MENU

Sections

  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Editors and Writers
    • Join our Mailing List
    • Letters to Editor Policy
    • Advertising & Underwriting
    • Code of Ethics
    • Privacy
    • Talbot Spy Terms of Use
  • Art and Design
  • Culture and Local Life
  • Public Affairs
    • Ecosystem
    • Education
    • Health
    • Senior Life
  • Community Opinion
  • Sign up for Free Subscription
  • Donate to the Talbot Spy
  • Cambridge Spy

More

  • Support the Spy
  • About Spy Community Media
  • Advertising with the Spy
  • Subscribe
June 21, 2025

Talbot Spy

Nonpartisan Education-based News for Talbot County Community

  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Editors and Writers
    • Join our Mailing List
    • Letters to Editor Policy
    • Advertising & Underwriting
    • Code of Ethics
    • Privacy
    • Talbot Spy Terms of Use
  • Art and Design
  • Culture and Local Life
  • Public Affairs
    • Ecosystem
    • Education
    • Health
    • Senior Life
  • Community Opinion
  • Sign up for Free Subscription
  • Donate to the Talbot Spy
  • Cambridge Spy
3 Top Story

Hogan-Aligned Group Announces Plans for Lawsuit Against Just-Approved Congressional Redistricting Plan

December 9, 2021 by Maryland Matters

An organization with ties to Republican Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. announced Wednesday that it will seek to overturn the congressional redistricting plan approved by the Democratic supermajority in the General Assembly.

The announcement, from Fair Maps Maryland, came just moments after the state Senate followed the House of Delegates in voting to accept a map drawn by a legislative panel made up of four Democratic leaders, two Republican leaders and a non-voting former top staffer.

Under that map, crafted by Legislative Redistricting Advisory Committee (LRAC), Democrats would maintain electoral advantages in seven of the state’s eight congressional districts.

Many of those districts would be abstractly shaped, in keeping with the long practice of both parties to maximize the once-a-decade map-drawing process for maximum benefit.

The biggest changes from the state’s current congressional map involve the Eastern Shore-based 1st District, represented by Rep. Andrew P. Harris (R), a Trump-aligned conservative. It was refashioned by the Assembly to pull in portions of Anne Arundel County, giving it a roughly equal number of Republicans and Democratic voters.

The congressional map adopted by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission. Screenshot from the Maryland General Assembly website.

In announcing its plan to sue, Fair Maps Maryland spokesman Doug Mayer said, “this level of gerrymandering is voter suppression.”

According to Maryland State Board of Elections voter registration statistics, about 55% of Maryland voters are Democrats and 24% are Republicans.

“It’s a sad day in Maryland,” said Mayer, a Hogan strategist and former communications director, in a statement. “The General Assembly has ignored the will of the overwhelming majority of Marylanders.”

He said the organization has hired attorneys to pursue “suits on both the state and federal levels that will prosecute the obvious Voting Rights Act and many other illegal partisan partisan gerrymandering violations.”

Many courts have been reluctant to wade into the politically charged districting process — and while Maryland’s districts may be ungainly, success in court is far from guaranteed.

“A lot depends on how willing courts are going to be to create new causes of action and how — I’ll be frank — how politicized the courts are,” said Michael Li, senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “Some courts are more willing to be honest brokers and some are very partisan.”

In January, Hogan created the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission (MCRC), made up of three Republicans, three Democrats and three independents. Lawmakers held a hearing but didn’t vote on the panel’s proposal, and rejected GOP amendments to replace the legislature’s map with the MCRC proposal.

Because Democrats have long had lopsided advantages in both chambers of the legislature, it has been a forgone conclusion for years that they would have the votes to do as they please when the once-a-decade process of redrawing the state’s congressional districts rolled around.

Cognizant of that reality, Republicans in the General Assembly have been plotting their post-session strategy for some time. Their hope is to find something in the LRAC map that violates state or federal law.

In an interview on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Jason C. Buckel (R-Allegany) conceded that the Supreme Court’s refusal — in Benisek vs. Lamone — to strike down Maryland’s 2011 redistricting plan creates challenges.

“Under the Benisek decision, you don’t really have partisan gerrymandering claims in federal court that are cognizable under the Equal Protection Act or other clauses,” he said. “But I think it’s an open question whether you do under Maryland law — under our free and fair elections clause, which really has never been interpreted in this context.”

