Control of Congressional Redistricting as of 2018 elections

[Nyvin]

Ohio has the redistricting reform measure, I don't think it's a non-partisan commission though.

The independent commission proposal in Utah is still ahead as of now.

Iowa is also a commission

Kentucky has wording in the state constitution about redistricting that restricts gerrymandering.

Maryland might as well be listed as D control really...

[Nyvin]

- IA has a strong commission. As said, by others, it will be respected but like all commissions, still be influenced by the republican majority.

Iowa is literally a computer that draws the lines at random.

False and false.

Maps are drawn by the legislative staff. The legislature may reject a map, but they have to give a reason. In the past, they voted down a map because it had too much deviation. It may be that they didn't like the first map for other reasons, but it was true that the second map had less deviation.

This is the commission and how it's chosen:

one member selected by the majority leader of the Iowa State Senate
one member selected by the majority leader of the Iowa House of Representatives
one member selected by the minority leader of the Iowa State Senate
one member selected by the minority leader of the Iowa House of Representatives
one member selected by the first four members

Members of the commission cannot hold partisan public office or an office in a political party, and none may be a relative or employee of a federal or state legislator (or the legislature as a whole).

I don't believe calling them "legislative staff" is accurate.   The Iowa legislature can reject the commisssion's maps,  but they can't put in changes to it,  they just have the commission draw a new map.

[Nyvin]

Maryland's AG has already appealed to SCOTUS: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/maryland-will-appeal-partisan-gerrymandering-decision-to-supreme-court/2018/11/15/e934edfa-e6af-11e8-bbdb-72fdbf9d4fed_story.html

If their map is overturned, they will make sure every map in the country where the process was controlled by one party is overturned. 

Maybe I should send these to Gov. Hogan

Yeah, because the identical case in North Carolina worked out just like that..../sarcasm

[Nyvin]

Any maps for Governor Cooper?

The governor in North Carolina has no responsibility for redistricting. He can't even call the legislature into special session by himself.

This is what I would recommend for the legislature.

Cooper has as much power as Hogan, which is to say none. Your map is a blatant gerrymander.

I’d love to see how SCOTUS rules against MD as a partisan gerrymander while leaving states like NC intact

Also pretty much illegal since it eliminates the VRA district in the northeast.

[Nyvin]

Three black seats is the most you can possibly draw,  one in Baltimore and two in the Prince Georges area.   4 would require plurality seats which the VRA most likely wouldn't permit.

[Nyvin]

Maryland's AG has already appealed to SCOTUS: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/maryland-will-appeal-partisan-gerrymandering-decision-to-supreme-court/2018/11/15/e934edfa-e6af-11e8-bbdb-72fdbf9d4fed_story.html

If their map is overturned, they will make sure every map in the country where the process was controlled by one party is overturned. 

Maybe I should send these to Gov. Hogan

Hogan is basically irrelevant in this process.  Dems have supermajorities to override his veto.

Actually he is very relavent
All he has to do is push a black friendly map and black legilsators will stab white democrats so there are more black majority districts.

It's already pretty black friendly.  Under the current map, a black would win MD-05 if open in addition to the two seats they already have.

Hogan could push for 4 black friendly seats and 1 white dem seat 1 Lean R and 2 Safe R and the black legislators would stab the whites in the back to get that extra seat.

That would be impossible and also breaks the VRA. The best MD Black Dems can hope for is the 2 VRA required black majority seats (1 each in Baltimore and DC suburbs) and 1 majority minority seat in the DC suburbs.

That's basically what already exists.  MD-05 will be won by a black when Hoyer retires.

MD-2 and MD-5 are both borderline "black friendly" district already.   The problem is to make them plurality/majority black would pretty much require removing black populations from MD-4 and MD-7, which would likely drop them below majority.

[Nyvin]

Blacks would actually be over represented with 4 seats anyway.  Maryland is only 32% Black and 4 seats would be 50% of the delegation.