To a certain type of Goo-Goo liberal, public financing of elections seems like a splendid idea. It isn’t. Here is why: The New York Example I’ve worked perhaps even more extensively in New York politics, where City Elections are publicly financed, than in Maryland. From my reading of the bill, it appears based upon the … Continue reading The Case Against Public Financing: A Manifesto
This post is a collection of the new councilmanic district maps from around Maryland. I have done my best to make sure that they are the new rather the old districts but please let me know if any are outdated and where I might find the new map. They are organized by the type of … Continue reading County Council District Maps
Western Maryland District 1 District 1 contains all of Garrett and Allegany Counties as well as the westernmost section of Washington County. It’s the most Appalachian section of the State and in many ways resembles West Virginia more closely than our suburban dominated state. The division of District 1 into three subdistricts helps assure that … Continue reading D1, Pt. 1: Garrett County
Progressive Neighbors, an organization originally formed to support the candidacy of Sen. Jamie Raskin, now has a separate life of its own and says that it endorses candidates in four of the eight Montgomery County legislative districts: 14, 18, 19, and 20. However, most elected officials are just not interested. Only two of the four … Continue reading Assembly Electeds Dis Progressive Neighbors
Maryland’s Current Legislative District Plan Is it ever too early to discuss the next cycle of redistricting? The first elections for this decade’s plan are just being held this year since the 2010 elections occurred prior to the decennial redistricting wrangling. But here at Seventh State, it’s never too early to look ahead, so I’ve … Continue reading Redistricting 2020
As previous posts have highlighted (here, here, and here), Democrats dominate Montgomery County elections with vanishingly small hope for Republicans. They don’t even bother to field candidates for a majority of the seats. While Montgomery Democrats may cherish Republican-free Montgomery, it creates other problems for democratic governance. Relatively few people actually elect the Council. It … Continue reading Reforming MoCo Council Elections
Maryland counties use a number of different methods to elect their county legislatures (see below for a description of how each county conducts its elections). The rules of the electoral game influence the outcome, as at-large elections facilitate one-party sweeps. Twelve counties elect their councils entirely at-large throughout the county. The number will decline to … Continue reading How Electoral Rules Shape County Council Partisanship
