Signatures filed to invalidate Maryland Congressional redistricting

[minionofmidas]

The Democrats think they can pick up a seat? Does MD even have any Republicans left besides that old Tea Party guy who's concerned about peak oil (Bartlett)?

Yes, Andy Harris.

And for reasons of Democratic residency and of intra-party carveup of Baltimore area donors, they couldn't reduce his seat to rubble (and had to draw a hilariously ugly map to achieve the same thing a clean-looking one could have). So only the aged Sev will go.

I wish the Maryland Republicans the best of luck in their endeavour, by the way.

[minionofmidas]

It's not like Republicans wouldn't have drawn a gerrymander if they had control. Maryland's map isn't nearly as ridiculous as the maps of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

It's exactly as ridiculous, and no one who voted for any of the three deserves reelection. -_-

[minionofmidas]

Trying to draw a fair map (not just compact-looking but also not cutting straight through communities etc) of Maryland tends to result in 4-2-2 maps, fwiw, sometimes with evident slight R leans to the marginal seats.

[minionofmidas]

Not to say that neither the current or previous map isn't an insane gerrymander, but the main reason it's that way is moreso due to the incumbents and some inconvenient residences. Both of timothy's maps above ignore communities of interest just as much as the current map, it just does so in a less ugly way, and would most likely still elect a 6-2 delegation regardless.

The first of his maps looks pretty reasonable to me... obviously the Panhandle district needed to head somewhere, but apart from that. You notice that four of those fairly natural districts turn out as Dem vote sinks.


So what happens if voters invalidate the redistricting? The Dems on the legislature need to pass a new map, with as little rules as before? How far do they need to change it to be clear from judicial interference?

[minionofmidas]

If they wanted to do an 8-0 map, and they thought one was truly feasible, they would have done so in the first place.

Actually, the reason that they went with the current map was that (for reasons that no one seems able to figure out) Donna Edwards basically threw a fit over the intended maps and called for a map that only went after Roscoe Bartlett (her shenanigans almost caused her to face a serious primary challenge, IIRC).  The legislature decided to go with an 8-1 map targeting Bartlett.  I have seen 8-0 maps on DKE that are cleaner than the current one and don't displace any Democratic incumbents. 

So Andy Harris survives because of Donna Edwards getting mad at the intended maps. 

I'm pretty sure this is virtually entirely incorrect, actually. 7-1 with Harris conceded was the plan from the start, Edwards' complaints had little to do with the 1st and 6th districts, and anyways remain very largely unadressed. And the primary challenge was probably in the works before that as well; not entirely sure about that. Edwards is not a member of the machine, you see.

[minionofmidas]

It must never be forgotten then personal self-interest is often as important as the party machine's interests, and sometimes it is even of greater import.

They're also more or less the same thing, or at least closer to each other than they are to the party's voters' or even the national party's interests.