Dayhoff Soundtrack: Sen. Getty to speak Wed., July 17 2013 in Union Bridge on the impacts of the 2012 redistricting in the 2014 elections

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Sen. Getty to speak Wed., July 17 2013 in Union Bridge on the impacts of the 2012 redistricting in the 2014 elections

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2013/07/sen-getty-to-speak-wed-july-17-2013-in.html

How Legislative Redistricting Impacts Carroll County's 2014 Election

Sen. Getty to Speak at West Carroll GOP Club this Wed.

Marylanders for Joe Getty

July 15, 2013

I will be speaking this Wednesday at the monthly meeting of the West Carroll Republican Club about the 2012 cycle of legislative redistricting and how it impacts Carroll County for the 2014 gubernatorial election. The meeting begins with dinner at 6 p.m. and program at 7 p.m. at the Buttersburg Inn (9 N. Main St., Union Bridge, Md. 21791). Dinner is dutch-treat and the public is invited to attend.

As candidates have been announcing their plans this spring and summer, I have been increasingly asked about the new districts created as a result of the 2010 census.

The congressional and state legislative district maps are available on the Md. Department of Planning redistricting website (click here - scroll to the bottom of the page for the link to the interactive map). The Carroll County Commissioner districts did not change and the current map is available on the county board of elections website (click here).

Reprinted below is a summary of how the 2012 redistricting process affected the areas of Carroll and Baltimore counties that comprise Senate District 5:

A RECAP OF REDISTRICTING ON SENATE DISTRICT 5

When representatives of the 13 states met in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787, they debated a controversial provision to require that the members of the U.S. House of Representatives would be apportioned by population. The Maryland delegates to the Constitutional Convention were opposed to that provision because it would give greater power to the larger states of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia as compared to the smaller states such as Delaware and Maryland.

However, that provision for apportionment by population passed and it became a hallmark of modern democracy in the new federal government. The first federal census was held in 1790 and has been conducted every 10 years since for the primary purpose of apportioning each state's members to the U.S. House of Representatives.

In recent years, the legislative redistricting process has become confusing to most citizens. In Carroll and Baltimore counties, redistricting entails new legislative maps at the federal, state and local level. Every 10 years, these multi-layered legislative districts are redrawn based upon the results of the U.S. census.

Through much of our state's history, the redistricting process was less confusing because the county boundaries served as the boundary lines for state legislative districts. Prior to 1967, every county was allocated members in the State Senate and the House of Delegates based upon broad population formulas.

For example, Carroll County was apportioned with one senator and four delegates whose district was the county boundaries during most of the 20th century.

The use of county boundaries for state legislative districts was struck down due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1963 of "one-person, one-vote" in a case known as Baker v. Carr. This ruling affected state legislative districts throughout the nation.

Maryland went through the transition with the adoption of new "one-person, one-vote" districts that overlapped county boundaries with the passage of redistricting plan that took effect in 1967.

From 1967 to 1982, the population of Carroll County was split between a western district joined with Frederick County and an eastern district joined with Baltimore County. The majority of population in those two districts was outside of Carroll County. For that reason, Carroll County did not have a resident senator for 16 years.

During the 2012 cycle for Maryland redistricting, the congressional districts were fast-tracked and established by the General Assembly in a special session held in October 2011and were effective for the primary election held April 3, 2012.

The state legislative districts were challenged but upheld in the Court of Appeals and are effective for the gubernatorial election cycle in 2014.

The Carroll County Commissioner districts saw little population change and will remain the same. The Baltimore County Council Districts were slightly amended adopted by the council.

Listed below is a recap of the changes that have occurred in this redistricting cycle:

Congressional Districts: Maryland retained eight Congressional Districts with each district containing a population of 721,529. Carroll County and northern Baltimore County were removed from Cong. Dist. 6 (incumbent, Roscoe Bartlett). Carroll's population was split between Cong. Dist. 1 (incumbent, Andy Harris) and Cong. Dist. 8 (incumbent, Chris Van Hollen). Northern Baltimore County was split between Cong. Dist. 1 also and Cong. Dist. 7 (incumbent, Elijah Cummings). In December, a federal court upheld the congressional plan adopted by the General Assembly and these districts are effective for the 2012 election.

