Del. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam

Tuesday was the first day candidates could file for the 2014 election, and 11 candidates took the plunge, including four Montgomery County legislators filing as a team for reelection.

The juiciest tidbit from the filings posted daily by the State Board of Elections was Del. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam, a 20-year veteran Democrat currently representing Baltimore County District 10, filing to run for state Senate in the redrawn District 44 currently represented by Sen. Verna Jones-Rodwell.

The new district, allegedly designed to preserve a Senate seat for the city, crosses the city line and is actually dominated by a two-member delegate district in Baltimore County. That is an area Nathan-Pulliam has long represented as part of the old District 10 and where she has been the top vote-getter in the Democratic primary. See district maps below.

Nathan-Pulliam could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

UPDATE: But the delegate did call on Wednesday, noting that there are about 80,000 residents of District 44B, compared to 40,000 city residents in 44A. “That’s a very positive piece for me,” Nathan-Pulliam said.

“I’m no stranger to Baltimore City,” she said, noting that when she was first elected to the legislature she lived in the city. “I own two businesses in the city.”

Nathan-Pulliam, a nurse, owns an adult medical day care center in Baltimore and a personal care center.

She said she will be running on a ticket with Del. Emmet Burns and Rainier Harvey, who also filed yesterday.    

UPDATE AND CORRECTION: Other candidates who filed for election include all the incumbent Democrats in Montgomery Count’s District 14: Sen. Karen Montgomery, Dels. Anne Kaiser, Eric Luedtke and Craig Zucker. New candidates filing for delegate were: Don Engel, D-District 11, Baltimore County; Jordan Cooper, D-District 16, Rockville; Maria Triandos, D-District 30A, Annapolis; Baltimore attorney Chris West, R-District 42B, Baltimore County; and Rainier Harvey, D-District 44B, Baltimore County..

Dawit H. Gebreyesus of Potomac filed for Congress in the 4th Congressional District.

Monday night as part of a campaign finance reform bill, the legislature reset the filing deadline for the June 24, 2014 primary. It will now be Feb/ 25 next year, replacing April 9, 2014.

Hat tip to Matt Proud for the heads up on Facebook about the Board of Elections filings.

 –Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter

Baltimore area delegate districts

Two-member District 44B

Gov. Martin O’Malley’s congressional redistricting map

By Len Lazarick
Len@MarylandReporter.com

Sen. Paul Pinsky, a leader of the left in the state Senate, freely concedes he’d like to see as many “liberals and progressives” elected to Congress as possible.

But the Prince George’s Democrat also acknowledges that Maryland congressional district lines he voted for in 2011 are among the least compact in the nation as well as unfair.  He’d like to reform the process in Maryland without the “unilateral disarmament” that would undermine getting Democrats elected to Congress while Republican-controlled legislatures in other states continued to gerrymander for partisan gain.

On Friday, Pinsky introduced legislation that provides for what might be called “bilateral disarmament” on redistricting, one of several bills this session on reapportionment and redistricting.

Sen. Paul Pinsky

A Republican state would be paired with Maryland

Pinsky’s bill “is contingent on the enactment of a nonpartisan districting process by another state that has between six and ten seats in the United States House of Representatives and both houses of that state’s legislature are controlled by a party other than the party that controls the General Assembly of Maryland.”

Pinsky estimates that as many as six to 10 Republican-dominated states would qualify under that clause.

Pinsky’s bill, co-sponsored by two Republicans and three Democrats, also takes the governor and other elected officials out of the process by creating a five-member bipartisan commission that would draw the lines. The House speaker, Senate president and minority leaders in each chamber would appoint one member each and the fifth member would be selected by a majority of the other commissioners, so the final choice would be bipartisan.

Governor now controls proposal

The current redistricting process is entirely in the hands of the governor, who must submit a bill reflecting the Census taken every 10 years. In 2011, Gov. Martin O’Malley created a five-member “advisory committee” – not covered by the Open Meetings Act – that was chaired by his appointments secretary, and included House Speaker Michael Busch, Senate President Mike Miller, a Democrat (later convicted of federal tax evasion), and a former Republican delegate who was not selected by members of his party.

Under Pinsky’s bill, none of the appointees to the new commission he’s proposing may hold elective or appointive office in the federal, state or local governments.

Pinsky notes that California created a nonpartisan process that still wound up maintaining its Democratic majority in the U.S. House, despite putting incumbents of both parties in the same districts.

Pinsky points to a Jan. 4 column by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post that showed Democratic congressional candidates nationwide had nearly 1.4 million more votes than congressional Republicans, but still could not regain control of the House of Representatives due to gerrymandering.

Sen. Delores Kelley

Other bills create redistricting task force

Two other bills introduced this session would not go as far as Pinsky’s by calling for a task force to study the issue.

Sen. Delores Kelley, D-Baltimore County, introduced legislation to create a 16-member task force to study both congressional and legislative redistricting. The task force would include senators, delegates, representatives of both parties, the League of Women Voters, ACLU and civil rights groups. Kelley’s bill has six Democratic co-sponsors and three Republicans.

Kelley was one of two Democratic senators who filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against last year’s legislative redistricting.

Del. Susan McComas, R-Harford, introduced a nearly identical bill for a 13-member study commission on Wednesday, with 25 Republican co-sponsors and three Democrats.

This is an image of the redistricting plan proposed by Gov. Martin OMalley.

