Baltimore County is on the cusp of generational political change. But to get there, it needs a council district map that adds two seats to the seven-member council.
There are already three possible maps and counting, and battle lines are being drawn over where those district lines should go.
When Baltimore County voters approved in November expanding the County Council to nine seats, the referendum was tied to a council-drawn map. However, the council had come up with that map behind closed doors.
That prompted threats of a lawsuit, and the council formed a redistricting commission to take another look at how to draw the nine districts.
At the commission’s first hearing this month, county resident Fergal Mullally said the council put it in a tough spot.
“If you recommend a map which is similar to theirs, you run the risk of being accused of being nothing more than a rubber stamp,” Mullally said. “If you come up with an entirely new map, you may worry that your hard work will be for nothing.”
That’s because the council can reject the commission’s recommendation.
Shafiyq Hinton, who ran for council in 2022, had this advice.
“Throw out the map, start over, avoid the lawsuit and let’s get it right,” Hinton said.
Councilman Izzy Patoka said the council’s map was key to winning enough votes on the council to put the expansion on the ballot.
“That map was a stepping stone to get to this point,” Patoka said.
Patoka said the addition of two seats makes it more likely that voters will elect women and people of color to what is now an all-male council with a lone Black member.
The threat of a lawsuit is not academic.
Three years ago, the County Council found itself in a costly redistricting lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union and others. The plaintiffs said the 2021 map was discriminatory and a judge agreed.
The ACLU is back for this round, as well. Executive Director Dana Vickers Shelley is no fan of the current map, either.
“While the council expanded the number of districts to nine, they quietly linked the expansion to a new redistricting map that was not only racially discriminatory, but that voters were not fully aware of,” Shelley said.
The ACLU is proposing a map in which three of the nine districts would have Black majorities. That’s compared with the council’s map, which has only two. The county is 30% African American. A fourth district would be minority-majority, meaning people of color would make up a majority of the people living there.
Others object to the council-drawn map, including a group that’s drawn boundaries in what it calls the “Woodlawn Approach.” It would create two mega Black-majority districts. Each would be more than 60% African American.
Supporter Keith Dorsey said that’s key.
“Because minority districts are impacted by more residents below voting age and a higher turnover rate,” Dorsey told the commission.
The map the County Council drew itself has supporters, too. Pat Hook, who lives in Middle River, said that part of the county is currently divvied up between three council members. Under the council’s map, it would fall into just one district.
“By keeping Middle River and Essex together, the map allows us to speak with one strong voice,” Hook said.
Whichever map the county moves forward with, it will take effect in the 2026 elections and determine who wields power for nearly a decade.
“These decisions are not about lines on a map,” Takia Morris said. “They are about people’s lives.”
Morris and others told the redistricting commission that those lines will determine whether communities are split up and lose political power.
Antuan Scott, who lives in Turner Station, an historic African American community, said, “Funding for youth programs, food security and small businesses depend on strong representation.”
The commission plans to recommend a map to the council in June.
