Posted on 10/21/2021 5:10:32 PM PDT by buckalfa
Representatives of three Maryland counties are saying Montani Semper Liberi.
Legislators from Allegany, Garrett and Washington counties submitted a letter to West Virginia legislative leaders to explore the possibility of jumping the border.
Terrapins are always free.
Don’t take this as a land grab or a succession just yet. It’s by no means a done deal.
“These three counties in Maryland, we would welcome these counties. This is the first step. It’s early in the process if it even does happen. These counties are more like West Virginia than they are the rest of Maryland,” said West Virginia Delegate Gary Howell, R-Mineral, who has been a part of the discussions.
It is, however, a starting point for an interesting possibility. And it’s intriguing enough that it received coverage today in The Baltimore Sun newspaper.
In a short statement, the Maryland lawmakers say they seek “to open dialogue and request consideration of the possibility of these three Maryland counties to be added as constituent counties to the State of West Virginia. This letter is generated as a result of various constituent requests over the years.”
Two letters were sent to West Virginia Senate President Craig Blair and House Speaker Roger Hanshaw.
They came from delegates William Wivell of Washington County and Mike McKay of Washington and Allegany counties as well as Senator George Edwards and Delegate Wendell Beitzel, representing both Garrett and Allegany, and Jason Buckel of Allegany County. All are Republicans.
Writing of the possibility of joining up with West Virginia, they said “We believe this arrangement may be mutually beneficial for both states and for our local constituencies.
The three counties in western Maryland border West Virginia and are more mountainous and rural than their state’s urban population centers. The most populated town in the region, Hagerstown, is in Washington County. All three are within the swath covered by the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Maryland’s western counties nestle with West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, in equilibrium just below the Pennsylvania line in such a way that no professional planner would have designed.
The cousins could be comfortable uniting, Howell said.
“You could easily compare Garrett to Preston County, Allegany to Mineral and Washington to Berkeley,” said West Virginia’s Howell, making a comparison that Mountain State residents could understand.
This was all prompted by invitations that went out last year from West Virginia officials to counterparts in Virginia.
In that case, the invitation went to neighboring Frederick County, Va., one of three Virginia counties that was invited to join West Virginia in 1862 by the reformed government of Virginia, then headquartered in Wheeling, W.Va., after Virginia seceded from the Union.
Berkeley and Jefferson counties voted to join West Virginia, while Frederick County right where it was. A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1870 that affirmed West Virginia as a state suggested the invitation to Frederick County to join West Virginia remained valid.
West Virginia Delegate Howell took that possibility and ran with it, sponsoring a resolution “Admitting certain counties and independent cities of the Commonwealth of Virginia to the State of West Virginia as constituent counties.”
Howell soon found himself chatting with conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck followed by an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network.
The Virginia invitation hasn’t taken root, but now Maryland is an inkling.
Yet it’s also likely a complicated process to ever reach fruition.
“West Virginia’s process is fairly straightforward. Our constitution allows us to take on new territory with the consent of the Legislature and a vote of the people,” Howell said. But untangling what the process might be in Maryland is a whole other matter.
“First you have to knock on the door and see if the person is willing to answer before we can discuss how it would work out,” Maryland legislator McKay told The Baltimore Sun.
The title said swiping but I believe should read swapping.
Swiping right is app speak for choosing, as in a dating app.
WELL under a Congressional District’s worth of peeps.
Thank you BT, I learned something!
I think you mean secession.
Areas in Western Maryland have been thinking about seceding or creating a separate state for a while now.
Poor editing. “Succession”. LOL.
Anyway, so sad. Another desperate move by disaffected in the many conservative areas of our state.
This happens again and again. Western MD and Eastern Shore threaten to secede, or in this case, run to join another.
This includes you, right?
Go for it, Maryland!
Maybe, but enough to perhaps keep West Virginia from losing a seat and Maryland from gaining one.
Some counties in western Virginia are probably following this closely.
West, by God, Maryland makes sense to me.
Does she come with the Greater Idaho deal? Conservative states attract all the best gals. None of the liberal woke harpies, shrews or harridans want to join conservative states. We would get all the cowgirls and sharpshooters.
Looking at the map, it seems it would make eminent good sense. But Maryland would probably lose a congressional seat, and they may not like that.
Ping!
Might spread north as well.
I can envision Fulton, Bedford, and Somerset counties considering exiting the Keystone State...maybe even Franklin.
I tried to drill Marcellus shale gas wells there about a dozen years ago. The Annapolis authorities had no idea what to do with an Application to Drill a Well. Blew their tiny minds. No drilling permits were forthcoming.
I’m from Allegany County, born and raised. And the article is correct: Garrett, Allegany, and Washington counties are more like WV. Mountainous, snowy in the winter, lots of forest. By and large, people up there vote Republican. These secession movements pop up like dandelions, but have never gotten anywhere in the past. Given the divisiveness in our society these days, the disgust with the Biden Regime, and constantly being brow beaten from the Woke and COVID Karen crowd, they may just make a little noise this time. Plus, I hear WV has some pretty generous tax laws. I told my wife, I am going to buy three or four acres there and I’m building a log chalet on it. And it wasn’t a threat.
PING to some fellow Maryland Freepers at Post 18.
You’re welcome. I try to keep up with what the kids are up to these days.
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