Raskin sends late-night redistricting plea to General Assembly Democrats

U.S. Rep Jamie Raskin made a sweeping appeal for a redistricting vote in the Maryland Senate on Monday night in a letter addressed to General Assembly Democrats.

The six-page argument hit lawmakers’ email inboxes at 10:33 p.m., targeting key points made by Senate President Bill Ferguson in his opposition to mid-cycle redistricting, according to a copy obtained by The Baltimore Banner. It’s the latest effort in a campaign by some state Democrats to force a vote on the issue.

“I’m writing to explain from my perspective why Members of the Maryland Senate should vote for the new Congressional district map approved by the House of Delegates,” Raskin wrote.

The powerful Montgomery County Democrat’s plea marks another turn in a mounting pressure campaign on Ferguson in his opposition to joining the nationwide partisan battle over U.S. House seats. As his chamber’s leader, Ferguson largely decides which bills move and how fast. The House approved redrawn maps last week, but the bill is languishing in a Senate committee on Ferguson’s say-so.

Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, has argued that passing a new map mid-cycle could result in a legal challenge, delay election timelines and, worst-case for Democrats, add more Republican seats.

Raskin’s letter echoes the voices of national party leaders calling on Ferguson to bring the bill to a vote, including House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries and Gov. Wes Moore.

On Tuesday, Baltimore native and U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi called Moore to lend her assistance and support for the Maryland Senate to pass the map, according to sources familiar with their conversation.

Maryland’s current districts favor Democrats 7-1, with Rep. Andy Harris the only Republican. A mid-cycle change to benefit one party over another would erode democracy and serve as “mutually assured destruction,” Ferguson has said.

Raskin has for years backed bills in Congress that hand over decennial redistricting to an independent commission and expressed disdain for partisan gerrymandering.

But he said he’s temporarily abandoned those plans in the face of Trump’s MAGA party relying on Democrats’ “one-sided adherence to traditional norms.”

“When they make partisan gerrymandering the official redistricting process in America, why would we unilaterally disarm?” he wrote.

Raskin said he’s hearing from “colleagues and friends in the Maryland Senate” that they fear the threat of a court challenge.

A lawsuit challenging an initial redistricting plan in 2022 resulted in a state judge’s blocking Democrats’ attempt at increasing their numbers in the U.S. House at the expense of Republicans. Maryland Republicans are poised to file a lawsuit should the General Assembly approve redistricting this year.

Raskin argued that the basis for Judge Lynne Battaglia’s 2022 opinion would have been overturned by a higher court.

“These colleagues are anxious over very little,” Raskin said, stamping his statement with his credentials as a constitutional law professor and ranking member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

Ferguson’s position has been that Battaglia’s opinion could provide ample reason for a judge to redraw the maps. Raskin dismissed this possibility as a “an extreme and unprecedented act of judicial activism,” given recent judicial decisions in Texas and California.

Even if the map were struck down, the court would likely just “reinstate the status quo” and put decision-making power back in the hands of the state legislature, Raskin wrote.