Montgomery County redistricting commission to hold first meeting today

Map of the current, heavily-gerrymandered
Montgomery County Council districts

The eleven registered voters who will recommend the new boundaries for seven Montgomery County Council districts in the 2022 election will hold their first virtual meeting today, Wednesday, February 10, 2021 from 5:00-6:00 PM. Their first order of business will be to select a chair and vice-chair of the commission. The meeting will be livestreamed on the Council Facebook page.

Recommendations of the commission will play a significant role in determining whether or not the new Council districts remain improperly gerrymandered. Much like Maryland's heavily-ridiculed Congressional districts, the existing Council districts are bizarrely shaped and lump together disparate and unrelated areas. In District 1, for example, the same councilmember represents downtown Bethesda and rural Poolesville. The District 3 member represents Rockville, Gaithersburg and...Leisure World in Silver Spring. 

Communities like Poolesville, Clarksburg and Damascus have virtually no say in electing their Council representative, as their residents are outnumbered by heavier-populated areas of their districts with vastly-different concerns and lifestyles. Voters have demanded more-compact districts, where the councilmember will be more responsive to the community. With two additional Council districts added via a ballot question in 2018, districts will have to shrink slightly in size.

But gerrymandering is all about creating oddly-shaped districts that favor the election of certain candidates more than effective government. We'll find out by this November 15, when the commission's report is due, whether there are enough political operatives on the commission once again to deliver the gerrymandered map the corrupt Montgomery County cartel demands.

The members of the commission are:  Imad Aldean Ahmad, Laura Ard, Mariana Cordier, Keshia Desir, Arthur Edmunds, Valerie Ervin, Bruce Goldensohn, Jason Makstein, Nilmini Rubin, Samuel Statland, and David Stein.