US House Redistricting: Maryland

[minionofmidas]

SECTION 1. (a) The people reserve to themselves power known as The Referendum, by petition to have submitted to the registered voters of the State, to approve or reject at the polls, any Act, or part of any Act of the General Assembly, if approved by the Governor, or, if passed by the General Assembly over the veto of the Governor;



Hmm.

What are the petition requirements for Maryland in terms of signatures?

Also, there's the major question of time schedules. Not all states have early primaries and filing deadlines. Maybe in Maryland there would be time to just pass a new cleaner map that is still a gerry.
I don't know any of that; it needs to be researched. -_-

[minionofmidas]

of whom not more than half are residents of Baltimore City

That anachronism is kind of amusing and sad.

You omitted the rest of that sentence... "of Baltimore City, or any one County"

Still kind of amusing and sad. (And, given the very different county sizes and party strenghts, I wonder how it complies with OMOV. ) But Baltimore City used to be half of Maryland, a century ago.

[minionofmidas]

Donna Edwards is a true FF, but then that's not news.

And FF's don't tend to fare so greatly in American politics. Or those of any other country.

There needs to be a referendum. I can't think of an uglier gerrymander in recent memory. Even the 2001 districts were much better than this.

They were just as bad, really. That is to say, they were truly, utterly, horrid.

[minionofmidas]

Considering Sarbanes wasn't even a rep then, no it's not. The main reason is how intent the Democrats were on making a seat that Ehlrich could not possibly win.

Isn't Ben Cardin also from Baltimore? Somebody have a link to the 90s map?

[minionofmidas]

Wow, that second district was fairly bizarre already. Who drew that map? Bipartisan incumbent protection gerry (with Morella non-gerrymandered since hers was a special case)?

[minionofmidas]

Alas, that sadly is not a legally valid argument.