Maryland Democrats are trying to push one of Maryland’s two Republican congressional representatives out of office by moving Rockville and possibly Germantown into the solidly red Western Maryland district represented by long-time Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett Jr.
Democrats made their case to Maryland’s redistricting committee at a recent public hearing in Frederick County. Their proposal would redraw Bartlett’s 6th District to include most of left-leaning Rockville and part of Germantown, while excluding more Republican counties east of Frederick, which include Carroll, Baltimore and Harford. The 6th District extends from Garrett County to Harford County along Maryland’s northern border with Pennsylvania.
Democrats — including one-time Bartlett challenger Don DeArmon — argued that Frederick’s needs are unrelated to those of its neighbors to the east.
“The community interest of the 6th District — our orientation — is far more toward the Washington, D.C., area than the Baltimore area,” DeArmon said.
Republican Sen. Joseph Getty of Baltimore and Carroll counties says Frederick is an aberration to the rest of the district.
“The 6th Congressional District is a strongly agricultural District,” he said. “While Frederick city may feel more akin to Rockville, they aren’t the majority of District 6.”
He says the Democrats’ argument is politically driven — aimed at making Democrats more competitive in the District — and has nothing to do with competing needs.
Bartlett has represented Western Maryland since 1993. Two state senators said that Montgomery County Democrats are quietly grooming Sen. Rob Garagiola, D-Germantown, to challenge Bartlett if Germantown joins the western district.
Meanwhile, Rockville Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio says her city has nothing in common with its agriculturally focused neighbors in District 6.
“[The proposal] sounds very political to me,” Marcuccio said.
Rockville’s needs are centered around its proximity to the Interstate 270 corridor and “the enormous amount of development and construction and movements of the economic engine to the corridor,” she said. “I don’t think pushing us into the more Republican district will make a difference, in terms of our needs.”
Rockville is part of District 8, which includes most of Montgomery County and a small piece of Prince George’s County.
The state’s eight congressional districts were last redrawn in 2002 by former Gov. Parris Glendening, a Democrat, who lumped most GOP voters together in Districts 1 and 6.
Gov. Martin O’Malley’s five-member redistricting committee will make recommendations for redrawing the congressional map, which must be approved by the General Assembly during a special session in October.
