspurposes.blogspot.com. His e-mail is rcrossiii@comcast.net.