Posted on 12/24/2011 11:23:29 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
ANNAPOLIS — Black voters and lawmakers said Thursday that a proposed state-level redistricting map provides too few majority-black districts and would lead to continued underrepresentation of minorities in the General Assembly.
The testimony was given during a public hearing held by Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, and his appointed redistricting panel, which remapped Maryland’s 47 state Senate districts to account for population changes in the past decade.
The panel submitted the map last week and touted the strides it would make toward improving minority representation by increasing the number of majority-black districts from 10 to 12 and increasing the number of majority-minority districts to 16.
Many speakers at the hearing, however, said the changes aren’t enough, that communities were split to dilute black influence in some cases and that population numbers indicate Maryland should have no fewer than 14 majority-black districts.
“I believe we have a good product,” said Sen. C. Anthony Muse, Prince George’s Democrat. “But I also believe we can do better.”
More than 25 people spoke at the three-hour hearing, which was attended by as many as 100 people in a nearly packed joint legislative hearing room in the building of the Department of Legislative Services.
Most concerns focused on the map’s proposed changes in Prince George’s County and Baltimore.
Many of the speakers argued that the state undercompensated for the growing black population in Prince George’s, left Baltimore vulnerable to losing one of its six senators and did less to protect black communities from split representation than it did for many white communities.
“There is concern that the way that it was done is maybe not the most appropriate,” said Sen. Verna L. Jones-Rodwell, a Baltimore Democrat whose district would be relocated largely to Baltimore County to account for the city’s lost residents.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Of course he is. Protecting black Democrats will only increase the odds of Republicans winning surrounding districts through “bleaching” of the electorate.
MD is 29.4% black and around 57% Democrat. Assuming blacks are 28% of the electorate and vote 90% Democrat (which, if anything, understates the black turnout and propensity to vote Dem in MD), that means that non-blacks in MD (a group overwhelmingly composed of whites) vote 56% Republican and 44% Democrat. And since whites in southern Montgomery County and inner-city Baltimore are heavily Democrat, that means that whites outside those areas are over 60% Republican. So RATs need to make sure that districts are at least 25% Dem (at least 35% Dem in rural areas) if they want to win. And to draw districts that are 25%-35% black, they need to minimize the number of black-majority districts they draw, and minimize the black percentage even in the few black-majority districts that they countenance. That’s why MD blacks are getting the shaft from Democrats, and the same thing happens in just about every state the Dems control.
Is there a majority conservative district in Maryland?
This map is for the state legisl00ture.
Majority-black districts destroy the State? If anything, they enhance the State, since those districts WILL elect Democrats (party of big, quasi-Marxist government).
What strange politics? I believe the Blacks might have gotten all 14 of “their” districts, had they not opposed the gay marriage bill.
Basically, anything outside Baltimore, MontyCo, PG Co, and Howard Co.
“Maryland redistricting plan hit by blacks” which mneans it hurts Democrats - nice Christ-mass gift.
Thats my understanding of this. The white dems are trying to dilute the black vote with crazy shaped districts so that they can eliminate a few republican seats.
Republicans and black dems are working together to prevent this from happening.
All this from the same folks who supported white
liberal candidates over the likes of a black
Republican like Michael Steele.
Okay so that is the western part of the state and the eastern shore?
Essentially, but there are large pockets stuck in the middle. The liberal pull of the central pockets is very strong and proves the usefulness of the principle of electoral colleges as well as equal vs. weighted representation. People in the more conservative parts - which is the majority - feel screwed by a few square miles.
Mostly Republican.
So Maryland has some gerryandered districts? Here, Florida has a state seate seat that go through St. Pete’s black area, Tampa’s black area, and the Hispanic area of Hillsborough County. Somehow, it misses the Apollo Beach area (average home prices 300k) and the retirement areas, both Republican areas.
LOL - you can’t get worse than this. I’ve lived all my life in this ridiculous district:
I’m still pissed about the Congressional map. By putting more of Montco in it they manged to dilute the McCain % in the 6th to 42%. By my estimation the Bush % should be 5-7 points higher than that, a tie with Kerry at best.
That district looks like a child drew it up. It looks like it is about 5 miles across, if nnot les.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b9/IL17_109.gif
That's Illinois-17, designed to help a certain minority population. Let's put it this way: that district went to Obama 56%-42%. The "neighboring" 18th District went to McCain 50%-48% (and he sucked as a candidate, as we all know). The 18th went for Bush in '04 by 58%-42%, while the 17th went for Kerry that year. Ahhh, the wonders of gerrymandering...
In those “connector” areas you see, it is or has been (they’re constantly fiddling with these things) often just 1 street. That 1 street may connect bloated areas 10-15 mi wide.
It is absolutely horrendously absurd.
All we need is some geometrical language in there to get more logical, normal zones.
I agree we need to get normal lines, not these jigsaw shaped districts. Yes, it might help Republicans, but shouldn’t we try to getthe message about Empowerment to the blacks?
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