Tuesday Governor Larry Hogan issued an executive order establishing an independent redistricting commission. This commission will be charged with recommending boundaries for the next round of redistricting and is part of an ongoing effort to maintain competition among the state’s congressional and legislative districts.
According to the Governor’s press release, the commission will mark a historic first in the state, as Governor Hogan maintains that,
“Unlike the partisan, backdoor manner in which our state’s political power brokers have conducted the state’s redistricting process, we want to make sure that this time the people of Maryland are actually the ones drawing these lines—not the politicians or the party bosses.”
The commission will consist of an even split of three Republicans, three Democrats, and three independents, with the remaining six members to be selected from a pool of citizen applications. Three co-chairs have already been announced, and the appointments are as follows:
- Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. (retired judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland)
- Dr. Kathleen Hetherington (president of Howard Community College)
- Walter Olson (senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies)
The executive order further calls for regional summits wherein citizens will be allowed to comment on congressional and legislative maps, and the maps themselves will be made to comply with a set of criteria, which includes:
- Compliance with the U.S. Constitution and Voting Rights Act of 1965
- Respect for natural boundaries and geographic integrity
- Disregard for citizen party affiliation
Watch press conference.
View the slides from the press conference.
Additional coverage can be found in the following publications:
