Posted on 10/24/2021 9:09:24 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - Three Maryland counties are calling to secede from their own state are hoping to find a new home in West Virginia.
The announcement has many asking, is this even possible?
Lawmakers from Garrett, Allegany, and Washington Counties sent letters to the West Virginia legislature stating, “We believe this arrangement may be mutually beneficial for both parties.”
Delegate Gary Howell from Mineral County says there are advantages to both states.
“For Maryland, these counties are their poorer counties and they actually send more money from Annapolis than Annapolis gets from them so they are a drain on Maryland resources. In west Virginia, it would be the exact opposite, it would benefit us,” said Howell.
But how does a proposal like this become official?
Chair of the political science department at wvu dr. John kilwein says the constitution requires both states to agree - something he says would be very unlikely.
“All states are historic but it’s a very historic state and so you’d be chopping off a bit of [maryland] at the end and you know there’s just that sense of geographic pride,” said Dr. Kilwein.
Howell says the three counties are very similar to West Virginia though.
“In fact, they’re actually more typical west Virginia counties than they are Maryland counties, so they’d fit in with us,” said Howell.
While West Virginia may be looking to reclaim the congressional seat it lost in the recent census, Kilwein says the same issue could be the very reason the move would fail.
“That’s probably why Annapolis would never agree to it because they’d probably lose a district,” said Dr. Kilwein.
The governor called for a special session in mid-November to make the offer official.
The eastern shore of MD will be the next to go, followed by rural southern MD. It would be more sensible for the counties surrounding DC and Baltimore and adjacent counties to leave the state for parts unknown. They could become part of DC. That would serve them perfectly.
I agree with Apillar. I drove through western Maryland in April 2012, and thought that was the prettiest part of the state.
Anyway, I just checked electoral maps from 2016 and 2020, and in both of those maps, all three of the counties in question voted Republican, while the high populations around Baltimore and DC carried the state for the Democrats. The article doesn’t say it, but maybe the people in those counties want to be in a red state, for a change.
Finally, transferring the three counties to West Virginia would eliminate the peculiar geography around the town of Hancock, where Maryland is only three miles wide. I stayed overnight in Hancock on the trip mentioned above. And near the motel was a Sheetz gas station; that would look better if it was in West Virginia, where so many other things are named after former senator Robert Byrd.
Can we give Memphis to Mississippi?
The proposals for western Maryland and western Virginia to join West Virginia is an East Coast equivalent of Greater Idaho, with inland portions of Oregon, Washington and far northern California joining Idaho. The liberal states will never cede the counties that wish to secede. How can Annapolis and Richmond push CRT, carbon taxes, vaccine mandates on conservative minded people if conservative counties secede for friendlier state governments?
It would keep or flip WV’s two senate seats, for one thing. :^)
I'm with you. Divide NY; https://www.divideny.org/
I am from Easton, MD. I agree about the Eastern Shore!! It is a slice of heaven.
I’m from Centreville. Howdy, neighbor!
Another MD Freak State ‘PING”! I wish they’d do it.
I grew up in Howard County. It wasn’t always this way. (says every “old” person).
Can’t say I blame them.
Several of the Republican bigwigs in Washington county are typical machine politicians, concerned with real estate wheeling and dealing, messing with the schools, etc. A lot of the huge dairy farms in the county have gone under, and the land is eyed for housing developments to handle the outflow from The Swamp, now that telecommuting is a thing.
So I doubt Washington County could leave without a huge fight.
The lefties have already cancelled the Confederate monuments out of the Antietam Battlefield, which were there for instructional purposes as much as to give honor to the confederates who died there, since our national government recognized confederate soldiers as American veterans in an act of reconciliation after the Civil War, which actually was over since 1865 until the Obama Administration.
The beautiful and hallowed grounds of Antietam Battlefield and National Park in Sharpsburg, MD, site of one of the bloodiest battles of CWI, is a main gathering place in Washington County for July 4th celebrations and other summer events utilizing their outdoor pavilion.
one of maryland’s tourism slogans is America in miniature, with every aspect of this great nation... mountains, fields, bay and ocean... not to mention communist takeovers of our cities and an out of control government of liberals.
no way they will let the mountains go.
Thank you for your commentary.
Same here. Usually a geographically astute person but but had never noticed that (and much too far away to see it from my porch). But I had heard that western Maryland is the “good part”.
Yes; there was an article in the Hagerstown paper abuot it several years ago. The major gist of it was, Frederick County (known prior to the mid-90’s and aughts as ‘Fredneck’), was all pasture and farms. Then, urban sprawl hit, and seeminly huge swaths were gobbled up by developers for new subdivisions. (I lived here during this time.) Within a few short years, they country lifestyle disappeared into suburbs and shopping malls. Fast forward fifteen years later, and it’s Washington, not Frederick county, under discussion. Family farms around Hagerstown are being sold off because those career politicians smelled more money in tax revenue than a tight-knit commmunity, so inter-generational families in the Halfway area are getting priced out of their own family land and are being forced to sell.
Very sad.
Thanks Albion Wilde.
I agree with your logic. Wish they would content themselves with a hill—they've got Capitol Hill, after all.
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