Fair Lines in Maryland

CALIFORNIA GOV. Arnold Schwarzenegger's high-profile demand for redistricting reform has made the corrupt way states draw their legislative districts into a national issue. We have long urged Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to lead a movement in his state for less political line-drawing. For a Republican governor in a Democratic state, advocating an apolitical process is not merely the right thing to do; it is also politically smart. After all, a system in which elected officials carve themselves safe districts and create unwinnable ones for their political foes is not one that helps the minority party. In Maryland, the governor wields great power in the redistricting process, and Mr. Ehrlich has no basis for confidence that his successor will be a Republican. We still have high hopes that Mr. Ehrlich will take on this issue. Until that happens, however, the General Assembly will have to proceed on its own if it is to create a redistricting process with some claim to public integrity. A bill pending in the legislature would be a place to start.

The bill, introduced by state Sen. Sharon M. Grosfeld (D-Montgomery) and Del. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery), would create a commission to "[e]xamine the current redistricting process in Maryland" and "[s]uggest any State constitutional or statutory changes that it concludes are desirable in order to improve the redistricting process." It's no big secret what such a commission will find: Maryland, like most states, has a redistricting process driven by partisanship and incumbency, in which legislators help choose the voters who will elect them and largely use this power to enhance their own security. The result is greater political polarization and fewer competitive elections -- except where individual incumbents, generally moderates such as former Maryland representative Constance A. Morella (R), are intentionally squeezed out.

A commission would be useful if it became a source of truth about how badly decayed electoral democracy in Maryland is. That was the power of Mr. Schwarzenegger's recent State of the State address, in which he declared that "the current system is rigged to benefit the interests of those in office . . . not the interests of those who put them there." He also asked, "What kind of democracy is that?" Somebody needs to be asking the same question in Maryland.