Map

Kathleen Dumais' op-ed ("Md. congressional map is fair, legal," Oct. 29) contained several inaccuracies. I am very familiar with the redistricting process since I attended most of the public hearings conducted by the Governor's Redistricting Advisory Committee (GRAC) last year, and Marylanders for Coherent and Fair Representation was the driving force in the federal court case challenging the governor's congressional redistricting plan based primarily on insufficient consideration of communities of interest.

The mood was celebratory Tuesday night at Arcos Restaurant in Fells Point, where the Dreamers - students brought to the United States illegally as children, who now want to pursue higher education here - won their battle for in-state tuition breaks at the state's public colleges and universities. "This means so much to me, my parents and my family - who are the other dreamers," Nathaly Uribe, a senior at Glen Burnie High School who was 2 when her parents brought her from Chile, said while keeping an eye on election results at the Mexican restaurant on South Broadway.

Despite well-known challengers and widespread dissatisfaction with Washington, most of Maryland's incumbents in the House of Representatives appear to be cruising to re-election - a result of convoluted congressional districts and large Democratic majorities in most parts of the state. From the Eastern Shore, where Republican Rep. Andy Harris is running against a write-in candidate, to Baltimore, where Rep. Elijah E. Cummings enjoys a 4-1 Democratic enrollment advantage, seven of the Maryland's eight House races have received little attention.

Several recent editorials and commentaries criticize the new congressional districts. The opposition primarily focuses on the odd shapes of districts, without considering any of the other variables that come into play when drawing district lines. Simply making bald assertions about gerrymandering without any other facts and looking at the shapes of districts in isolation is extremely misleading. Common Cause asked the question in a recent article "are odd shaped districts good or bad?"

Common Cause Maryland, the bipartisan watchdog group that usually remains above the political fray, is wading into one of the most bitterly partisan fights of this election year by registering as an independent expenditure committee to fight to overturn the congressional redistricting map crafted by Gov. Martin O'Malley. James Browning, mid-Atlantic regional director for Common Cause, confirmed that the group plans to raise and spend money to oppose Question 5 on the Nov. 6, which would put the new map into effect.

Comptroller Peter Franchot has become the latest prominent Democrat to reject the congressional redistricting map drawn by Gov. Martin O'Malley and the General Assembly, urging Marylanders to vote it down at the polls Nov. 6. During a radio appearance Tuesday on WBAL, Franchot said the map has "embarrassed our state" and called for future redistricting plans to be developed by a bipartisan commission instead of legislators and the governor....

Today we're rolling out some improvements to our map of city homicides. The changes include: -- A larger map. Screens have changed size since we last updated the interface -- A new map color scheme that allows users to more easily locate homicides -- Addition of table-style listings, including the option of seeing the last hundred homicides -- Implementation of Google's street view feature All existing features remain on the...

Comptroller Peter Franchot broke with Democratic Party leaders Tuesday as he urged voters to reject the congressional redistricting map drawn by Gov. Martin O'Malley and the General Assembly. During a radio appearance on WBAL, Franchot  said the map has "embarrassed our state" and called for future redistricting plans to be developed by a bipartisan commission instead of legislators and the governor. The congressional map, which the courts have upheld even though some judges criticized it as an obvious case of gerrymandering, was petitioned to referendum through the efforts of mostly Republican activists.

A group opposing the new congressional map -- which will be on the ballot as question 5 -- has produced its first web-only video. The 30-second spot put out by a group called Repeal the Gerrymander highlights the state's oddly shaped congressional districts and christens them "Merrymanders. " "What is a Merrymander?" a narrator asks while a Maryland flag and a picture of a salamander flashes on the screen. "The Merrymander is a particular species of district making that is indigenous to the state of Maryland.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and the ruling Democrats in Annapolis worked hard to draw a new congressional map that could force a Western Maryland Republican from office. But the result is such a contorted tangle of districts that even some Democrats have declined to support it. The Democratic Central Committees for Montgomery and Prince George's counties - the state's two largest - decided not to make a recommendation to voters about whether they should vote for the map, which is on the ballot in November.