The African-American witnesses at Thursday’s hearing on the proposed legislative redistricting map consistently made the case that there should have been 14 predominately black Senate districts out of 47, not the 12 proposed. But the decision by a three-judge federal court the next day on the congressional districts maps undermined some of these arguments based on the percentage of the population. [...more]
In an early Christmas present to Maryland’s Democratic leaders, a three-judge federal court has totally rejected all the arguments in a lawsuit challenging the state’s congressional district map passed and signed Oct. 20. The court’s unusually rapid 55-page opinion, issued just three days after a hearing on the case, paves the way for Maryland to conduct its presidential primary election on April 3 as planned, with a filing deadline Jan. 11. [...more]
Racial politics and concerns about community cohesion dominated a three-hour hearing Thursday as scores of people from across Maryland came to Annapolis to condemn, offer suggestions and even praise the new legislative district map drawn by Gov. Martin O’Malley’s Redistricting Advisory Committee. [...more]
Gov. Martin O’Malley said Thursday that he was surprised and “very disappointed” when he learned that Richard Stewart, a member of the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Committee, pleaded guilty last Thursday to failing to pay almost $4 million in federal Social Security and income taxes for a company he owned. [...more]
Richard Stewart, a member of the five-person Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Committee, pleaded guilty last Thursday to failing to pay almost $4 million in federal Social Security and income taxes for a company he owned. [...more]
Arguments before a three-judge panel in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt Tuesday morning left state officials and a group of black voters opposed to the new congressional districts watching the clock to find out if April’s primary election can proceed as scheduled. [...more]
The two top Democrats in the General Assembly are pretty happy with the legislative district maps they helped draw, safely slicing the pie to protect their super-majorities. Republicans, on the other hand, are not pasting smiley face stickers on the plan submitted Friday evening, which could force some incumbents to run against each other. [...more]
The Legislative Black Caucus plans on submitting General Assembly redistricting maps to the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Committee (GRAC) this week, saying black voters are under-represented in the legislature. “We can’t operate in the same way we’ve operated in the past because we’re going to run afoul of the Voting Rights Act,” said the Black Caucus Redistricting Committee chair, Del. Aisha Braveboy. [...more]
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett hasn’t announced his retirement yet, but other Republicans are sure acting like he’s going to. His longtime chief of staff Bud Otis just quit after several weeks of testing the waters in the race. Wednesday evening, state GOP Chairman Alex Mooney filed an exploratory committee to look at replacing the congressman he once worked for. Sen. David Brinkley of Frederick quickly followed suit Thursday. And the federal judge handling the lawsuit challenging the whole redistricting plan is suggesting the court may need to change the primary election date. [...more]
The federal judge overseeing the first round of legal arguments on the lawsuit challenging Maryland’s congressional redistricting quickly ruled Monday against the state’s motion to dismiss and assigned the case to a three-judge panel. [...more]
