The Carroll Standard

Alert: Help Stop Martin O'Malley's Marymander

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With Maryand's new congressional redistricting map, POLITICIANS HAVE PICKED THEIR VOTERS, RATHER THAN ALLOWING VOTERS TO PICK THEIR POLITICIANS.  The map does NOT allow for representative government.  Scroll down to Districts 2 and 3 on the website.  You need to see the map to believe it.

By going to MDPetitions.com and signing the redistricting map today, you can change Maryland politics so that Maryland voters can have a voice.  The current map divides communities all across Maryland.

For example, the map seperates Baltimore City into three districts, with one of the Districts extending from Baltimore City to Tacoma Park near DC to the City of Annapolis. Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County have both been shredded into 4 congressional districts each.

This is new and alarming. In the past, politicians have given significant political contributions, helped with hand-picked campaigns, and even recruited candidates who will act as their puppets, but this map goes too far.  The new map breaks apart communities and takes away your voice.
 
The map suppresses rural Maryland voters, but the map also suppresses minority voters across the state, be that African Americans, the Hispanic community, and Asian voters.  This new map had bi-partisan opposition; every republican voted against it and several democrats also voted to stop this divisive map. 
 
In a bold, courageous move,Congresswomen Donna Edwards opposed the map.  She is a black member of the majority Democrat party and went against leadership to indicate that the new maps would reduce the district's share of black voters at a time when the African American population has grown.  Like other districts all across the state, this goes against the population and does not make sense.

In a court case against the map, Federal Justice Niemeyer wrote that the map makes the original Massachusetts map that gave gerrymandering its name look "tame by comparison."   He wrote that District 3“is more reminiscent of a broken-winged pterodactyl, lying prostrate across the center of the state.”  Federal Justice Titus, in a concurring opinion, called the 3rd District a "Rorschach-like eyesore" and the map as a whole a "blatant political gerrymander."[ii]
 
This map divides communities all across Maryland and does not represent the people of Maryland.  Like a lemon of a car, this lemon of a map needs to be returned and rejected by the consumer.  Fortunately, we have a great opportunity to reverse these unfair and unjust attacks on our democracy.  When handed lemons, let’s make lemonade.  We can overturn this map, but we need your help right now.
 
Our first deadline to turn signatures in is the end of this month and WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH SIGNATURES FOR THE FIRST TURN IN YET.  For petitions to reach us in time,petitions need to be in the mail on or before Saturday.  You can make the difference to reverse this divisive map by:
 
FIRST, go to MDPetitions.com to download, print, and sign the petition for you and your household members so that you can send it WITH YOUR OUTGOING MAIL TOMORROW;

SECOND, circulate petitions by using the volunteer button to get signatures among your friends, family, and neighbors, and return it to MDPetitions.com.

THIRD, post the referendum effort on Facebook or Twitter and send it by email to your friends. 
 
The Maryland State Constitution affords us an opportunity to reject bad laws.  But we must work hard, and we must work together.  Please join me today by filling out your Petition and sending it in no later than May 26^th.
 
My friend, we stand a fighting chance, but it’s going to take EVERY COMMON-SENSE PERSON in Maryland to act in order to prevail. Please help MDPetitions.com overturn this redistricting map that will negate rural Maryland’s interests today.
 
Thank you for your consideration and your help.  I look forward to talking with you soon, and hope that you have a great summer.
 
Sincerely,
Neil Parrott
 
P.S.      I cannot stress to you how important it is to go to MDPetitions.com TODAY. The Maryland Constitution requires the first group of valid signatures be turned into them by the end of May, just 2 weeks away.

Delegate Neil Parrott, Chairman; Deborah Miller, Treasurer
MDPetitions.com Office Number (410)774-0121

[i]http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/2011/10/rep_edwards_opposes_new_congre.html

[ii]http://articles.baltimoresun.com/ 2011-12-23/news/bs-md-redistricting-suit-20111223_1_maryland-congressional-map-new-map-african- american

"What is a Marymander?" - Repeal O'Malley's Maps by MCFR, Inc.

Check out the new video for Marylanders for Coherent and Fair Representation for the Congressional Districting Petition and MDPetitions.com - "What is a Marymander?"