Todd Eberly's 2011 Blog
NOTE: The blog below was published in The FreeStater Blog 13 years ago. It could be the second publication about my campaign against gerrymandering.
In Maryland, the "Gorrell Map" Deserves Public Consideration
Posted by Todd Eberly on October 10, 2011
The Congressional Redistricting Plan of 2012 will be scheduled to be heard before the joint hearing of the Maryland General Assembly's Senate Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting and House Rules and Executive Nominations on Monday, October 17th at 1 pm. The public is welcome to testify. Though I have prepared a rough map draft, I have not prepared a precinct-specific map that would be available for consideration and adoption.
Rather, I am encouraging members of the Assembly and the public to seriously consider a map prepared by the only Maryland citizen (other than the commission members) who has attended every meeting of the Governor's Redistricting Advisory Commission. The man is Howard Gorrell. As reported by various news outlets:
Gorrell’s message from first to last was fairly simple: No gerrymandering. No drawing of lines for political gain.
Election districts should be compact, and they should follow geographic and natural boundaries, he maintained. Counties should be kept whole and not cut up. And when parts of other counties must be added to make the population equal, he proposed adding clusters of high schools and their feeder schools.
Under Gorrell’s proposal, the 1st Congressional District would include 10 counties from Worcester north to Harford, and adding the Hereford school district in Baltimore County. The 6th would head east from Garrett to Carroll, with three school clusters added from Montgomery County. The 2nd would include almost all of Baltimore County, and the 3rd would encompass the entire Baltimore City, plus clusters in the county.
Using Census numbers, precinct-specific data, a calculator, and a magnifying glass, Gorrell designed a new district map of Maryland that truly represents the state's diversity. His decision to rely on the school district as the basic unit of "community" represents a true understanding of the building blocks of neighborhoods and common ground.
By now, it should be clear that there is a growing chorus of opposition to the Redistricting Commission's proposed map of Maryland - and the most vocal opposition is not coming from Republicans. As reported by the Washington Post, "Montgomery County Council Democrats find Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed gerrymandering of their home turf so outrageous that they are publicly coming out against it." The Post is even running a "Name that District" contest in honor of the ridiculous 3rd Congressional District. And Capital reporter Eric Hartley attempted to drive the 3rd district - only to discover that you cannot - "When you design districts for politics, not because you're trying to include major population centers or be geographically consistent, this is what you're left with: a district that includes boarded-up rowhouses in south Baltimore and million-dollar mansions in Howard County."
The Gorrell map deserves public consideration, and I hope that it does. It's an impressive proposal that, quite frankly, puts the Redistricting Committee's proposal to shame (then again, spilling a bottle of ink on a map of Maryland is likely to produce a map better than the Commission's).
The Gorrell proposal differs from my own in many ways, but I think that he has captured Maryland just as well - whereas I tried to keep counties together at all costs, Gorrell opted to cross county lines when justified and necessary. His use of school districts was a great way to keep community connections intact even when crossing county lines.
Todd E. Eberly is the Chair of the Political Science Department, an Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, and Coordinator of the Democracy Studies program at St. Mary's College of Maryland.
Afterward:
In his email to me on December 18, 2017, Todd Elbery wrote, “And I still think school clusters is a good way to define "communities of interest."
On January 3, 2019, Maryland Matter published my commentary: How to Fix the 6th Congressional District.
Maryland Matter ran my opinion on February 11, 2021: How ‘Communities of Interest’ May Factor in Md. Congressional Redistricting.
On May 23, 2023, I wrote the commentary for The Fulcrum: Ending gerrymandering by using school districts in drawing congressional maps.