Montgomery County’s redistricting commission voted along party lines to recommend the county redraw the County Council districts in the way proposed by Democrat Don Spence.
Mandated by county law every 10 years, the redistricting is particularly necessary now because the 2010 Census showed population growth across the county, and particularly in Germantown and Clarksburg. The commission aims to create five districts with relatively equal populations.
Spence’s proposed map extends the district containing Bethesda and Potomac north to incoroporate Poolesville and encloses Burtonsville into the district currently containing Silver Spring and Takoma Park. District 4 — the east county district — is shifted north to include Laytonsville, Brookeville and Olney and south to include Wheaton. The other two districts are left largely unchanged.
By contrast, the Republican plan — proposed by Henry Kahwaty — created a u-shaped district stretching from Potomac in the west to Burtonsville in the east. It also combined Bethesda, Potomac, Silver Spring and Takoma Park into one district, divided Gaithersburg and Rockville into two distinct districts and shrunk district 4 to include just the southeast portion of the county.
“The goal was to try to keep the communities together, or bring them together so they’re not divided up into different districts,” Spence told The Washington Examiner two weeks ago.