Sen. Michael Hough (R-Frederick) suggested attorneys will consider asking the Maryland Court of Appeals to apply the requirement that state legislative districts be compact to congressional districts, a strategy that gerrymandering foes have pursued successfully in other states.

“That happened in Pennsylvania and North Carolina,” he said. “They basically took the constitutions of those states and applied them to the federal maps. If they used the state standards of continuity and compactness, that would be your best case of getting in front of a state court.”

“The federal courts aren’t going to get involved,” he predicted.

Buckel also conceded that race-based challenges under the federal Voting Rights Act are unlikely to succeed. “It tends to neither unduly pack [voters of color] so you’re isolating them… and they’re also not cracking those communities,” he said of the map lawmakers approved.

At Monday’s public hearing on the dueling redistricting proposals, Del. Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore and Harford counties) asked LRAC Chair Karl Aro and a legislative staffer to disclose who guided them through the map-drawing process.

“Someone had to put their finger on the mouse,” the former House minority whip said. “Who did that?”

“We have various staff,” senior legislative analyst Michelle Davis replied.

In an interview, Szeliga said Republicans will seek to determine, through litigation, the motives used to craft the legislature’s map.

“Everything that they said in that hearing, I’m sure there will be depositions that will further investigate what the people [in the Department of Legislative Services] did to create these maps,” she said.

“We will find out about the computer program they used,” Szeliga added. “We will find out who clicked the mouse.”

By Bruce DePuyt

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 3 Top Story Tagged With: Congress, congressional, districts, general assembly, map, Maryland, redistricting

On Special Session’s First Day, Lawmakers Advance Democratic Congressional Map

December 7, 2021 by Maryland Matters

On the first day of a special session, the Maryland General Assembly took steps to advance a congressional redistricting proposal that is likely to replicate the current split in the state’s U.S. House delegation — seven Democrats and one Republican.

After more than two hours of public testimony, the House Rules Committee voted 18-6 on Monday in support of House Bill 1, setting the stage for further action later in the week.

HB1 was crafted by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission (LRAC), a panel made up of House and Senate leaders — four Democrats, two Republicans and a non-voting chairman, a former top staffer.

The congressional map adopted by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission. Screenshot from the Maryland General Assembly website.

In its current form, the measure would make a series of noticeable changes to the state’s current — and controversial — congressional map. But like that map, in use since 2012 and the subject of much litigation, several districts wander the state in circuitous fashion.

Republicans and gerrymandering foes have criticized the proposal, saying it still comes off looking like a map drafted by politicians in search of electoral advantage.

Undaunted, House Majority Leader Eric G. Luedtke (D-Montgomery), a member of the LRAC, told his colleagues the proposal represents an improvement over the current map.

“This map is more compact and contiguous and continues our decades-long commitment to diverse representation…,” he said. “Six of the eight districts under this map are more competitive than they are under the current map.”

Luedtke also said HB1 (and the companion Senate Bill 1) “keeps significant majorities” of voters in their current districts.

Karl Aro, former head of the Department of Legislative Services and the chair of the LRAC, said voters “don’t necessarily like current lines, but they do like their current representation.”

The full House could act on the measure as early as today.

Monday’s vote in House Rules followed a joint hearing with the Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee. The lopsided nature of the vote reinforced the strong hand that Democrats hold in the politically charged process of redrawing the state’s congressional districts.

Republicans — including Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. — have acknowledged for weeks that Democrats have the numbers to work their will at this stage in the process. If the map preferred by legislative leaders and their allies in Congress is to be stopped, it is likely to be in the courts, GOP officials have said.

A map crafted by a second panel, the Hogan-created Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission (MCRC), differed greatly from the legislature’s.

The nine-member MCRC consisted of an equal number of Democrats, Republicans and independents and adopted a start-from-scratch approach. Their proposal, House Bill 2/Senate Bill 2, contains districts that are far more compact and intuitive.

Stanford University law professor Nathaniel Persily, a nationally-recognized redistricting expert who assisted the MCRC, praised the panel for the way it went about its business — and the map it ultimately produced.

At Monday’s meeting he said the panel’s maps achieved Voting Rights Act compliance “without having to sort of draw contorted districts” and minimizing county splits.

“It is refreshing to see this kind of bipartisan and independent work being done in the public interest,” he said. “It really is a model for how this work could be done in the future.”

