A committee appointed by Gov. Martin O’Malley released its recommendations for a new state legislative map Friday evening that reduces the number of districts that cross county lines and increases the amount of so-called “majority-minority” districts.
Though lawmakers were still busy early this week examining details of the proposal, initial reactions indicated the map is unlikely to draw as much criticism as the new congressional districts that were signed into law Oct. 20.
The proposed map includes 12 districts where a majority of the residents are black, up from 10 on the current map and another four “majority-minority” districts, including District 28 in Charles County.
Also notably, the recommendations include for the first time in state history a majority Hispanic district. As proposed, District 47B in Prince George’s County is more than 63 percent Hispanic.
The proposal also cuts the number of districts that cross county boundaries from 14 to 13.
State Senate President and Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Committee member Thomas V. “Mike” Miller (D-Calvert, Prince George’s) said population shifts made the process challenging but that the committee made an effort to protect incumbent lawmakers.
“It was very difficult because there have been huge population shifts but at the same time I think both parties will recognize that the governor tried to be as fair as he possibly could,” Miller said. “There’s 47 senators and none of the 47 senators are put in districts with any other senators. The Republican senators, all of them are very happy with their districts.”
The plan would mark a significant change for some Charles County residents, who could be swapping state senators in 2014.
As proposed, the map would push District 29, which currently contains a tiny chunk stretching from the Benedict bridge to Hughesville, back across the St. Mary’s County border and wrap a strip of District 27 around the northeast edge of Charles, including Benedict, Hughesville, Malcolm, Gallant Green and Pinefield.
District 28 had to lose about 23,000 residents to come within the required population range — the only question, Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) said, was whether those people would go to Miller, as proposed, or state Sen. Roy P. Dyson (D-St. Mary’s, Calvert, Charles).
“I think the consensus was that I was going to come down and take the eastern part of Charles,” Miller said, adding that he is looking forward to representing the county again as he did from 1975 until 1983, when his district included the Bryans Road area.
“Of course, no map is perfect and I understand it’s a very complicated process. My goal was to keep Charles County as whole as possible,” Wilson said. “Overall, I was happy with the map.”
Wilson said the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland had requested that Waldorf remain wholly inside District 28, adding “it doesn’t appear that they’ve cut into Waldorf.”
He expressed satisfaction that the racial makeup of District 28 remained proportionate with the county as a whole, but stressed that he was not concerned with electing minorities to the General Assembly.
“It’s not about having a minority or black candidate,” Wilson said. “It’s about having the best candidate, having the best person elected to office to represent their community.”
Speculation already has surfaced that when longtime state Sen. Thomas “Mac” Middleton (D-Charles) decides to step down, Wilson would be the natural replacement in a majority-minority district. But Wilson is in no hurry to leave the House or see Middleton go, either.
“Of course, Mac presents big shoes to fill and I think I could do it, but I don’t have those political aspirations right now. It’s only been a year [since Wilson was elected in 2010],” Wilson said. “There is no vacuum of leadership where we need to rush anybody in. [Middleton] does a great job of representing the county, minorities included. At this point, I want to learn to be a delegate and I think Mac has some good years ahead of him.”
Middleton wished to reserve comment until he had familiarized himself with the proposal.
Elsewhere in Southern Maryland, the most drastic change would come in District 29C, which is currently anchored in southern Calvert County and includes a thin sliver of northern St. Mary’s County.
The proposed map would drastically redraw the district, represented by state House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell (D-Calvert, St. Mary’s) of Lusby, so that about two-thirds of its geographic area would be in St. Mary’s. However, due to the concentrated population of the Lusby area, Calvert still would have about 1,200 more people in the district than St. Mary’s, according to 2010 census data.
But by shifting the geographic area of the district farther into conservative St. Mary’s, “what I find interesting about that is that helps out Tony O’Donnell,” St. Mary’s College of Maryland political science professor Todd Eberly said. “I think giving him a large swath of St. Mary’s County ensures his re-election.”
The shift also would push District 29B, represented by Del. John Bohanan (D-St. Mary’s) farther south but drag its northern border up the Chesapeake Bay to include the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, which is currently in District 29C.
O’Donnell said he is “not too worried” about the proposed changes to his district, which would “still be a Calvert County and St. Mary’s County district.”
A severe underdog in his recently announced campaign to oust U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) in the 2012 election, O’Donnell could use his increased reach in St. Mary’s to launch a future run for state Senate, setting the stage for a “very interesting challenge” between the delegate and Dyson, Eberly said.
But the proposal also could mean good things for Dyson as well as Del. John F. Wood Jr. (D-St. Mary’s, Charles), Eberly added.
Both lawmakers won re-election by narrow margins in 2010 but under the proposed map would lose the tiny portion of Charles County currently in District 29A, which “was not a very good area” for them, Eberly said.
O’Donnell said Republicans were “still picking through” the proposal’s details but did criticize the committee for drawing rural districts near the top of the population threshold and urban districts near the bottom, in effect giving urban areas greater representation.
By law, legislative districts can vary five percent from their “ideal” population. Following the 2010 census, the “ideal” populations are 122,813 for a state senate district and three-member delegate districts, 81,875 for districts represented by two delegates and 40,938 for single-member delegate districts.
O’Donnell reasoned that the scenario should be reversed since rural regions in the state like Southern Maryland have seen population booms in the last 10 years while urban areas like Baltimore city have lost residents. That way, over the next 10 years, each district would naturally work its way toward the “ideal” population.
“Where Baltimore city is losing population and you think it would proportionally lose representation, Southern Maryland has gained population and you think it would have gained representation, but that has not happened here because of the way they have set the districts,” O’Donnell said.
Eberly argued that the proposal puts more people in rural districts than urban ones to “not necessarily show favoritism to the urban areas but reflect the ethnic minorities of the state.”
“If you want to create districts that reflect the racial diversity in the state, you are going to draw maps that are going to be favorable to the urban areas,” Eberly said. “It’s just a reality.”
Eberly said the proposed map does more to reflect the state’s growing minority population while also making modest attempts in Anne Arundel County and Western Maryland to boost Democratic ranks in the statehouse.
“You’ve got this issue in the state of Maryland where the Democratic Party routinely receives about 50 percent of the votes statewide but are able to hold 70 to 75 percent of the seats, and they’ve done that with very good line drawing, just as Republicans have done in other states,” he said.
But the committee did not attempt to dilute conservative votes in Calvert and St. Mary’s by including them in districts alongside Democratic voters in Charles County, as Eberly said he thought they might.
Ultimately, Eberly does not expect the legislative districts to receive as much blowback as the new congressional map, which has been the target of a lawsuit by a group of black voters claiming it weakens minority representation.
A hearing was held Tuesday before a three-judge panel in federal court in Greenbelt.
jnewman@somdnews.com
A breakdown of the makeup of each legislative district in Charles County
County population breakdown
District 27A
Charles - 18,549
Prince George’s - 24,112
Total - 42,661
District 28
Charles - 128,239
Race breakdown
District 27A
White - 33.85 percent
Black - 58.2 percent
American Indian and Alaska Native - 0.61 percent
Asian - 2.17 percent
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander - 0.05 percent
Other - 2.07 percent
One Race - 96.95 percent
Two or more Races - 3.05 percent
District 28
White - 49.68 percent
Black - 41.55 percent
American Indian and Alaska Native - 0.63 percent
Asian - 3.11 percent
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander - 0.07 percent
Other - 1.24 percent
One Race - 96.28 percent
Two or more Races - 3.72 percent
Source: Maryland Department of Planning
