The Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission kicked off its second round of public hearings Thursday night, and drew up their first complete draft congressional map.
Commission members reviewed several draft maps of individual congressional districts drawn up by their resident redistricting expert, Nathaniel Persily, for “illustrative, instructional and potential discussion” purposes at the meeting.
Those maps mostly deal with individual regions of the state and are available online, but aren’t meant to reflect the commission’s final plans. Commission members also drew up a draft congressional map and agreed on a few general principles such as creating a Western Maryland district that includes Carroll County and not crossing the Chesapeake Bay.
In addition to those principles, the draft map combines the three Southern Maryland counties with southern Prince George’s County; combines most of Anne Arundel County with Howard County; keeps Baltimore whole by combining it with portions of northern Anne Arundel County; and includes part of northern Montgomery County in the Western Maryland district.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Bennett Leckrone over at Maryland Matters
