Legislating across borders difficult, but not impossible, lawmakers say
by Sarah Breitenbach, Staff Writer
ANNAPOLIS — As legislators prepare to address the shape of political districts, they are hearing a common refrain from the few citizens who populate public hearings on the topic: Don’t divide communities.
Opponents of the current congressional map say the districts snake around the state in shapes even a salamander couldn’t fit into, grouping unlikely communities under the same representative. The committee tasked with making redistricting recommendations also is hearing the court-drawn state legislative districts disenfranchise communities by drawing boundaries down the middle of cul-de-sacs and across county lines.
“What we’ve done with our maps is we’ve made Maryland into the Balkans,” said William H. Campbell, a Howard County resident who spoke at the redistricting hearing Tuesday evening in Columbia. “We have Croats and Serbs and Bosnians and Slovenians, and because of that I think the politicians feel they have carte blanche to do and say as they please.”
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