By Sam Smith
Sam@MarylandReporter.com

In a Maryland Court of Appeals hearing Wednesday, opponents of Maryland’s newly redrawn state legislative map claimed that the state is violating a provision of the state constitution by crossing county boundaries for unnecessary, partisan purposes when creating senatorial districts

Although the reapportionment falls within the required 10% population deviation between the largest and smallest district, opponents say the map violates the “one person, one vote” provision in the U.S. Constitution because the map overpopulates districts in rural areas of the state, while urban and suburban districts are underpopulated.

“This, I believe, is all part of process,” said petitioner Jim Bouchat. “I do not believe that this institution will grant me my judgement. It is my intent to petition the United State Supreme Court,  I believe it’s time for

Seated, from left: Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr., Chief Judge Robert M. Bell, Judge Lynne A. Battaglia. Standing, from left: Judges Mary Ellen Barbera, Clayton Greene Jr., Sally D. Adkins, Robert N. McDonald

case law from the 1960s to be reviewed and potentially overturned to reflect the new context of our historical time.”

Opponents want ‘due regard’ used wisely

Article III, section 4 of the Maryland Constitution states, “Due regard shall be given to natural boundaries and the boundaries of political subdivisions.”

Opponents say the provision should only be used when jurisdictions do not have the population required to grant another senator, much like the western counties and Eastern Shore.

“When making a map, start with counties that can wholly contain a specific number of senators and once you do that look to the other counties and localities and see where crossing is needed,” said Jason Torchinsky, a Republican election law attorney representing the petition of Cynthia Houser.

“The position of the state is where you have to start from the corners and work in,” Torchinsky added.

Prince George’s County shares three districts with surrounding counties and Baltimore City shares one district with Baltimore County.

Kelley, Brochin  upset with Baltimore County-City crossover

Three petitions against the map were represented at the hearing, with the most notable coming from Baltimore County Sens. Delores Kelley and Jim Brochin being represented by attorney Jonathan Shurburg. The two Democrats are upset because District 44 is now a crossover district with two-thirds coming from Baltimore County and a third from a southwestern slice of the city.  However, that one move will cause a shift in the county’s legislating alignment effecting many of its districts. Baltimore City’s population warrants 5.05 legislative districts, yet with this map the city will potentially have six state senators.

“It takes the rest of the county and shoves it northward,” Shurburg said, “Sen. Brochin now is representing, instead of the Towson area, he is all the way up to the Pennsylvania border. Sen. Kelley, who previously represented an area right along the Baltimore City line, but wholly within the county, has been removed from that line completely and shoved northwestward into completely a new area.”

Special master recommends approval of map

In September, the court-assigned special master, retired appeals judge Alan Wilner, evaluated the claims in the petitions. He said in his report that there was insufficient proof to claim the plan passed by the governor and General Assembly served partisan purposes or discriminated regionally and racially. Wilner recommended that the court rule the map constitutional.

Although it is possible to create a map with less deviation, Assistant Attorney General Dan Friedman, general counsel to the legislature, reminded the judges that the map was not violating any laws as it was meeting its 10% deviation rate.

“As you have done in many cases in the past, you have left that difficult and challenging question unanswered because nothing forces you to answer it. That’s this case,” Friedman said. “There is nothing here that comes close to establishing a case that would overcome the presumption of validity that would attach to a map that is within 10 percent.”

In response to a question from Judge Lynne Battaglia, who asked what is unconstitutional about the map, Torchinsky said: “When the state has before it four jurisdictions that could wholly contain senate districts without crossing into any other jurisdiction, and the state simply ignores that and says ‘welp, since we need to cross we can cross anywhere we want.’ You get beyond what can be constitutional. Due regard means that you should keep it whole.”

State builds on 2002 map

In 2002, the state legislative districts were redrawn by the Court of Appeals, which attempted to draw a politically unbiased map. Friedman said the state took the map the court passed in 2002, and adjusted it to fit the current demographics of the state. The new map includes fewer boundary crossings (13), fewer deviations and more African-American majority districts.

“If [the Maryland Court of Appeals] map was constitutional, the state made the map better in all of those scores,” Friedman said. “How can the petitioners succeed in the claim of suggesting that we intended to make it worse?”

Three judges “retained” by voters

In a little noticed aspect of Tuesday’s election, voters decided to continue in office three of the seven judges on the Court of Appeals, including Chief Judge Robert Bell. After their appointment by the governor and every 10 years after, voters from the “circuit” they represent get to say whether the judges on Maryland’s highest court should continue to serve. This is called a “retention” election.

Voters know little about the appeals judges and unlike Circuit Court judges who can be challenged and must run in partisan primaries, the appeals judges do not campaign. So fewer voters cast their ballot for the judges, but more than 84% voted to keep them on the bench. In addition to Bell from Baltimore City, voters in Howard and five western counties voted to retain Judge Lynne Battaglia; and voters in Baltimore and Harford counties voted to retain Judge Robert McDonald, who was appointed in December 2011.

Bell is slated to retire in July when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70.

Barack Obama (Photo by Porchlife/Flickr)

By Len Lazarick
Len@MarylandReporter.com

In a state already dominated by Democrats, Maryland voters further consolidated the party’s power Tuesday.

The voters defeated the longest serving Republican congressman, clobbered congressional challengers to six Democratic incumbents, and approved all the ballot measures the great majority of Republican legislators had opposed, including same-sex marriage and expanded gambling.

