Hogan’s redistricting panel co-chair says state should be national model

ANNAPOLIS – The Democratic co-chair of the Republican governor’s commission to redraw a western Maryland congressional district found to be unconstitutionally partisan toward Democrats urged the panel’s members Friday to fairly, independently and transparently create a model district against partisan gerrymandering.

“We want to use our collective wisdom,” said Alexander Williams, a former U.S. District Court judge in Greenbelt.

“We want to cut down on any partisan leanings,” Williams added at the nine-member commission’s opening meeting. “It’s not just (about) Maryland. We want to make sure that this is a model that other states can look to and adopt.”

The commission, created by order of Gov. Larry Hogan, has until March 4 to propose a more evenly drawn 6^th Congressional District that protects the rights of all voters regardless of party. After a three-week public comment period, the panel will have until April 2 to certify a final redistricting map and submit it to the General Assembly.

The commission will meet as a three-judge U.S. District Court panel’s decision striking down the district as unconstitutionally partisan lies in legal limbo. The judges in November that the district was so severely gerrymandered to ensure a Democrat’s election that it violates Republican voters’ constitutional right to political association.

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review that decision; justices will hear arguments in March and are expected to issue their decision by this summer.

Hogan, unwilling to await a decision by the justices, appointed Williams, a Democrat, and Walter Olson, a Republican and senior fellow at the CATO Institute of Constitutional Studies, to co-chair the Emergency Commission on 6^th Congressional District Gerrymandering. The governor also named to the panel Ashley Oleson, administrator of the League of Women Voters, who is not affiliated with a political party.

Hogan selected from among public applicants the other six members – two Democrats, two Republicans and two not registered with either of the two major parties.

Chris Mincher, the governor’s deputy legal counsel, told the commission Friday to heed the three-judge panel’s directive on what the Constitution permits and prohibits in drawing congressional districts.

A district must be compact, have due regard for natural boundaries and respect communities of interest, Mincher said. Individuals drawing a district may consider neither the party registration of residents nor their past votes, he added.

“Your focus is on correcting the constitutional violations” the three-judge panel found, Mincher said. “Your main task is correcting the constitutional violations.”

The commission said it will hold three 7 p.m. public meetings over the next month, including Jan. 14 in Frederick County, Jan. 31 in Montgomery County and Feb. 6 in western Maryland, with specific locations to be determined soon.

The panel’s two Democratic public members are Luis T. Gutierrez Jr., a Montgomery County consultant to medical product developers, and Christopher Howard, an Anne Arundel County software engineer. Gutierrez said he wanted to serve on the commission because of his “strong interest in terms of good government,” while Howard said he has “an interest in being involved in government.”

The two Republicans are Maury S. Epner, a private attorney in Montgomery County who has served as a federal prosecutor, and Deborah Lundahl, who serves on the Frederick County Ethics Commission.

Epner said he has “been a victim of gerrymandering” and “very much wants to be a part of this.” Lundahl, in explaining her desire to be on the commission, called herself “a warrior for justice.”

The two unaffiliated public members are Matthew Douglas, a Montgomery County lawyer and senior policy analyst at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and attorney Kathleen Jo Parson Tabor, an Elkridge solo practitioner.

Douglas, a former civics teacher, said he has “a passion for the importance of representative democracy.” Tabor called partisan gerrymandering “an important issue that needs to be addressed.”