There were clear losers and obvious winners when Republican Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. on Monday signed the second congressional map that the General Assembly passed. This came after Democratic legislators dropped their appeal to a court ruling overturning their first congressional map.
But there were some less obvious winners and losers as well. Here’s our tally:
Winner: U.S. Rep. Andrew P. Harris (R)
After being targeted in the first map that Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Senior Judge Lynne A. Battaglia threw out, the state congressional delegation’s lone Republican should glide to a seventh term.
Losers: Heather Mizeur (D) and David Harden (D)
No matter how much of a crusade Mizeur has tried to make her campaign, and no matter how much distaste there is for Harris in certain corners of the 1st District — even among some Republicans — there just doesn’t seem to be a path to victory for either Democrat seeking to unseat Harris, even though both were talking boldly on Monday. The notion that Harden is now a more viable contender because he’s not, as he likes to say, a “Takoma Park liberal” like Mizeur is absurd, considering how lopsidedly the district now favors the GOP.
Winner: Hogan
We’ll give Hogan the win here, because he’s been pushing redistricting reform since he got into office, and he deserves his victory lap. Hogan is pretty good at declaring victory even when there isn’t a reason to. But this is at most a half loaf.
Yes, the map that the state’s putting into place is less of an egregious gerrymander than the map Battaglia tossed. But it was thrown together over the course of a weekend, with zero public input. Even the map that the legislature initially adopted in December was the product of several public hearings. And from where we sit today, Hogan may lose his campaign to throw out the legislative district map.
Battaglia’s ruling isn’t precedential, because challenges to the original map never made it to the Court of Appeals, and Hogan’s efforts to reform the redistricting process never got purchase in the General Assembly. So chances are, redistricting will be a partisan display dominated by legislative Democrats yet again a decade from now. Read more at Maryland Matters.
Photo: District 1 Congressman Andrew P. Harris (R) and Democratic challenger Heather Mizeur greet each other at the 2021 J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake. Photo by Hannah Gaskill.
