As redistricting looms, Anne Arundel can expect to get carved up again

Anne Arundel County is divided among four congressional districts. It’s been that way for decades, and even though there is no modern history of the county being represented by just one member in the House of Representatives, four does seem excessive.

While we have endorsed the reelection of all four current Congress members for the good work they’ve done in representing the county, it continues to rankle that none live here. None of them experience life from the vantage point of this community.

So, as Maryland prepares to start the decennial process of redistricting its congressional districts, hope stirs that something might change.

Maryland’s congressional districts are among the most gerrymandered in the nation. They’ve been the subject of failed court challenges and the 3rd District — which combines Annapolis and Gibson Island with parts of Baltimore City as well as Baltimore, Montgomery and Howard counties — has been compared to a “brokenwinged pterodactyl, lying prostrate across the center of the state.”

The goal of this carving, of course, is to suppress the voice of Republican and conservative independent voters in Anne Arundel County and across Democratic-majority Maryland. Look at the 4th District, which combines the Republican-rich

precincts in Severna Park and Pasadena with Prince George’s county — where the Democratic voter majority is counted above 95%.

Despite the announcement of a redistricting commission this week by Gov. Larry Hogan, there is no reason to suspect that calculation has shifted among the new leaders of the General Assembly.

Hope should probably expect to be disappointed and take a seat.

The late Speaker of the House Mike Busch, the Annapolis Democrat who was a leading force in creating the current map, was fond of saying that Maryland would reform its redistricting system when reform came to Virginia, Pennsylvania and other states in the region.

It is important to remember that Hogan rejected Busch’s maxim on reform.

In 2017, Democrats passed a bill that would have required the state to use a nonpartisan redistricting process, but only if five surrounding states chose the same process. Hogan vetoed that bill, dismissing it as a “political ploy.”

Hogan is right that the current process is unfair. The governor gets to propose both the General Assembly and congressional district maps. State lawmakers can substitute their own General Assembly map. To change a congressional map, they have to pass their own bill and possibly muster the three-fifths vote needed to override a veto.

Given the overwhelming Democratic majority, that last possibility seems like a certainty.

The governor, no matter his good intent, is wrong to expect change to come from within the state.

Shortly after Hogan’s announcement, Senate President Bill Ferguson made it clear the status quo will remain in Maryland until Washington, perhaps under President-elect Joe Biden and a Democratic Congress.

The result is that Anne Arundel County can expect to remain carved up among four districts. Perhaps the details will change. Democrats could involve some Democratic precincts from Anne Arundel in a redrawn 1st District to prevent a continuance of Rep. Andy Harris’ infamous career in Washington. Democratic voter registration is growing in this county.

But drawing the boundaries with such goals, rather than creating compact districts with common interests, does nothing but encourage the election of candidates far from the center.

Barring significant reform from Washington, we predict Anne Arundel will remain divided among four districts in the coming process.