As expected, President Barack Obama carried the state with 62% of the vote. But that victory – the same margin he won in 2008 – was again won in six big jurisdictions, with Mitt Romney carrying the 18 other rural and suburban counties.

Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin easily won reelection with 55% of the vote — the same margin as in his 2006 victory – and Republican Dan

Sen. Ben Cardin

Bongino got just 27% of the vote due to the presence of independent Rob Sobhani who spent more than $6 million of his own money to get 17% of the vote.

Voters affirm laws, Delaney wins

For the first time in 20 years, opponents of the legislature’s actions petitioned three laws to referendum. But in each case, voters approved the measures passed by the Democrat-dominated General Assembly and signed by the Democratic governor.

The congressional redistricting map designed to eliminate one of two remaining Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives was overwhelming approved by 62%, with only Carroll County voters rejecting the gerrymandered map.

That map in the 6th Congressional District helped Democratic challenger John Delaney beat 10-term Republican incumbent Roscoe Bartlett 59% to 38%, with Bartlett carrying only small Allegany and Garrett counties. Delaney overwhelmed Bartlett with most of his 58,000-vote margin coming from the large chunk of Democratic Montgomery County that was added to Bartlett’s district to help engineer his defeat.

John Delaney

Bartlett, 86, who had been urged by fellow Republicans to retire, wound up conducting a lackluster and oftentimes invisible campaign in the face of his most serious challenge in his 20-year career.

“Although the election did not have the outcome we had hoped for, we can hold our heads high knowing that we have fought for the principles and values we care about,” Bartlett said in a statement.

Six big jurisdictions give winning majorities

The collection of six big jurisdictions that carried Obama to victory – Baltimore City, Baltimore, Charles, Howard, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties – were also the ones that gave the winning margins to Question 4, in-state tuition for immigrant children, and Question 6, gay marriage. Maryland became the first state to approve same-sex marriage in referendum, and both victories will help burnish the national image of Gov. Martin O’Malley, who actively campaigned for both measures that he had signed into law.

The victories on gay marriage and expanded gambling, which O’Malley also campaigned for, had the narrowest margins, 52% to 48% for both.

The petition drives to put the tuition, marriage and redistricting laws on the ballot had been seen as a way for the Republican and conservative minority to balance the power of the Democratic progressives in the legislature. But they failed to do that.

There could not have been a larger contrast between the election night parties organized by the Democratic and Republican parties. There were hugs and tears at both, but for the Republicans at the Westin hotel at BWI airport, there were tears of disappointment and hugs of consolation, particularly for Dan Bongino, the ex-Secret Service Agent who campaigned for 18 months and choked up at his early concession speech.

“I never thought I’d be here,” Bongino said as he struggled to finish his speech, recalling that he had grown up “above a bar” in Brooklyn.

Bongino had started his campaign highly critical of Cardin and his 46 years in elective office, but he wound up an admirer on a personal level.

“He’s been a gentleman,” Bongino told the crowd. “He’s a good man, folks. He was a class act.”

The senator used the same words for Bongino. “He’s a class act,” Cardin said.

Harris is the only Republican left

Left standing for the GOP is Rep. Andy Harris, now the lone Republican in the 10-member Maryland congressional delegation. His district was redrawn to pack the most Republican voters in and he now represents all or parts of 12 counties.

Like the Democratic incumbents, Harris got a huge majority Tuesday, with 67% of the vote. But Harris was running against Democrat Wendy Rosen, whose name was still on the ballot after she formally withdrew from the race over allegations she had voted twice in some elections.

Harris, a strong social and fiscal conservative, was still upbeat about the party’s prospects, though he was speaking about 9:15 p.m. before the full extent of the GOP defeats were known.

“I believe Maryland is one of those states which can move from blue to red,” Harris said. “I believe we can take back our state and our country.”

Diversity is an issue

That was not the only color differences between the two parties. The GOP gathering at the Westin was largely white and had only a sprinkling of African Americans and Hispanics. The jubilant Democratic Party at M&T Stadium was multiracial to the hilt, and the crowd jumped for joy when MSNBC became the first network to announce the re-election of the first black president.

The crowd might have been ethnically diverse, but some party officials decided that their TV viewing was not going to be. The dozens of TV screens in the bar lounge that had been turned into multiple networks were all switched to the left-leaning MSNBC after the Obama victory was announced.

At the Westin, the Republicans also had only one channel available on a single screen, the right-leaning Fox News.

Early voting in Columbia Oct. 27. This polling place is in the middle of Del. Liz Bobo’s District 12B, which had the highest percentage of early voters of any legislative district in the state, 21%

Maryland Democrats, particularly Democratic women, clobbered Republicans in early voting turnout. It’s hard to say what impact this huge Democratic turnout might have for the final results, since no Democratic incumbents in Maryland are considered vulnerable.

Democrats made up two-thirds (66%) of the 430,000 early voters, outvoting Republicans 3.2 to 1, compared to their voter registration edge of 2 to 1, according to the State Board of Elections website. Democratic women made up 42% of early voters, while they make up a third (33%) of total registered voters. Republicans made up 20% of early voters, and independent (unaffiliated) voters made up just 11%.

In fact, the hottest contest for Congress in the 6^th district, pitting 10-term Republican incumbent Roscoe Bartlett against Democrat John Delaney, had the lowest percentage of early voting turnout of any of the congressional districts, 10.6% of eligible voters, lower than the statewide average of 11.65%.

