Thursday, October 18, 2012
How will you vote on the Congressional redistricting plan on Nov. 6?
In addition to more notable referendum questions such as same-sex marriage, DREAM Act and expanded gambling, Maryland voters will also be asked to decide the fate of the state's recently redrawn congressional districts. Earlier this week, Comptroller Peter Franchot announced he intends to vote against the maps and asked voters to do the same. The comptroller said the recent maps drawn by Gov. Martin O'Malley and approved by the General Assembly are unfair and make Maryland "the poster child for gerrymandering." A spokeswoman for the governor noted that the maps have survived a number of challenges in the courts and that the process used to create them is legally sound. Voters on Nov. 6 will be asked to vote for the referred law or against …
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Comptroller says Maryland "is the poster child for gerrymandering" and urges voters to vote no on Question 5.
Democratic Comptroller Peter Franchot said Monday he supports his party's candidates but that recent redistricting of Maryland's congressional is too heavy-handed. "This map is way over the edge in terms of bare-knuckle politics," said Franchot. "I'm a proud Democrat. I support Democrats. I just want it to be fair and not fixed," Franchot said, comparing the redistricting process to "Boss Tweed-style Chicago politics." Franchot Tuesday called for an independent, non-partisan commission that would redraw the congressional and state legislative districts. The change would help restore faith in the political system, he said. The comptroller said the districts should be more compact in order to provide voters with better representation. He …
Monday, October 15, 2012
And, where does Montgomery County fit in?
The campaign season brings out the best, the worst, the most passionate and sometimes the most vitriolic political debate. It also brings out candidates making stump speeches. In Maryland, those candidates are seldom running for president. A Republican presidential candidate hasn’t claimed Maryland since George H.W. Bush in 1988. It’s been a decade since Robert L. Ehrlich became the first Republican governor elected in Maryland since Spiro Agnew was elected 35 years earlier. The numbers tell a familiar tale: The roughly two-to-one voter registration advantage that Democrats hold over Republicans. The six-to-two Democrat-to-Republican advantage in congressional seats. And yet, when you read the comments on Patch sites, you hear them: …
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Republicans offer only one amendment in the debate.
A bill redrawing eight congressional districts in Maryland moved one step closer to final passage in the Senate with a 33-13 vote Monday night. The vote, taken nearly an hour after a specially appointed 15-member Senate committee voted late Monday afternoon to approve Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan, was anticlimactic. Republicans offered just one amendment to the bill in a debate that lasted minutes rather than hours. Sen. E.J. Pipkin's amendment would have stripped out O'Malley's plan in favor of Pipkin's, which added a third majority minority district and kept intact the two Republican districts. In the end, the Senate voted 13-33 to kill the amendment. Sen. Jim Brochin, of Towson, was the lone Democrat joining Republicans on both votes. …
Dana Schwartz
2:33 am on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
How can there be so many jerks in this state? This was not about Dems vs Reps, it was about disenfranchisement and too much power in the hands of people we didn't vote for! Very disappointed. It's an embarrassment being "the most gerrymandered state in the US". It's time for an amendment instituting term limits for MD legislators! more ›