House Bill 2 did not receive a vote on Monday. Members of the Senate Republican Caucus told reporters that they intend to introduce the MCRC alternative as a substitute when the legislature’s preferred bill reaches the Senate floor later this week.

In an interview, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), who served on the LRAC, appeared unmoved by complaints that the commission’s work product isn’t “pretty.”

“I don’t think that pretty is a standard in any statutory or constitutional authority,” he said. “What it is about is ensuring that communities of interest are protected and that Marylanders are accurately reflected in the maps that are passed.”

Many of the people who testified on Monday said they prefer the tighter, cleaner approach taken by the MCRC.

“The citizens commission did a fantastic job defining a fair map for everyone,” said Deb Rey, a former Republican state delegate from St. Mary’s County. “It’s bipartisan. They quickly responded to citizen input. The districts are compact, keeping all but five counties whole and in one district. And each district total is within one person. I am amazed by that.”

District 1’s Bay Watch

The most high-profile change the LRAC map makes is the inclusion of parts of Anne Arundel County in the 1st District, the seat currently held by conservative Rep. Andrew P. Harris (R).

The LRAC’s 1st District has a 51% edge for Democrats and has the potential to make Harris’s re-election bid more competitive. A Trump-aligned conservative, he is the lone Republican in the Maryland congressional delegation.

A handful of 1st District residents told lawmakers they should include even more of Anne Arundel County in the 1st Congressional District, to create a true Bay-centered district.

“The eastern shore has a lot more in common with Annapolis… than some of those northern areas that are close to Pennsylvania,” said Louise Miller, a Chestertown resident, a reference to the district’s current lines.

She said she regularly visits Annapolis and noted that many Eastern Shore residents commute there.

Luedtke insisted that the LRAC proposal has a lot going for it:

  • Western Maryland’s 6th District, which he dubbed a “Potomac district,” “would pull in more of Frederick County while uniting communities along the river.
  • Anne Arundel and Baltimore Counties would be split into three ways, instead of the current four.
  • The lines in Baltimore City “are significantly more functional.”
  • Fast-growing Howard County “becomes the center of a newly-drawn 3rd District” and Columbia is united into a single district.
  • Prince George’s County dominates two districts.

“County lines drawn by colonial surveyors 300 years ago simply aren’t an accurate reflection of how people live their lives in modern-day Maryland,” Luedtke said.

By Bruce DePuyt, Bennett Leckrone, and Josh Kurtz

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 3 Top Story Tagged With: Congress, congressional, districts, house of delegates, map, Maryland, redistricting, special session

Congressional Redistricting: A History of Jumping the Bay

December 4, 2021 by Maryland Matters

The Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission, created by legislative leaders to draw up congressional and legislative maps for the General Assembly to consider, proposed a 1st Congressional District that would cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to include portions of Anne Arundel County with the Eastern Shore.

The 1st District currently loops north through Harford County, but crossing the Chesapeake Bay in congressional maps is nothing new. Prior to the current maps, the 1st District crossed the bay into either Anne Arundel County or southern Maryland for decades.

Proponents of such a configuration argue the Eastern Shore and Anne Arundel County are intrinsically connected via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, since many commute daily between the two regions for work and shopping.

“Both regions have the same economic and environmental interest in protecting the Bay,” Anne Arundel County resident Marnette Finn said at a Nov. 15 Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission virtual hearing.

Many who testified at that statewide virtual public hearing in November also urged lawmakers to draw a more competitive 1st District to challenge incumbent Rep. Andrew P. Harris, the state’s lone congressional Republican, citing his vote against certifying the 2020 election results after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Wayne T. Gilchrest, a Republican former congressman who represented the 1st District from 1991 until 2009, said the 1st District proposed by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission is “very similar” to the districts he represented, which also included parts of Anne Arundel County.

“I think they’re connected by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge,” Gilchrest said, “And yes, they are contiguous if you want to look at it that way.”

Gilchrest noted that the Eastern Shore of Maryland doesn’t have a high enough population to justify its own congressional district.

He was ousted by Harris in the 2008 primary elections. Harris subsequently lost to Democratic contender Frank Kratovil, but ran again and won in 2010 by a wide margin.

The 1st District was redrawn to be more solidly Republican in 2012, with Democratic lawmakers opting to draw a Democratic-leaning 6th District in Western Maryland at the time to achieve a 7-1 advantage. Harris has handily won reelection in the current 1st District since.