However, Montgomery County, where new Democratic voters were added to the district, had above average turnout of 12.65%, while the Republican leaning counties of Frederick, Washington, Allegany and Garrett counties, with only one polling place apiece, averaged about 8.5%. This means the more heavily Democratic areas had much higher turnout for this contest.

The heavy Democratic turnout might tend to favor the passage of the controversial ballot questions – if Democratic voters were to follow the lead of their top party officials. Gov. Martin O’Malley and the state Democratic Party have been urging voters to approve all four major ballot questions, along with the Democratic county executives in Montgomery, Prince George’s and Howard counties.

Ballot language gives an edge to supporters

The language of ballot questions 4, 5 and 6 also give an edge to supporters, as indicated by a Sunday phone call to MarylandReporter.com from an anonymous voter about congressional districting (Question 5). Reading the text, the man thought it sounded like he was approving a new plan for congressional districts, not the gerrymandered plan passed last year. He wanted to vote against that plan, which is what a vote “against” Question 5 does.

Question 4, allowing in-state college tuition for the children of illegal immigrants, also sounds relatively benign. The title is “Public Institutions of Higher Education – Tuition Rates – Exemptions”  and the phrase “undocumented immigrants” is hardly strong enough for opponents, who prefer to call them “illegal aliens.” (The Associated Press Stylebook continues to favor the term “illegal immigrants,” as do many other news organizations. It is estimated that a third of “illegal immigrants” entered the United States legally, but their visas have since expired.)

Question 4 is also aided by the widespread use of the DREAM act in referring to it. What cad would destroy someone’s dream? Few people note that the federal DREAM Act, long-proposed but never passed by Congress, is an acronym for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act.

The “Civil Marriage Protection Act” also sounds fairly neutral, but the ballot language wastes little time in saying the law allows “gay and lesbian couples to obtain a civil marriage license.”

Question 7, “Gaming Expansion” couldn’t be much more specific in its title or ballot language. With both sides throwing out so much information, some of it accurate, voters may be confused about what’s true, but that’s not due to the ballot language.

–Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter.com  

3rd Congressional District 2012 (Md. Planning Dept. map)

By Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter.com

When Del. Neil Parrott was gathering petition signatures to put congressional redistricting on the ballot so voters could overturn it, he found that all he needed to do was show people the map itself and they were ready to sign on.

That’s the same appalled reaction I found last week when I made a presentation on Question 5 to students and staff at the University of Maryland Baltimore. All they had to do was look at the map, particularly the lines for the 3^rd Congressional District, to realize there was something very wrong.

That map to the right has been called an ink blot, a blood splatter, a rabbit after a blast from a shot gun and, as one federal judge put it, “a Rorschach-like eyesore.” Another federal judge described it as “a broken-winged pterodactyl, lying prostrate across the center of the State.”

“In form, the original Massachusetts Gerrymander looks tame by comparison,” wrote Appellate Judge Paul Niemeyer in his opinion. And so it does, as shown by the 18^th century cartoon that gave us the word combining Gov. Elbridge Gerry and his salamander of a congressional district.

Blatantly bogus arguments

While there are legitimate arguments on both sides of the other three ballot questions – expanded gambling, same-sex marriage, tuition breaks for immigrant children – all the arguments for Question 5 are blatantly bogus.

Democrats supporting the maps say they were drawn in an “open and transparent process” and, in the end, that the redistricting itself was fair, bipartisan and approved by the courts.  Those adjectives are mostly untrue.

A cartoonist’s view of the gerrymandered “salamander district,” drawn by Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry in 1812.

On the July 4^th weekend last year, Gov. Martin O’Malley appointed the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Committee. Since he did not create it by executive order and it was advisory to the chief executive, it did not have to abide by the Open Meetings Act.

The five members were the Democratic governor’s own patronage chief as chair, the Democratic president of the Senate, the Democratic Speaker of the House of Delegates, a Democrat who had chaired O’Malley’s reelection bid in Prince George’s County (and has since gone to prison for federal tax evasion), and one Republican, a former one-term delegate selected without consulting GOP officials.

Behind closed doors, and a legislative rush

The committee had a dozen hearings around the state, but never presented its own plan to the public. Ultimately it drew

the congressional map in secret behind closed doors and released it on the Internet with a one-week comment period.

The governor published the final map on a Saturday evening without a public hearing, just two days before the special session of the legislature he had called to approve it.

The bill was introduced the following Monday morning, a joint hearing was held that afternoon, and the Senate redistricting committee approved it immediately after the hearing. It was rammed through the Senate, and passed the next morning.

Gov. Martin O’Malley’s congressional redistricting map

Alternative plans got little consideration, and the process was so rushed that the bill had to be revised at the last minute to fix drafting errors.

The House of Delegates followed similar quick procedures but a Republican parliamentary maneuver held up it up for a day. It took a little more than 72 hours to have it passed and signed by the governor.

Not a single Republican voted for the plan at any stage of the process: not former Del. Jim King on the advisory committee, none of nine GOP legislators on either committee that reviewed it and none of the 55 Republicans in the House and Senate.

Bartlett targeted for defeat

The map was drawn specifically to make it easier to defeat 10-term incumbent Republican

Where congressmen live: A. Andy Harris, B. Dutch Ruppersberger; C. John Sarbanes; D. Elijah Cummings

Roscoe Bartlett in the 6^th Congressional District, and it looks like that is what is going to happen. Tens of thousands of reliable Republican voters from Carroll and Frederick counties were taken out of the 6^th, and replaced with Democratic voters from Montgomery County.