Old Cong. Dist. 6: This district was targeted by the Democrats to pick up a seat and move from a six Democrats to two Republican advantage to a 7-1 Democrat majority in Congress. The traditional Western Maryland district was split with Carroll, Baltimore and Harford counties removed entirely from the district. By shifting 50 percent of the district's population into Montgomery County, a reliably conservative district was altered to one that tilts Democrat. The GOP voter registration was 47 percent - it drops to 34 percent in the new district. Democrat registration rises from 36 percent to 44 percent.

New Cong. Dist. 1: Carroll County becomes nine percent of this district that stretches along the Mason-Dixon Line and encompasses the entire Eastern Shore. Taneytown, Manchester, Hampstead, Finksburg and environs become part of Cong. Dist. 1. A strip of Baltimore County stretches along the Mason-Dixon line about five miles wide to join the district with Harford County and the Eastern Shore. The voter registration numbers of the new Cong. Dist. 1 are: 42 percent Republican; 41 percent Democrat; and 16 percent decline to affiliate.

New Cong. Dist. 8: The remainder of Carroll County becomes 14 percent of this district which is strongly Democratic with 70 percent of the district's population in Montgomery County. Voter registration numbers are: 51 percent Democrat; 28 percent Republican and 20 percent decline to affiliate.

State Senate and House of Delegate Districts: Maryland has 47 Senatorial Districts and 141 delegates (there are three delegates for each Senate District which are apportioned in single member or multi-member districts). The ideal population will be 122,813 for senatorial districts and 40,938 for single-member delegate districts with an acceptable deviation of +/- five percent. The governor's proposal was submitted on the opening day of the 2012 Legislative Session and became law Feb. 24.

Net result for Carroll County: three senators retained and the House Delegation grows from four to eight members. In Baltimore County, the northern portion that is currently Delegate Dist. 5B is now split between three senate districts: 10, 42 and 7.

Senate Dist. 5: The entire Senate Dist. 5 (incumbent, Joe Getty) is shifted to lie within the boundaries of Carroll County. In addition to the current area in District 5A (Westminster, Hampstead, Manchester and Finksburg), the proposed district will encompass western Carroll County (Taneytown, Union Bridge and New Windsor) and southern Carroll County in Eldersburg down to Md. Rt. 26 (Liberty Road). Three delegates will run at-large in the new district but four Republican incumbents (Donald Elliott, Nancy Stocksdale, Susan Krebs and Justin Ready) were drawn into the three-member district.

Senate Dist. 4: The municipality of Mt. Airy and the surrounding election precincts will remain in Senate Dist. 4 (incumbent, David Brinkley), but there will no longer be a single-member delegate district in Carroll County. The bulk of Senate Dist. 4 will move into Frederick County and will have three delegates (incumbents Kathy Afzali, Michael Hough and Kelly Schultz) running at-large in the district.

Senate Dist. 9: In a similar vein, Senate Dist. 9 (incumbent, Allan Kittleman) will still include Sykesville and the surrounding area of South Carroll, but there will no longer be a single-member delegate district in Carroll County. Senate Dist. 9 moves farther into Howard County and the Carroll County portion will be part of a two-member delegate district (incumbents Gail Bates and Warren Miller) of which the majority of the population is in Howard County.

Baltimore County Senate Dist. 10, 42 and 7: Most of the Upperco area is shifted into Senate Dist. 10, which encompasses much of the western portion of Baltimore County. The new Dist. 42 runs diagonally from the northwest corner south along I-83 and into Timonium and Cockeysville. This district offers the best opportunity state-wide for the Republicans to pick up a seat in the State Senate. On the eastern side of the county, Dist. 7 picks up population at the northern and southern edge of the county boundary for a district that is principally in Harford County.

Carroll County - County Commissioner Redistricting: The districts for the Carroll County Commissioners will remain the same. There were no significant population shifts in Carroll County over the last decade and the existing districts remain within the acceptable plus-or-minus five percent range.

Baltimore County Council: The County Council completed the task of redistricting the seven council districts with the adoption of Bill 59-11 Oct. 3, 2011. Northern Baltimore County remains in Council Dist. 3. The councilmanic boundaries established by the bill become effective for the next election of council members in 2014.

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