Under the congressional map proposed by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission, however, the 1st District is slated to become significantly more competitive, though it doesn’t favor Democrats as much as another configuration the panel was mulling. According to the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which gave the map an “F” grade, the proposed 1st District favors Democrats by a thin margin, roughly 51% to 49%.

In the congressional map proposed by Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, which was created by Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R), the 1st District does not cross the Bay at Anne Arundel County but instead includes Harford County and northern Baltimore County.

Here’s a brief history of the 1st Congressional District’s boundaries and when they’ve crossed the Chesapeake Bay in the past. All maps were provided by the Maryland Department of Planning.

1966-1970: The first crossing

The 1966 congressional map marked a shift away from districts that strictly adhered to county boundaries in Maryland following Maryland Citizens Committee for Fair Congressional Redistricting v. Tawes, a court case influenced by the 1964 Wesberry v. Sanders U.S. Supreme Court case, in which justices ruled that U.S. House of Representatives districts need to be roughly equal in population.

Congressional districts had been held steady for decades before that court case. The 1st District had long included only the Eastern Shore, starting with Cecil County in the north and extending south to the border with Virginia. In the consequential 1966 map, the Eastern Shore was kept whole but a large portion of Anne Arundel County, alongside all of Calvert and St. Mary’s counties, were added to the 1st District.

1972-1990: Southern Maryland with the Eastern Shore

In the two subsequent rounds of redistricting, Anne Arundel County was kept with portions of Prince George’s County and the 1st Congressional District crossed at Calvert County rather than at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Between 1972 and 1990, Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties were kept whole and included with the Eastern Shore. Harford County was entirely included with the Eastern Shore in the 1972-1980 map, while just roughly the western half of the county was included in the 1st District between 1982 and 1990.

1992-2000: Crossing returns to Anne Arundel County and parts of Baltimore City

In 1992, Democratic U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer’s 5th District began to take on its current, familiar shape, encompassing all of southern Maryland and looping up to include the area around College Park in Prince George’s County. It also took in large portions of western Anne Arundel County and parts of southern and eastern Prince George’s County.

The portion of the 1st District on the western shore was drastically reduced, including parts of central and northern Anne Arundel County and a small portion of far southern Baltimore City. This configuration included Harford County with the 2nd District as opposed to with the Eastern Shore.

As recently as 2000, this map resulted in a 4-4 partisan breakdown, with the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 8th districts electing Republicans.

2002-2010: The most recent crossing at Anne Arundel County

The 2002 map included even less of Anne Arundel County with the 1st District. The 1st District also began to take in more of northeastern Maryland, snaking through central Harford County and reaching portions of Baltimore County, where Harris resides.

This map favored Democrats 6-2.

2012-present

The current map is the first to not cross the Chesapeake Bay at Anne Arundel County in decades, and instead includes a larger portion of northeastern Maryland. A large portion of Harford County, parts of Baltimore County and the northern and eastern portions of Carroll County are all included in the 1st District as it is currently drawn.

This represents the state’s current 7-1 partisan breakdown after the 6th District was redrawn to favor Democrats.

Bonus: Every congressional map in Maryland’s history

Here’s every congressional map Maryland has ever had. Note that the number of U.S. Representatives has varied over the years.

By Bennett Leckrone

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 3 Top Story Tagged With: Chesapeake Bay, Congress, congressional, crossing, districts, Eastern Shore, map, Maryland, redistricting

Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission Releases Four ‘Concept’ Congressional Maps for Public Comment

November 11, 2021 by Maryland Matters

The Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission released four draft concept congressional maps Tuesday evening.

The redistricting panel, convened by Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) is tasked with drawing up congressional and legislative maps for the General Assembly to consider. Lawmakers are set to return to Annapolis on Dec. 6 for a special session to handle congressional redistricting.

The four conceptual congressional maps are available online alongside information about the population and racial makeup of each district — but not the partisan political breakdown. Some of the configurations are vast departures from current maps, including two draft maps of a 1st District that crosses the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to include portions of Anne Arundel County alongside the Eastern Shore.

LRAC congressional plan 1

LRAC congressional plan 2

LRAC congressional plan 3

LRAC congressional plan 4

 

Commission Chair Karl Aro, a former head of the nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services, said in a statement that the conceptual maps are a baseline for public comment and based on testimony the commission has received in their public hearings so far.