The Census was established in the U.S. Constitution to apportion fair and equal representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. Every 10 years, redistricting is done to reflect population changes.

As reported in our first story about the “monstrous 3^rd district” a year ago, from 2000 to 2010, the population of Maryland grew by about 9%, but six of the eight existing congressional districts were within plus or minus 3% of the ideal size of 721,529 people. Yet, despite the relatively small adjustments needed to reflect growth, the O’Malley redistricting plan moves 30% of the population into different districts.

Screwing Republicans and minorities

Typically, in any statewide race – for president, governor, comptroller, attorney general or U.S. Senate – even a little-known Republican will garner at least 35% of the vote. In the last three elections, eight statewide Republican candidates averaged over 40% of the vote. Yet, in the map Democrats drew, Republicans are designed to have just 12.5% of the members of Congress.

African Americans, Hispanics and Asians are now 45% of the population, but will hold 25% of the congressional seats (20% if you count the Senate). Non-Hispanic white males, now less than 25% of the population, will hold 75% of the seats.

This is why Republicans and African Americans made common cause in a federal lawsuit. The three federal judges who ruled in the case were sympathetic to the arguments, but felt their hands were tied by the failure of the Supreme Court to give them clear guidance in rejecting partisan gerrymandering.

Divided communities, lack of common interests

Judge Niemeyer from the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals saw some of the obvious problems:

“Admittedly, the shapes of several of the districts in the State Plan are unusually odd. Many obvious communities of interest are divided. For instance, Baltimore City, which could be placed in one congressional district given its current population, is instead split between three. Other districts combine citizens with widely divergent interests. That a farmer in Oakland should share a Representative with a federal contractor living in Potomac is, we think, a suspect proposition.”

Under the current plan, some of the incumbents got to pick their constituents, rather than the constituents picking their representatives. It is most obvious in the Baltimore area, where half of the state’s eight members of Congress live within a 10-mile radius of Towson (see map at right) – and the two U.S. Senators almost fit into that circle as well.

In a concurring opinion, Judge Roger Titus wrote: “It is clear that the plan adopted by the General Assembly of Maryland is, by any reasonable standard, a blatant political gerrymander. If the claim had been pressed by the plaintiffs and an acceptable standard existed for judging it, I would not have hesitated to strike down the Maryland plan.”

Congressional districts 1982

Ex-Supreme Court justice: “outrageously unconstitutional”

So much for the court “approving” the plan. The Supreme Court refused to review the decision on appeal – given that it has declined to come up with clear standards for illegal gerrymandering. One retired Supreme Court justice did call the new Maryland plan “outrageously unconstitutional.”

Admittedly, Maryland has an unusual shape exacerbated by the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River, its long border with Virginia and West Virginia. But 30 years ago, the eight congressional districts were much more compact, as seen in the map to the right. Anne Arundel County was in a single district with its own resident congresswoman, the state’s only Republican representative at the time. Three of the other representatives were what used to be called “conservative” Democrats – Beverly Byron, Roy Dyson and Clarence Long. Now conservative Democrats are long gone.

Maryland now has the distinction of having the most gerrymandered, least compact congressional districts in the nation based on mathematic modeling. That’s quite a feat given that Maryland was competing against 49 other states and their 427 districts.

Rejecting the map is unlikely

Overturning the current plan will be hard, as was getting the petition signatures to put it on the ballot. Only 30% of the voters have switched districts, and only in the 6^th District will they change representatives. There is no money in this fight, and only a few Democratic politicos from Montgomery County are openly opposing the map. Even if voters reject the current map, the same governor and legislators will be in charge of drawing a new one.

There is some slim chance imaginable that an embarrassed governor and Democratic Party leaders would agree to an independent, non-partisan commission to draw the lines, as now happens in eight states. But Maryland’s Democratic pols drew the new map in such a partisan way because they were able to – as Republican pols in many other states have done. The temptation to manipulate the lines for partisan power might overcome any temporary embarrassment if by some miracle voters reject Question 5 and its bland language.

Background from previous stories

Here are some previous stories that provide additional background.

http://marylandreporter.com/2011/10/12/bolstering-representation-helps-all-minorities-including-gop/

http://marylandreporter.com/2011/10/05/analysis-30-solution-creates-monstrous-3rd-district/

http://marylandreporter.com/2011/10/18/omalley-redistricting-plan-passes-senate-goes-to-house/

http://marylandreporter.com/2011/12/23/federal-judges-reject-challenge-to-md-congressional-districts/

http://marylandreporter.com/2011/10/12/minority-leaders-denounce-proposed-redistricting-maps/

http://marylandreporter.com/2012/06/05/blogging-and-redistricting-whats-fair-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/

http://www.hocorising.com/2012/10/question-5-marylands-shameful.html

For more stories, go to the menu at the top of this page, and click on “Hot Topics” “Redistricting.”

Montgomery County Democrats announce opposition to Question 5.

By Sam Smith
Sam@MarylandReporter.com

Phil Andrews by myfriendofhillary on flickr

Montgomery County “good government” Democrats are organizing their opposition against the “atrocious gerrymandering” in the congressional redistricting that is on the ballot for voter approval as Question 5.

Led by County Council members Phil Andrews and Valerie Ervin, more than 20 county, state and municipal officials and community leaders gathered in Rockville Monday to urge voters to vote no on Question 5, saying the map drawn by governor and approved by the legislature interfered with fair representation for constituents in a county now split into three different congressional districts.

