News Corner

By Dan Cuda

I recently made a  Zoom presentation to Governor Hogan’s Maryland redistricting commission.  The following builds on my thoughts from that night and what I’ve so far settled on how a fair redistricting might work.  I’m focused on Maryland but these tentative first principles seem applicable to any state.  

Redistricting must support citizens not politicians.  Its first principle must be: the voters will select their representatives, not the other way around.  The past partisan process in Maryland  demonstrates how politicians chose their preferred groups and diluted others: crazy, stretched out shapes,  with fingers reaching out to find the desired pockets of voters.  Instead, non-partisan redistricting produces and sustains compact communities of voters, enabling neighborhood politics  and local relationships to flourish.  District shapes must not divide communities,  nor must it try to submerge or dilute the diversity of our voters. Instead, non-partisanship can create communities of interests. 

The question of voter diversity is at the heart of drawing the shapes of our districts.  Multi-member versus single member Maryland legislative districts stands out from among the other issues.  The greatest diversity will appear with the largest number of districts.  This principle connects a single representative with the smallest numbers of voters.   On this basis, undivided communities with their networks of family, friends,  youth sports and schools all come together to form the basis of its majority  vote.   Earning this majority is difficult for politicians, and they work hard within redistricting to make their political work easier.  Shaping the vote ahead of time is the hallmark of  partisan districting.  Instead, politicians must be required to work harder to bridge differences in their districts by devising and enabling compromise among their associated communities.  Partisan redistricting short circuits this desirable process.   

Multimember districts can be a compact shape that conforms to many of these ideals.  But they subtly dilute and offset the politics of one community by unnecessarily combining it with others. Multimember districts are undesirable because when purer choices are available. Single member legislative district preferable for this reason.  

How to draw the districts?   I propose centering at least some districts at points of the highest residential density. These shapes then need to expand on  lines of equal population density – necessarily irregular - until they have included the appropriate number of voters.  I believe density captures something of community.  Think of the social reality that density captures in city centers, suburbia, or even rural setting.  We recognize the social differences and similarities captured by each of these settings.  Shapes centered on this basis seem likely have the least risk of dividing community.

Dividing, uniting, or creating communities of political interest is the great opportunity or danger of the redistricting process.  It can be accomplished by independent commissions as easily as state legislatures.  Instead, a transparent process that announces its principles can help restore voter trust in democratic institutions.  The partisan alternative will continue its alarming erosion.  The process should  enable a voter majority in the smallest possible, most feasibly compact district, to coalesce around a single representative.  Redistricting on this basis enables a truer democratic process by allowing differences and interests to evolve in a district -  street by street,  block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.  The complexities of redistricting  likely overwhelm this attempt at non-partisan first principles,  but in the end they must be articulated to help citizens recognize that redistricting is done in their interest and not careerist politicians.  

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Dan Cuda is a Member of the Republican Central Committee, the main Republican orientation director, and a boardmember of the LD-15 PAC.

The Maryland Voter Integrity Group

We're looking to make sure the next election can be counted on as a contest we can have utmost confidence in. The Maryland Voter Integrity Group has found serious anomalies in the previous election, including 35% Democrat Vote Spikes in 4 Counties. We also found strong evidence that a Computer Algorithm ran for the entire 2020 Election. Learn more & sign our Petition for a Full Forensic Audit in Maryland at www.mdvoter.org .

By William Richbourg

“Never have I witnessed a greater, swifter, collapse of competence that what I have seen with the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan. Events at the airport – desperation, death – indicate the extreme chaos that ensues when the commander in chief doesn’t actually understand the value of service.”  ……. Elliot Ackerman, NY Times

However, if we look at the “awe-inspiring” armory that was left behind we have to suspect something more was going on than simple incompetence. In fact, I suspect that this is a clear case of politicized and malevolent incompetence! 

Consider for a moment the scope of this particular part of the disaster.  Left to the Taliban according to the following inventory published in the London Times:

• 22,174 armored Humvees
• 42 pickup trucks and SUVs
• 64,363 machine guns
• 162,043 radios
• 16,035 night-vision goggles
• 358,530 assault rifles (real ones not the ones Joe Biden warns about in the US)
• 126,295 pistols
• 176 artillery pieces
• 100 helicopters (including 33 Black Hawks)
• 4 C-130 transport planes
• 60 other fixed wing aircraft

Why did we do that? No one has offered an explanation. What’s worse is that, not only did we leave behind this horrifying arsenal, but the Administration lied about their intent to save all Americans. They left many of them behind as well and that is unforgivable.

The only explanation is that Biden refused to follow President Trump’s plan because it was President Trump’s plan! He came up with his own timetable so that he could claim credit for ending “America’s longest war” in a way that would clearly deny President Trump any credit and it blew up in his face.

Worse, it is likely not over. Counting on the kinder, gentler Taliban is a dangerous and foolhardy strategy and one that is likely to cause the American people additional and on-going heartache.

What else did we leave behind? Our credibility, our honor! Americans must wake up and end this Administration before it can do further irreversible damage to our country.

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William Richbourg is a Member of the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee.