Democratic Comptroller Peter Franchot said Monday he supports his party's candidates but that recent redistricting of Maryland's congressional is too heavy-handed.
"This map is way over the edge in terms of bare-knuckle politics," said Franchot.
"I'm a proud Democrat. I support Democrats. I just want it to be fair and not fixed," Franchot said, comparing the redistricting process to "Boss Tweed-style Chicago politics."
Franchot Tuesday called for an independent, non-partisan commission that would redraw the congressional and state legislative districts. The change would help restore faith in the political system, he said.
The comptroller said the districts should be more compact in order to provide voters with better representation. He singled out the 3rd Congressional District, represented by John Sarbanes, as a poorly drawn district.
"It looks like a pterodactyl laying on its back with it's wings spread," said Franchot, a Takoma Park resident.
But in an earlier interview on WBAL 1090 AM, Franchot said Sarbanes' district "looks like a whole bunch of blood thrown up on a wall."
The result of poorly drawn districts are candidates such as Wendy Rosen, whom Franchot called "a junior varsity candidate."
Rosen, a Democrat, withdrew from the 1st Congressional District race against Republican incumbent Rep. Andy Harris after it was discovered that she had voted in recent elections in both Maryland and Florida.
"She wasn't properly vetted," said Franchot.
Voters will get a chance to vote on the maps on Nov. 6.
Franchot said he will vote against Question 5, the congressional redistricting referendum, and is asking other voters to do the same.
Franchot's announcement was welcomed by group that was part of the effort to put the maps on the ballot.
"The announcement by Comptroller Franchot carries weight in demonstrating the non-partisan work of the petition and the referendum efforts to overturn a map that has been called the most gerrymandered in the entire country," said Tony Campbell, president of Marylanders for Coherent and Fair Representation and former chairman of the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee.
The comptroller was a member of the House of Delegates in 2002 when Gov. Parris Glendening created the current districts.
Franchot voted for the plan that resulted in a loss of Republican representation in Congress and effectively corralled most of the state's Republicans to the 1st and 6th Congressional districts.
Franchot called the district "a graveyard that no Democrat could run and win in."
Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for Gov. Martin O'Malley, defended the redistricting plan and the process that created it.
"This map is based on the 2002 map and that has a [District] 2 and 3 that look very similar," said Guillory, adding that the redistricting commission hearing process is "a very long tedious process."
"This map passed the General Assembly and withstood several legal challenges," said Guillory. "This is the process and the process works."
It's like someone giving you the choice to jump off a cliff or to have a boulder roll on top of you. In both cases, you are dead, so I'm going to make my own option 3: Grab the person who is trying to make me choose between those two, kill him and then go off and live my life with a clear conscience. I might give him a pass if he's only doing that because his family/friend is/are being threatened, but that's the only situation where I would do that.
Ask Sen. Mitch McConnell senate minority leader. The republicans routinely filibuster to stop Dems.
Another reason to re-elect Obama, to remind our legislators that they should be doing their own job, instead of obsessing over someone else's.
Gerrymandering has existed for a long time and it's difficult to say exactly where it began. Each party has escalated the partisanship in every area of politics for some time. For example, you can trace the current disfunction regarding the judicial nomination process to Democrats. It was not until Robert Bork that the Senate injected partisanship into the judicial nomination process. Now that system is broken too. Who started it is far less important than finding a way to fix it. Not for the benefit of a party, but for the benefit of the people.
How many bills passed in he house has Harry Reid refused to even bring up for a vote in the senate? Reid controlls the Senate, not McConnell.
So if we are to follow your whiny excuse of, it's OK for us to do it because they are doing it, then I guess I can stoop to your level with the retort, well your guys did it first. Oh ... and keep up with the name calling ... it really demonstrates your level of college educated maturity.
oh and republicans undid the gerrymanderin done in north carolina - the reason north carolina (a GOP leanin state) didnt gain no republicans in 2010, and stayed at 6-7 considerin how the vast majority of state legislature's are republican controlled, why were democratic controlled states the only ones gerrymandered?
Will you please announce you candidacy for Governor soon. Maryland needs someone like you.
O'Malley's hubris in designing a map, specifically to enhance the power of Democrat incumbents while minimizing the voting power of minorities, rural voters and Republicans, is astonishing. Hopefully the term "gerrymandering", which earned its name when Massachusetts Governor Eldirdge Gerry signed a bill redistricting Massachusetts to the advantage of his political party in 1812, will not now become known as "Marymandering" because of O'Malleys blatant and unprecedented slicing, dicing, shuffling and shattering of Maryland's districts. It is likely that Maryland now has the most undemocratic and racially divisive map in the country. Parties aside, Maryland voters need to exercise their right to keep excesses of the politicians in Annapolis in in check. We need to hold them accountable to the will of the people and vote NO on question 5.