The group favors having Maryland’s congressional lines drawn by an independent commission.

“We can see what happens when elected officials draw their own boundaries,”  Andrews said. “Redistricting is fundamental to effective democracy. If we don’t have fair and rational districts, we don’t have competition. Gerrymandering has been used for 200 years to undermine political competition. If we don’t have competition, our democracy doesn’t work well.”

Republicans organized opposition

Republicans organized opposition to the map and led the petition drive to put it on the ballot. They could possibly lose one of their two seats in the House of Representatives if Democrat John Delaney beats Republican Roscoe Bartlett in the newly drawn 6th district. But an African American group joined in their opposition as well, and lost a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the map.

3rd Congressional District 2012 (Md. Planning Dept. map)

With a number of Montgomery and Prince Georges County Democrats speaking out against the map, the opposition has become more bipartisan. The Democratic central committees in both counties did not take a position supporting the new lines, as state party leaders had urged them to do.

Map of 3rd Congressional District makes the case

Andrews said that all it takes to be appalled by the proposal is looking at a map of the 3rd Congressional District, which he said proponents of  the governor’s plan try to keep hidden.  The district is a prime example of what a gerrymandered district looks like.

Maryland’s 3rd is the third least compact district in the country, spanning four counties. The district extends from Silver Spring, Olney,  and Annapolis to Columbia and Towson.

“It really does look like blood spatter from a crime scene rather than a congressional district,” Andrews said. “How can anyone represent this district? How can anyone remember the boundaries of this district without an incredible GPS and without a boat.”

Minority majority not reflected in representation

In 2010, Montgomery County became a majority-minority county for the first time. According to the 2010 U.S Census, 50.7% of the county is other than non-hispanic white.  Due to redistricting, the county loses the possibility of electing a minority member of Congress as it also loses parts of the the 4th Congressional District represented by Rep. Donna Edwards, an African American from Prince George’s County.

The three districts that represent Montgomery County will most likely be represented by three white males, unless little known Republican Eric Knowles upsets Rep. John Sarbanes in the 3rd district.

Valerie Ervin

“By taking district four out of Montgomery County, there is virtually, we believe, no possibility of electing a minority candidate at the congressional level in Montgomery County,” Montgomery County Council member Valerie Ervin said.

Del. Braveboy, D- Prince Georges, and Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez, D-Montgomery, took an early stand against the proposed district map last year in the General Assembly when opposing the map was an unpopular position in the Maryland Democratic party. Dels. Luiz Simmons and Alfred Carr Jr., also Montgomery Democrats, voted against the map too, Andrews said.

Task force proposed to create commission process

Braveboy said she introduced a bill earlier this year creating a task force to design a commission process for the state of Maryland, as is now done in eight states. However, that bill was never voted on. She said she will try and get it passed again in next legislative session beginning in January. She said that a task force is important because it prevents Maryland from jumping into a commission process without understanding the implications.

“We have to start with a task force because we don’t just want to move directly into a commission not understanding how that commission will be formed and what are the implications and I think we want to do best practices,” Braveboy said.

Ervin said that she is confident that Question 5 will be shot down because more Democrats are speaking out against the map and there was an increased awareness as a result of primary election participation where many voters became aware that the districts have changed.

“This is when the real discussion started to happen in Montgomery County. Moving forward, I feel that this will be overturned by the voters,” Ervin said.

3rd Congressional District 2012 (Md. Planning Dept. map)

By Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter.com

Maryland is still the undisputed U.S. champion when it comes to drawing sprawling, weirdly shaped congressional districts, according to a soon-to-be-released national study.

Maryland has the least compact congressional districts in the nation, based on four mathematical tools for compactness, Azavea, a geographic information services firm in Philadelphia, plans to report in a white paper.

The 3^rd Congressional District, zigzagging from Towson to Silver Spring to Annapolis is the third least compact of the 435 congressional districts in the United States, the study found. The 6^th Congressional District that runs 177 miles from Potomac to Oakland at Maryland’s far western border is the 9^th least compact. The 2^nd Congressional District that includes parts of Anne Arundel, Howard, Baltimore and Harford counties is the 11^th least compact congressional district.

The 3^rd is now represented by Democrat John Sarbanes; the 6^th, by Republican Roscoe Bartlett; and the 2^nd, by Democrat Dutch Ruppersberger.

Redistricting map on ballot

Voters in Maryland will get to approve or overturn the new lines on the Nov. 6 ballot in Question 5, which was put on the ballot through a petition drive by opponents of the partisan gerrymandering in the new plan.

Now that information on all the new congressional districts redrawn after 2010 Census is in, this Azavea study confirms the company’s data reported by MarylandReporter.com in December.

2nd Congressional District 2012 (Md. Planning Dept. map)

The study was done as part of what the company sees as it as “social mission,” said Azavea GIS analysts Daniel McGlone.

The only two districts in the country less compact than Maryland’s 3^rd are North Carolina’s 12^th and Florida’s 5^th, McGlone said. Both of those are majority minority districts, drawn to give a minority group more clout.

That does not apply to any of Maryland’s districts, where minority concentrations in Baltimore City and Prince George’s County are actually diluted to aid white Democratic incumbents.

Bay coastline factored into computations

The firm used four different commonly used measures of compactness found in academic literature.

