Redrawing the political lines in Baltimore County can be a rough and tumble affair. Costly too. WYPR’s News Director Matt Bush talked to Baltimore County reporter John Lee about what’s to come in the months ahead as the county council redraws its district lines.
Bush: The Baltimore County Council is expanding from seven to nine seats in time for the 2026 election so it has to approve a nine district map. What are the challenges of doing that?
Lee: For starters, the ghost of redistricting past is lurking. Several years ago, the council got sued over a proposed map and a federal judge forced it to make some changes. That court fight has cost the county around $1 million. To avoid a rerun the council needs to come up with a map that will satisfy the 1965 Voting Rights Act. To keep itself out of legal trouble the council likely needs to have two Black majority districts instead of just one as it currently has. And probably one or two other districts in which a majority of residents are people of color. This is because about 30 percent of the county population is Black and nearly half, people of color. But six of the seven men currently on the council are white, the seventh is African American.
Bush: So a redistricting commission is recommending a map to the council. Does that address the Voting Rights Act and does it have a chance to pass the council?
Lee: Yes and no. The proposed map has two Black majority districts as well as two other districts in which a majority of residents are people of color. But the three Republicans on the seven member council, including Republican David Marks, say they won’t vote for it because that map is partisan and that’s enough votes to kill it.
Marks: It’s very clear that the intent was to pack members of a certain political persuasion into certain districts.
Lee: And that brings us to another lurking ghost, a nine-district map that the county council itself drew up last year behind closed doors. It was part of a deal brokered with Republicans by then Council Chairman Izzy Patoka to get their support to put the council expansion on the ballot. That map will become THE map if at least five council members can’t agree on a different plan. But if that happens, the council will most likely be sued. The American Civil Liberties Union and others, don’t like the clandestine way that map was drawn up or the final result.
Bush: So the map proposed by the redistricting commission apparently can’t pass and the map the council drew up last year is a lawsuit waiting to happen. What’s the way forward for the council?
Lee: Both Councilmen Marks and Patoka believe the council can find a way out. Patoka says he likes the map proposed by the redistricting commission and that it can be tweaked so it can get the five votes it needs to pass.
Patoka: It was not a perfect map by any means and we’re not going to be able to produce a perfect map but we can always make it a better map.
Lee: And Matt, redistricting can be a hot button. At a June 5 meeting, redistricting commission members like Lisa Belcastro said while they were considering several maps they were threatened and subjected to immense public pressure.
Belcastro: It has made it difficult to do our work. It’s been really disappointing.
It was challenging work. To make room for two additional districts, the commission had to reduce the size of council districts by around 30,000 people. Then it needed to draw a map that created more districts in which people of color are in the majority while at the same time trying not to split up communities. That political heat now shifts to the county council. It has until October first to approve a nine-district map for the 2026 election.
