Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: Testimony of MD Sen. David Brinkley in support of SB 675 Carroll County five districts legislation…

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Testimony of MD Sen. David Brinkley in support of SB 675 Carroll County five districts legislation…

On or about March 7, 2008

Testimony In Support of Senate Bill 675 – Carroll County – County Commissioners

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2008/03/testimony-of-md-sen-david-brinkley-in.html

Labels: Carroll Co 5 Commissioner Dist plan, Carroll Co Delegation to Annapolis, MD Gen Assembly 2008 425, People Brinkley-David MD Senator, Politics Carroll Co Democrats Liberals

Senate Bill 675 would create five new districts for the purpose of changing county commissioner elections in Carroll County from three commissioners elected at-large to five commissioners elected by district. The bill adopts the districting plan known as “Option 1” prepared by the Carroll County Districting Commission in 2006. The two options presented in the Commission’s final report are attached and available in color on-line at: http://ccgovernment.carr.org/ccg/topics/redist-map/default.asp.

This same “Option 1” districting plan was incorporated in House Bill 491 which was passed by the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee during the 2006 Session. However, that bill failed to reach final passage by sine die and the districting plan became the subject of court proceedings. The case reached the Court of Appeals which ruled that only the General Assembly can create commissioner districts in Carroll County. The court ruling reverted the 2006 election to three commissioners elected at-large.

The chief critic of the “Option 1” plan is Martin Radinsky, Chairman of the Democratic Central Committee of Carroll County, who views the map as a right-wing conspiracy patently unfair to Democrats because it “divides the pockets of Democrats that exist in the county, and I believe this is the intention of our 100 percent Republican delegation.” (Carroll County Times article, February 23, 2008)

I can assure this Committee that nothing is further from the truth than Mr. Radinsky’s comments.

First, there are strong policy reasons to adopt Option 1 over Option 2, including:

Option 2 violates the Commission’s own Guidelines by splitting municipal boundaries. At the beginning of the districting process, the Commission adopted guidelines that included: “High regard should be given to the boundaries of political subdivisions, and where possible, the splitting of municipalities should be avoided.” Option 2 bisects the municipality of Sykesville splitting the historic town from newer annexations including its major economic development project known as the “Warfield Complex.” Option 1 does not split any municipal boundaries and supports a overall districting scheme in which larger municipalities serve as anchors for each district with Sykesville anchoring District 5 and Mt. Airy anchoring District 4.

Option 2 bisects a large unincorporated community planning area know as Finksburg. On the eastern side of Carroll County is a growing residential area that does not have the advantages of municipal government but is organized informally within the Finksburg Area Planning Council. Residents of this area oppose Option 2 because it literally splits in half the community planning area. Option 1 preserves the unification of the Finksburg region and also supports the overall districting scheme in which larger municipalities serve as anchors for each district with Hampstead anchoring District 2.

Secondly, Mr. Radinsky is wrong when he claims that the Option 1 map “divides the pockets of Democrats” to provide an unfair political advantage to Republican commissioner candidates. As shown by the attached tables, it is actually Mr. Radinsky’s Option 2 map that dilutes the Democrat voting strength. In contrast, Option 1 provides the Democrats with two districts where the margin of Republican to Democrat voter registration is less than 16%.

As you can see from the voter registration data, the Carroll County Delegation has placed policy considerations above politics by selecting Option 1 and by rejecting Option 2 which would dilute Democrat voting strength by “dividing the pockets of Democrats that exist in the county.” For these reasons, I respectfully request that the Committee give a favorable report to Senate Bill 675.

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/search/label/Carroll%20Co%205%20Commissioner%20Dist%20plan

Labels: Carroll Co 5 Commissioner Dist plan, Carroll Co Delegation to Annapolis, MD Gen Assembly 2008 425,

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2004/09/my-thoughts-on-five-commissioner-form.html

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2005/10/kevin-dayhoff-many-forms-of-government.html

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