Maryland’s unusual shape and the squiggly coastline of the Chesapeake Bay could account for some lack of compactness, but McGlone said straightened and squared off some of those lines due to inlets and rivers, drawing a line down the middle of the bay, for instance, rather than following the coastline.

“If you don’t account for the Chesapeake Bay at all, you’ll still have relatively low scores,” McGlone said. “If you look at [the map], there’s something wrong.”

Based on their national study, McGlone found, “districts drawn by independent commissions do tend to be more compact,” as in Iowa and California. California in particular just instituted such a process, and its new districts are “dramatically more compact,” and are drawn without regard to where incumbents live, placing some in the same new district.

6th Congressional District 2012 (Md. Planning Dept. map)

Partisan control protects incumbents

Maryland and Pennsylvania, on the other hand, have “total partisan control of the process,” and their lines are less compact, McGlone said.

In the Towson-Cockeysville area of central Baltimore County, three of Maryland’s eight incumbent members of the U.S. House of Representatives live within a few miles of each other: Sarbanes, Ruppersberger, and Republican Andy Harris, in the 1^st Congressional District, the 25^th least compact district in the nation and which includes all of the Eastern Shore.  A fourth congressman, Elijah Cummings, lives in Baltimore City nine miles south of Sarbanes’ Towson home, but shares representation of the majority African American city with Sarbanes and Ruppersberger.

At a Ritchie Highway car wash in May, Republicans pushed petition drive on congressional redistricting.

Republicans hoping to overturn Maryland’s gerrymandered congressional districts are sounding desperate to collect enough by the deadline at midnight Saturday.

They say they need to collect 7,000 signatures to be on the safe side to put the redistricting map on the ballot with a total of 55,736 valid signings.

Here’s what Del. Neil Parrott, founder of MdPetitions.com, told supporters in an e-mail Friday morning.

“The next two days are the most important days to the protection of our freedoms and our representation in Maryland. If there was ever a time to DO SOMETHING, NOW is that time!

“As of yesterday’s mail, we have 21,440 signatures additional signatures for the congressional redistricting petition. We need to have at least 35,000 signatures to turn in to the Board of Elections on Saturday before midnight [June 30].

“A large mailing to several counties has gone out, and we are expecting to get 3,000 signatures from the mail in the next two days.  We are also expecting approximately 3,000 signatures from events in Anne Arundel County and Harford County, but that is not going to be enough. I know people have petitions, but have not turned them in and we should get another 500 signatures from that source. Even including these, we need 7,000 more signatures!!”

Republican Party Chair Alex Mooney followed up with an urgent e-mail to the 300 members of the state central committee.

“ONLY YOU at this point can make this effort succeed, and too many people have been sitting on the sidelines on this referendum effort,” Mooney told them.

Mooney and Parrott want to overturn the redrawn districts that puts Republican Roscoe Bartlett’s seat in jeopardy. But Parrott admits it was much easier to collect signatures against same-sex marriage or against tuition for illegal immigrants.

People have been collecting signatures at most Republican events, but many party activists have already signed.

Green Party banner for national convention here.

Getting people to sign a petition is not easy. Two people were collecting signatures at the East Columbia library Thursday afternoon, but it turned out that they were collecting signatures – yet again – to get the Green Party back on the ballot in November. A lot of their signatures had been tossed out, they lost a court suit, so they have until Aug. 6 to collect 10,000 signatures.

One of those collecting signatures was Ellicott City resident Beth Hufnagel, who ran for comptroller in 2002 as a Green. She got 3,635 votes (.2%); William Donald Schaefer won with 1,125,279 (68%). The Greens wish the odds were better, but they’d at least like to be treated fairly. About one in four registered voters they approached agreed to sign the petition.

As a journalist, I never sign petitions for anything – except for party access petitions. Greens, Libertarians, Constitution, I sign them all if asked. (Communists and fascists don’t try; they run closeted in the major parties.)

For major party members, Democrat or Republican, Maryland has some of the easiest access rules in the nation. Any idiot with $50 can file for state Senate or House of Delegates, for $100 for the House of Representative, for $290 governor or U.S. Senate.

In many states, not only are much higher fees required, but candidates for many offices must collect signatures too. This keeps most kooks off the ballot. Here only the minor parties must collect signatures. Just another aspect of incumbent party rule.

BTW, the Green Party of the United States will hold its national convention in Baltimore July 12-15.  Massachusetts physician Jill Stein seems to have the nomination locked up, but Roseanne Barr – yes, the TV celebrity – told USA Today that she still in the running. If nominated, Stein will get a second shot at Mitt Romney. She ran for Massachusetts governor against him when he won in 2002, getting 1,095,000 to Stein’s 76,000.

In honor of the bicentennial, maybe we can get Roseanne to sing the Star-Spangled Banner.

–Len Lazarick

Len@MarylandReporter.com

By Glynis Kazanjian

Even without the $1.7 million Democratic congressional candidate John Delaney loaned himself to defeat party establishment favorite Rob Garagiola, Delaney managed to raise twice as much money during the primary election as Republican incumbent Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, now his general election opponent.

But heading into the fall campaign, both candidates started with about $300,000 cash on hand. And Delaney’s campaign says the wealthy commercial banker from Potomac will not be financing himself, as he did for much of his primary expenses.

During the first quarter, Delaney raised $900,000 while Bartlett raised $460,000. Delaney got two-thirds of his money out of state, much of it from the banking and financial services sector in which he works. Delaney is founder and chairman of CapitalSource in Chevy Chase.

