A new redistricting map designed to add a seventh Democrat to Maryland’s congressional delegation has been approved by the state legislature, but it’s expected to draw lawsuits, according to a report Thursday in the
Baltimore Sun.
The Sun said the new map was passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature despite Republican opposition, criticism from both conservative and liberal groups, and anger from some suburban Democrats bordering Washington, D.C., who complained that at least one liberal district has been redrawn to include more Republican-leaning areas.
”It is an emotional process,” Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch told reporters shortly after the vote. “If you were to say it is a gerrymandered map, you started with a gerrymandered map. There is not a perfect process.”
The Sun reported that House Majority Leader Kumar Barve told his colleagues on the floor that redistricting map is almost certain to face lawsuits.
“It will be challenged in court,” the Sun quoted him as saying. “But every plan is challenged in court. It is part of the process.”
Republicans served notice that they would be among the first to mount a challenge because the redrawn map shifts suburban Democrats in Montgomery County into the conservative 6th District, endangering GOP Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett who now holds the seat.
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