There’s Nothing Fair About This Special Session

The General Assembly just called a special session for “redistricting” in the name of “fair maps.”

Let me start right here: I am not a fan of gerrymandering. Not for any reason. Not by anybody.

What bothers me is that Maryland keeps telling us this is about fairness. So let me get this straight. Democrats already control 7 of Maryland’s 8 U.S. House seats, and now “fair maps” means trying to make it 8 out of 8?

News outlets love to say Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1 in Maryland. True story. But that leaves out a big part of the story. When you add unaffiliated voters and everyone else, nearly half of Maryland’s active voters are not Democrats.

We might cross that halfway mark soon if these electric bills keep going up.

And let’s talk about those unaffiliated voters for a second.

Maryland has closed primaries. That means if you are registered as unaffiliated, or with a party other than Democrat or Republican, you generally do not get to vote in the party primaries where candidates are selected.

So when politicians draw maps that make the general election less competitive, the primary becomes the real election.

That means nearly half of Maryland’s voters may get to show up in November, but they are increasingly locked out of the part of the process where the decision was already made.

That is not fair representation. That is managed participation.

The General Assembly already tried this during session. The House passed the map, but the Senate President did not move it forward. His concern was not just political. It was legal. He warned about the risk of opening the door to a court challenge that could potentially make things worse.

Then the political pressure turned up, and instead of standing on the side of representation, the new strategy became clear.

Change the rules of the game.

Now they want to change the constitution to make sure their new “fair maps” can survive a legal challenge. That is like one of your friends changing the house rules in UNO after you lay down four Draw 2 cards, just so they can UNO out before you.

And since we are calling a special session for this, Maryland taxpayers deserve to know what this costs.

Bringing 188 legislators back to Annapolis is not free. There are meal reimbursements, lodging reimbursements, mileage, staff support, security, printing, and all the other machinery that comes with opening the State House for a special session.

I am not saying constitutional questions do not matter. They do.

But if we are going to spend taxpayer money to call lawmakers back to Annapolis, the people deserve to know why this is the emergency.

Not electric bills.

Not transportation issues.

Not health care access.

Not the cost of living.

Redistricting.

Changing the rules of the game so the people already in power can protect their power.

And while we are talking about “fair maps,” let’s not pretend this issue stops with Congress.

Maryland’s state legislative maps have their own fairness problem.

After the 2022 legislative maps were challenged, the court upheld the plan, but the record still acknowledged a real issue. Maryland uses a mix of single member and multi member Delegate districts. That means some voters cast a vote for one Delegate, while other voters cast votes for three Delegates.

That raises a basic representation concern.

The court upheld that practice under current law, but even the Special Magistrate recognized the voting power concern as a fair issue to consider if Maryland is serious about amending its Constitution.

So if this special session is really about fairness, why are we only talking about the map that protects power in Washington?

This can’t be life.

All across the country, politicians are playing political football with power, and We the People are the ball. We are being used as tools, emotionally manipulated by rhetoric, and pushed further apart while the machine protects itself.

At some point, we have to stand up, take our power back, and stop letting this system allow “leaders” to protect their own power and relevance at our expense.

If this is really about fairness, put an independent redistricting process on the table.

But do not call it fairness when the goal is political protection for the people already in power.

Fair maps should mean fair representation, not guaranteed outcomes.