Running for a cause is nothing new in today’s world of charity 5Ks, but this weekend, a group of activists took on a much longer trek, 225 miles, in an effort to bring attention to gerrymandering in Maryland’s congressional districts and push for redistricting reform.
The Gerrymander Meander, a challenge to traverse the borders of Maryland’s Third Congressional District to highlight its gerrymandered nature, was organized by Common Cause, the League of Women Voters and the Annapolis section of the National Council of Jewish Women. Over the course of three days, Sept. 19 - 21, two dozen concerned citizens took turns running, biking and kayaking the borders of the district. After a kick-off in Baltimore City Friday morning, the runners arrived in White Marsh just after 5 p.m., traveling along Perry Hall Boulevard, Ridge Road, Kenwood Avenue and other thoroughfares in Perry Hall and Overlea in their golden-yellow “Tame the Gerrymander” shirts.
Jennifer Bevan-Dangel, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, a nonprofit dedicated to pursuing accountability and transparency in government, was one of two runners who did the White Marsh portion of the meander. “I feel pretty good,” she said after her run. “But it’s crazy; I’ve just done 10 miles and haven’t even made it through the first county yet.”
The route crossed four counties and included four separate water crossings and was set up in relay style, with participants in groups of two or three (and a few solo runners) rotating through 10 mile legs. Switch-off points were set up with support vehicles dispensing water bottles and encouragement. The campaign had people continuously running, biking and kayaking for 36 hours, from 10 a.m. Friday to 10 p.m. Saturday for the first, 206-mile portion of the journey, with the final 19 miles in and around the Annapolis area starting on Sunday at 10 a.m. and culminating in a rally on Lawyer’s Mall by the state capitol. Bevan-Dangel said that the groups would also be presenting petitions to the 2014 gubernatorial candidates to get them to pledge to support reform once in office. Republican Larry Hogan and Democrat Anthony Brown sent representatives, and Libertarian candidate Shawn Quinn was there in person.
“We wanted to make redistricting an issue so big that our gubernatorial candidates can’t ignore it,” she said. “The way this campaign is structured, it shows the tremendous grassroots support we have, so they can see that people really do want to see a change.”
Gerrymandering is the term given to the process by which political parties and elected officials draw district boundaries in ways that are most advantageous to them, stacking the deck in elections. Maryland has been called the most gerrymandered state in the nation (tied with North Carolina); the Washington Post’s WonkBlog evaluated its eight congressional districts and all but two were given a gerrymandering score of over 90 on a 100-point scale. The scores were calculated by comparing the district’s actual borders with those of a circle with the same perimeter. Maryland’s Third District is the second-most gerrymandered seat in the nation, with a score of 96.79. Famously described by a federal judge as “a broken-winged pterodactyl,” it includes parts of Nottingham/Perry Hall and Overlea, as well as areas north of Owings Mills and parts of Towson and Baltimore City and snakes down to encompass Olney, Laurel and Annapolis and points south.
The boundaries of congressional districts are redrawn every 10 years after the U.S. Census is completed to ensure that each district has roughly the same number of residents, but beyond that there are often no guidelines as to how the borders are drawn. In Maryland, Gov. Martin O’Malley and an advisory committee were responsible for this task following the 2010 census, and used their power to add Democratic voters in Montgomery County to the previously-conservative 6th district. As a result, Maryland’s national delegation now contains only one Republican, Rep. Andy Harris (1), following the loss of long-time Rep. Roscoe Bartlett. The new districts borders were placed on the 2012 ballot after a petition drive, but voters approved Question 5 by 64.1 percent. The boundaries have also survived legal challenges.
Bevan-Dangel and the others behind the Gerrymander Meander maintain that this carving-up of districts is harmful to the public, because it makes it harder to hold leaders accountable. “Part of the reason we have such low voter turnout is because people feel disenfranchised,” she said. “It’s almost impossible to know who represents you and almost impossible to find someone who really speaks for the community with the districts the way they are.”
She hopes that the attention drawn to the issue through the event will lay the framework for reform before the next redistricting process in 2020. She also notes that the issue is a non-partisan one, with both Democrats and Republicans fighting for reform. North Carolina, tied with Maryland for first place in gerrymandering, has Republican-controlled panels. In Maryland, Rep. Harris and Rep. John Delaney (D-6), both beneficiaries of the new borders, support reform, with Delaney introducing legislation this summer asking for a review of redistricting nationwide as a first step. Gubernatorial candidate Larry Hogan fully supports creating a nonpartisan redistricting commission in Maryland, according to the Washington Post, and while Brown supports creating national redistricting standards for all states to follow.
“This is one of our main issues at Common Cause, so I’m excited to see this happen,” Bevan-Dangel said. “Fair representation is such a cornerstone of our democracy. So this is an exciting first step but it certainly can’t be the last.”
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