Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley admitted that he, along with other Maryland Democrats, gerrymandered the state’s 6th district to oust long-time Republican incumbent Rep. Roscoe Bartlett in 2012, the Baltimore Sun reported Wednesday.
A lawsuit filed in 2013 alleged gerrymandering has been moving through Maryland’s courts, forcing Democrats to talk about what the Baltimore Sun says many already suspected: Democratic redistricting was unconstitutional. Following the 2010 census, Democrats expanded Bartlett’s 6th district into the heavily-Democratic Montgomery and Frederick counties.
“That was my hope,” O’Malley told attorneys in his deposition. “It was my intent to create … a district where the people would be more likely to elect a Democrat than a Republican.”
He succeeded.