“The approach that this commission has taken is to create a set of four Congressional map concepts for public comment,” Aro said. “It is our belief that Marylanders should see and comment on more than just a single map. Each of these four concepts represent a starting point for an approach that was grounded in testimony the commission heard.”

Aro added that, “to the extent practicable,” the maps aim to keep Marylanders in their current congressional districts.

“Portions of these districts have remained intact for at least 30 years and reflect a commitment to following the Voting Rights Act, protecting existing communities of interest, and utilizing existing natural and political boundaries,” Aro said. “It is our sincere intention to dramatically improve upon our current map while keeping many of the bonds that have been forged over 30 years or more of shared representation and coordination.”

Dave Wasserman, the House analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report tweeted Tuesday that the four congressional maps include “two that would essentially leave Rep. Andy Harris (R) safe and two weak gerrymanders that could still give him a path to reelection.”

Wasserman wrote that the third map proposal would flip Harris’ 1st District from “Trump +20 to Biden +10 — about as blue as Virginia.”

“That’s pretty surprising, considering MD Dems could easily make it Biden +15 or more and have shown little restraint gerrymandering the state in the past,” Wasserman wrote.

The General Assembly, where Democrats hold a veto-proof majority in both the House of Delegates and the state Senate, will have the final say over redistricting in Maryland.

Marylanders who testified at the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission’s previous public meetings have urged the commission to release draft maps to the public, arguing that the public should have a chance to weigh in before the proposal heads to the General Assembly.

“It seems rather difficult for people to comment on the basis of a blank map,” Jacqueline Coolidge of the League of Women Voters told the panel at an online hearing in early October.

Ferguson and Jones issued a joint statement on Twitter after the release of the maps and said they were pleased the maps were released now, “providing the public with several weeks for input and reaction.”

“Continuing our open and transparent process, we encourage all Marylanders to provide testimony and feedback on these concepts during our upcoming statewide virtual hearing this Monday at 6 p.m. and through the LRAC email address in the coming weeks.”

Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) created a separate panel, the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, to draw up congressional and legislative maps that he will propose to the General Assembly. That commission, which included three Republicans, three Democrats and three unaffiliated voters, finalized its redistricting proposal earlier this month.The congressional and legislative maps proposed by the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission are available online.

Hogan can veto congressional maps, and previously said he would oppose maps from the General Assembly that “don’t follow what the Citizens Redistricting Commission has come up with.” While Hogan could veto the congressional maps, Democrats easily overrode his vetoes on several measures during the 2021 legislative session.

Commission members will hold a statewide virtual public hearing at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 15. Email testimony may be sent to [email protected].

By Bennett Leckrone and Danielle E. Gaines

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: Congress, congressional, districts, gerrymander, map, maps, Maryland, redistricting

Maps of Easton’s Rails-to-Trails Network

December 22, 2020 by Spy Desk

The Easton Rails-to-Trails opened in 1998 with a nearly 3-mile trail spanning most of Easton running north to south. The trail has been a popular spot for walking, jogging, biking, and sightseeing.

The trail provides access to local stores, parks, destinations, and schools. The original railroad station (converted into Town of Easton offices) is near the midpoint of the trail near Goldsborough Street.

Parking for the trail may be found in Idlewild Park (115 Idlewild Ave). Bike or walk two blocks east from the park to access the trail. Parking is also available next to the Talbot County Public Schools building (12 Magnolia St.) and the North Easton Sports Complex (1078 N. Washington St.)

Over the years, the town has added a western spur that goes to Easton Point and recently celebrated the opening of the Easton Village portion of the trail, which includes a footbridge across the Tred Avon River connecting Easton with new housing developments to the west.

Additional plans include building a small parking lot for the trail in Waterside Village, near the St. Michaels road traffic signal. When complete, there will be five and a half miles of trail in the town of Easton.

Note: All Town of Easton parks are open sunrise to sunset.

Town-of-Easton-Rail-Trail-System

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 2 News Homepage Tagged With: Biking, Easton, jogging, map, outdoors, rails-to-trails, trail, walking

Copyright © 2025

Affiliated News

  • The Chestertown Spy
  • The Talbot Spy

Sections

  • Arts
  • Culture
  • Ecosystem
  • Education
  • Mid-Shore Health
  • Culture and Local Life
  • Shore Recovery
  • Spy Senior Nation

Spy Community Media

  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • Advertising & Underwriting

Copyright © 2025 · Spy Community Media Child Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in