State redistricting next in line after congressional redistricting

The work to redraw the state legislative district lines is moving forward, although no official word on the plan is expected to be released before a January deadline.

Congressional redistricting is already being discussed at a General Assembly special session, and two possible maps released last week to The Baltimore Sun have already drawn some dissatisfaction.

As for the state maps, Gov. Martin O'Malley must prepare a plan to be presented to the state Senate president and Speaker of the House of Delegates on Jan. 11, 2012.

Andy Ratner, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Planning, said the General Assembly's special session in October will be only for the redistricting plan that redraws the Congressional District boundaries.

That session "was necessary because Maryland's Congressional primary comes up fairly quickly, in the spring of 2012," Ratner said.

At a Sept. 12 hearing at Harford Community College's Amoss Theater that drew about 40 people, residents told members of the redistricting committee they were angry about past attempts to gerrymander the state and urged the committee to consider natural community boundaries in drawing a plan.

Maryland Sen. Nancy Jacobs said she hoped the process would be fair but sounded doubtful.

"When you are a Republican and the Democrats control the redistricting, your first thought is, it is what it is," she said, adding she suspects the committee might try to remove her from Cecil County.

"I would love to keep Cecil," she said. "If they do give me my old address back in Harford County, that won't hurt me, either."

In a later email, she said she believes there is no excuse for anything other than a fair process.

"Since the Governor has his 'statestat technology,' there is no excuse for partisan gerrymandering that results in barely discernible ink-blot schemes," she wrote. "The people of Maryland deserve fair and equitable representation, not tearing apart communities and neighborhoods to appease petty partisan whims."

Maryland Del. Susan McComas said she has only seen the Congressional, Democratic plan in the press.

"If the leadership were working in a bipartisan and collaborative manner, courtesy and protocol would dictate that all of the legislators regardless of party would have seen these proposals prior to them appearing in the press," she wrote in an email about those plans.

"A picture is worth a thousand words. I think that if you look at the two Democratic plans and then contrast them with the Republican plan, you can see with your own eyes which plan provides the best representation for Maryland citizens," she wrote.

"The Republican plan boundaries are smooth, easily identifiable within one or several county lines, maintain communities of interest, and are very compact. A review of the Democratic plans look like someone threw several different colors of paint on a Maryland canvas with all of the colors splattered across county lines. It appears to be the helter-skelter method of redistricting," she wrote.

She noted the Republican plan is available at http://www.mdp.state.md.us/PDF/Redistricting/3rdPartyPlan2010/map091911-CDGOP.pdf. Other third-party plans are also available on the Maryland Department of Planning website.