Ten-term congressman Bartlett got two-thirds of his cash from Maryland, and at least 38% of Bartlett’s first quarter contributions came from political action committees, while Delaney got less than 1% from PACs.

FEC questions Bartlett filings

Bartlett’s camp is also under fire from the Federal Election Commission for failing to provide adequate employment information on campaign contribution filings. Approximately half of Bartlett’s first quarter individual campaign contribution forms required further information.

The campaign also has been filing PAC contributions incorrectly, according to the FEC and a watchdog group.

Bartlett will face off against Delaney in November for the redrawn 6th Congressional District. After Democrats added Montgomery County Democrats and stripped some of its most Republican areas of Frederick and Carroll counties in redistricting, the race is the most hotly contested in Maryland. It is one GOP House Democrats hope to pick up to regain a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Three independent analysts give Delaney the edge. The Rothenberg Political Report calls it “Democrat favored.” The Cook Political Report rates the race “likely Democratic,” and Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball deems it “leans Democratic.”

Opponents of the map are currently trying to overturn the new map by collecting enough signatures to place it on the November ballot for a statewide vote.

In-state vs. out-of-state donors

According to FEC filings, two thirds (66%) of Bartlett’s individual campaign contributors were in-state. Individual contributions accounted for 50%, and PAC contributors accounted for approximately 38%.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett

“Congressman Bartlett is humbled by the outpouring of support he has received from people from all walks of life and is confident he will have the resources he needs to win in November,” Bartlett Campaign Manager Ted Dacey said.

Delaney raised approximately $800,000 from individual contributions, but two thirds came from out-of-state. Of that, $250,000, or 31%, came from three states:  New York, California and Illinois. Contributions of $2,500 accounted for 46% of Delaney’s overall individual contributions.

“John believes this district needs an independent voice in Washington that will focus like a laser on creating jobs,” said Delaney Campaign Manager Justin Schall. “We’re proud to have the support of hundreds of individuals in and outside of the district so we don’t have to rely upon special interests to fund this campaign. Many of these people John has known and worked with for years.”

Industry Influences

Bartlett’s top three “industry” contributors were “defense aerospace, leadership PACs and retired individuals,” according to OpenSecrets.gov, a research arm of the Center for Responsive Government. Delaney’s top three contributor groups represented “securities and investment firms, finance and credit companies and lawyers and law firms.”

Bartlett’s top two contributors for the first quarter were conservative PACs Citizens United and Freedom Project, totaling $20,000. Delaney’s top two sources of contributions, amounting to $65,000, came from the banking and lobby sectors — CapitalSource Inc., Delaney’s own company, and Patton Boggs, Washington’s largest lobbying firm.

FEC demands data

According to data from OpenSecrets, 41% of Delaney’s individual contributors are associated with “industry” sectors, such as securities and investments, finance and credit, legal, lobbyists and business. However, nearly half (47%) of Bartlett’s individual contributors are unidentifiable due to missing information on FEC campaign finance disclosure forms.

John Delaney

On June 4, the FEC issued two letters to Bartlett Campaign Treasurer Robert Perry, requesting employment and occupation information for donors, as well as explanations for certain disbursements. The campaign has until July 7 to comply with the request before an audit or enforcement action is imposed.

“The campaign is working with our professional accounting firm to provide all of the additional information requested by the FEC,” Dacey said.

PAC contribution disparities for Bartlett’s campaign were also discovered on the FEC and OpenSecrets.org website. According to FEC filings, Bartlett’s campaign received around $175,000 in PAC contributions. Yet, the FEC and OpenSecrets websites both report total PAC contributions of 6%.

An FEC spokesperson said reports are filed electronically by the respective campaigns.

On the FEC financial summary page, PAC contributions are supposed to be filed under “Other Committees Contributions,” according to the FEC. However, all except one of Bartlett’s 2012 PAC contributions are filed under “Party Committees Contributions,” which typically lists contributions from political party committees.

“There seems to be a mix of committees in each of [the] categories,” an FEC spokesperson said. “Committee reports are posted as they are filed.”

OpenSecrets.org spokesperson Phillip Zanders had researchers check the FEC filings.

“According to our researchers, Rep. Bartlett is putting his PAC receipts on the wrong line of the FEC form, so they look they’re coming from parties and therefore included in our ‘other’ category,” Zanders wrote in an email. “Since we obtain this information directly from the Federal Election Commission, this could be best rectified by the FEC changing their data, which likely depends on Bartlett filing an amendment to correct the previous error.”

Bartlett’s campaign did not return requests for comment.

Delaney’s camp refrained from pouncing on the clerical errors. “We focus on filing our reports in an accurate manner,” Schall said.

Delaney won’t personally finance rest of campaign

Despite Delaney’s personal cash advantage, both campaigns started off the general on comparable financial footing. Bartlett had $266,689 cash on hand at the end of the first quarter, while Delaney had $316,550. And Schall, Delaney’s campaign manager, said Delaney is not planning to personally finance his campaign for the general.

“Those are not our plans,” Schall said. “We’re going to do it the old fashioned way. John plans on raising money like every other person running for Congress, one person at a time.”

Both candidates have been placed in their respective party’s national campaign election programs. Bartlett in the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Patriot program, geared toward protecting incumbents. Delaney is in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue program, which aims to knock off Republican incumbents.

Both designations are likely to attract outside money to the race.