Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan wants an independent, bipartisan process for establishing congressional districts in the state, but elected officials representing Frederick County say he may be going about it the wrong way.

The governor established a redistricting reform commission last month to study the issue for the state, but local Democratic legislators say they want federal reform instead — a nationwide system in which the American public is represented fairly.

Democrats hold the majority in both state chambers but a minority in the U.S. Congress. They want Congress to act on the issue.

Hogan and others say Maryland shouldn’t wait. The governor chose seven members for the commission and had House and Senate leadership from both parties choose four additional members. The commission will make recommendations to the Legislature before the start of the next General Assembly in Annapolis. The Legislature would need to approve any redistricting plan.

Some legislators, such as Sen. Ron Young, District 3, and Delegate Karen Lewis Young, District 3A, both Democrats who represent the city of Frederick, say Maryland should not approach the issue alone.

When a state acts alone, “All you’re doing is selling your people out,” Sen. Young said.

Democratic Delegate Carol Krimm, also District 3A, said she is always open to looking at proposals. But she doesn’t see redistricting as an immediate issue. Redistricting is normally done every 10 years, with the release of the U.S. Census. The next census will be released in 2020.

“It may be a little premature, because we do have a map right now,” she said.

Maryland does not have to wait for the rest of the country when it comes to doing the right thing, said Eric Shirk, spokesman for the governor’s office. Reforming Maryland’s gerrymandered districts is undeniably the right thing to do, he said.

“Redistricting reform should be a bi-partisan effort, and it’s a shame that some would rather stick with the status-quo than make positive change,” Shirk wrote in an email.

Federal reform

Gerrymandering happens everywhere, but Maryland has been recognized as one of the states with the most politically corrupt line-drawing. District 3 is considered one of the most extreme — it’s an irregular figure that reaches into Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard and Montgomery counties.

Frederick County was represented by one Republican congressman, former U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, in District 6 for two decades until 2012, when the district was split in two. That move stretched District 8 to include the areas of the county to the west, north and east of the city of Frederick, and stretched District 6 farther south into Montgomery County. After the redistricting, Bartlett was unseated by Rep. John Delaney, a Democrat from Montgomery County.

Since he was elected, Delaney has made federal redistricting a priority.

He wants Congress to pass an act he is sponsoring, called the Open Our Democracy Act, that would do three things: institute open primaries for House and Senate elections, create a path for redistricting reform and the nationwide use of independent redistricting commissions, and make Election Day a holiday.

Delaney said he believes Hogan should have consulted with the Legislature before moving forward with his commission. That way, it would truly be an independent commission, he said.

“It’s the smart thing to do,” Delaney said. “That’s how you get results.”

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, District 8, is an original co-sponsor of the Redistricting Reform Act of 2015, which, among other things, would require states to use an independent, nonpartisan process to create districts.

When Hogan announced his commission, Van Hollen wrote a letter to Hogan, telling him he was open to reviewing his proposal for the commission, but also reiterating the importance of passing federal legislation.

“I trust you will agree that it makes more sense to have one set of nonpartisan rules for the entire country rather than a state-by-state approach that can be used to disadvantage one party over the other at the national level,” Van Hollen wrote. “Will you join me in calling upon [House] Speaker [John] Boehner to do for the nation what you propose to do in Maryland?”

Having a national model would be best, said Delegate Lewis Young.

“That makes more sense because you have more balance overall,” she said.

She hopes Congress will act on the issue, she said, but if not, there is another option.

State partnerships

Maryland could try to undertake a state partnership, in which a state of similar size controlled by the opposite party agrees to also have nonpartisan districting, Lewis Young said.

“If there is just a feeling that we aren’t going to wait for a federal government, we need to move ahead and find a good solution, and I think that is the next best thing,” she said.

Sen. Paul Pinsky, of Prince George’s County, District 22, is sponsoring a bill that states that Maryland will move forward with a nonpartisan congressional districting process in partnership with any other state that has about the same number of representatives and that is controlled by a party other than the one controlling the General Assembly in Maryland.

Delegate Kathy Afzali, District 4, said this type of thinking is wrong.

“I think that’s bunk,” she said. “It’s kind of like saying, ‘If you behave with integrity, then I will behave with integrity.’ No. We should all behave with integrity. And the process in Maryland has no integrity.”

The League of Women Voters of Maryland issued a statement that said redistricting reform has been a priority of the league for more than 30 years, and that it hopes having the governor behind the efforts will help.

Melanie Cox, president of the League of Women Voters of Frederick County, declined to comment about the specifics of the governor’s proposal, but she said the league is supportive of reform efforts.

“It’s supposed to be government with representation,” and that’s not the way it is in Maryland, with the state divided as it is, Cox said.

Other options

Afzali commends the governor for making an effort.

She proposed a bill similar to the governor’s plan in the last legislative session.

The bill would have established two separate bipartisan committees to develop legislative and congressional districting plans. The committees would have offered a proposal to be reviewed by the Legislature.

She said she proposed her bill “with some of the governor’s close circle.”

Her bill and Pinsky’s bill were two of several proposed on the issue of districting, none of which reached a vote.

In the next session in Annapolis, groups such as the League of Women Voters will strive to make redistricting the main focus, Cox said.

“This is a great opportunity for Maryland to demonstrate leadership, and I hope that happens,” Cox said.

Members of governor's redistricting reform commission

Appointed by governor:

Michael J. Goff, president and CEO of the Northeast-Midwest Institute

Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore City Branch of the NAACP

Ashley Oleson, administrator for the League of Women Voters of Maryland

Walter Olson (co-chairman), Frederick County resident, Cato Institute analyst

Carol Ramirez, Bethesda resident, community leader

Christopher B. Summers, founder and president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute

Alexander Williams Jr. (co-chairman), retired U.S. district judge, former elected state’s attorney for Prince George’s County

Appointed by Legislature:

Delegate Jason Buckel, appointed by the minority leader of the House

Sen. Joan Carter Conway, appointed by the president of the Senate

Delegate Alonzo Washington, appointed by the speaker of the House

Sen. Steve Waugh, appointed by the Senate minority leader