Maryland Democrats Admit To Disenfranchising Republicans

Out of Maryland comes a rare case of politicians being completely honest about their intentions—to get more members of their own party elected to office, at the expense of disenfranchising voters with whom they disagree.

Several leading Democrats in the state, including former governor Martin O’Malley and speaker of the House of Delegates Mike Busch, gave sworn depositions in relation to a lawsuit alleging that the state’s 2011 redistricting was designed specifically to maximize Democratic representation in the state’s congressional delegation, while minimizing the influence of Republican voters. Taking even a brief look at the current boundaries of Maryland’s congressional districts, it is impossible to see how anything else could be the case—and now, those in charge of the redistricting process have admitted that fact.

The current lawsuit focuses on the Sixth Congressional District in western Maryland, which was gerrymandered to elect a Democrat in what would normally be a deep red area of the state. But what goes largely unmentioned in the current media coverage is that the entirety of the Maryland congressional map was twisted in a blatant display of partisanship, to elect as many Democrats to Congress as possible.

Without a doubt, the region most harmed by the current map is Anne Arundel County, in the center of the state. The county, home to such major drivers of job creation as the state capital, BWI international airport, NSA headquarters, and Fort Meade army base, is split into no less than four separate Congressional districts, and not a single congressman calls Anne Arundel home.

The reason is simple: the county in general leans Republican, with a large number of voters identifying as Independent, and if it were contained within a single district, any Democrat running for office could not be guaranteed success.

Hopefully, the court will recognize what those of us who live and vote in Maryland have long known to be true—that the entire congressional map was created to serve the political interests of a single party, and to ensure citizens' equal representation, the process of drawing congressional boundaries in the state must start from scratch.