This is a very “in the weeds” sort of diary -- for those following Maryland Congressional Redistricting …
It turns out that Donna Edwards’ concerns re. the minority population in Montgomery Co. not being represented properly were only part of the reason she wanted to keep certain areas of Montg.Co. in her MD-4. You can tell by the way her alternative proposal was drawn. Here it is:
http://www.marylandjuice.com/...
Here are some other links to this same story and the redistricting process in Maryland (the interactive map in the second Wash.Post link is pretty neat):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/...
http://www.donnaedwardsforcongress.com/
http://marylandreporter.com/...
The approx. 80,000 people out of Montg.Co. Edwards would keep in MD-4 is a very diverse population: 38% black, 21% Hispanic, 11% asian, 27% non-hisp. white (using DRA). Indeed, most of the Route 29 corridor from White Oak to Burtonsville is a minority-majority area she includes in her version of MD-4. But when you look more closely at other precincts she includes and excludes, you can see that factors other than just concern for minority voters are also at play …
For example, three precincts around the revitalized downtown Silver Spring area are included even though they are relatively very white (areas like Woodside Park and North Hills of Sligo Park): Precinct 13-066 is 75% non-hisp. white; 13-014 is 73% non-hisp. white; 13-050 is 60% non-hisp. white …
while other precincts (which are currently part of MD-4) are excluded from MD-4 under Edwards’ alternative proposal: 13-008 is only 41% non-hisp. white (and 35% black);
05-010 is only 27% non-hisp. white (and 50% black); and very noticeably, 13-022 -- which sits directly across from Langley Park in Prince George’s Co. and is the home precinct of CASA Maryland -- is only 15% non-hisp. white (and 55% hispanic, which is the second highest hispanic percentage precinct in Montg.Co.). Edwards excludes 13-022 from her proposed MD-4 while proclaiming “… (her plan) unifies the Latino/Hispanic populations on the Montgomery-Prince George's County border in one congressional district …”
In my opinion, Edwards’ plan needlessly divides both Montgomery and Howard Counties into 4 districts each, and apparently splits Prince George’s 3-ways (although you can’t see from her enclosed map) … and as State Senator Victor Ramirez said this afternoon: “Looking at O’Malley’s minority percentages in districts vs. Edwards’ minority percentages, where’s the big difference?”:
http://marylandreporter.com/...
I actually don’t blame Edwards for acting the way she has. After all, some of these areas in Montgomery are perhaps one of the main reasons she’s in Congress to begin with. When she first ran against Wynn in 2006, Edwards lost by 49.7 to 46.4. She lost PG Co. 57-40 but won 60-35 in Montg.Co. Thus, the Montgomery margin made the race appear very close overall – and enabled Edwards to keep the momentum and run again (this time successfully) in 2008. Edwards initially got some of her biggest percentages in the Silver Spring area -- and the biggest of all in some of these very progressive (though mostly white) inside-the-beltway neighborhoods. In some ways, this continues to be one of Edwards strongest areas of support. That and the fact that downtown Silver Spring with the AFI, Discovery Channel, new Fillmore Theater, etc. are all here … and I can see why she is fighting to keep this part of Montg.Co. within MD-4 -- in addition to keeping the mostly minority areas in outside-the-beltway Silver Spring. But, what her alternative plan does is that she needlessly tries to keep an area of 80,000 people that voted 83% Obama/16% McCain inside MD-4 -- voters that can indeed be the winning margin in the new MD-6 (via a domino effect through MD-8 … the way O’Malley’s map works in this neck of the woods is precisely by having these 80,000 people in either MD-8 or MD-3, and thus enabling MD-6 to then absorb other progressive areas currently in MD-8.)
One other note re. Edwards and this whole process ... (I couldn't for the life of me find the link to the story I'm quoting here, and then realized that I read it in the Oct. 17 print edition of the Washington Post and the article amazingly does not appear to have an online link ! -- if you happen to have print edition, look on front page of Metro section -- "Caucus receptive to district redraw" and see under the last part of the story, "Deciding on a target") ...
… but apparently, Hoyer and all the Maryland Congressional Democrats other than Edwards originally were pushing for a 7-1 map with MD-1 extended into PG to help blue dog Frank Kratovil regain that seat. Edwards was the only one against and must have been pretty strongly against, so the map was changed to the current configuration with MD-6 becoming the 7th Democratic seat. If true, Edwards may be inadvertently giving us the much more progressive Rob Garagiola:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/...
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/...