MDGOP Chairman Alex X. Mooney announced today the Maryland Republicans have proposed their own Congressional redistricting map to compete with the single-party Democrat proposal in Annapolis, which will surely protect incumbent Democrats and draw even fewer Republican-leaning districts than in 2001.

According to an ABC 27 report:

The Maryland Republican Party has released a proposed map for congressional redistricting.

Alex Mooney, chairman of the party, says the map protects voters’ interests instead of incumbent politicians. He criticized past redistricting processes, saying it caused residents to live in a state with some of the worst gerrymandered congressional districts in the country.

The state GOP released the map Wednesday ahead of the first meeting of a five-member redistricting panel appointed by Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley. The panel will plan hearings so that state residents a chance to participate in the process.

Lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled General Assembly will gather in an October special session to approve new congressional districts for the state’s eight House seats.

You can see the current Congressional district lines here, compared with the MDGOP’s proposal here.

I was originally shocked at the simplicity of the MDGOP’s proposed map. You can see from the 2001 map that the Democrats went to great lengths to establish and many Democrat gerrymandered districts as possible, entangling the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Districts into the Baltimore City population.

The GOP proposal is titled the “Good Government Congressional Map.” It’s highly unlikely that the Democrat hegemony in Annapolis will even consider the GOP proposal, but it’s good to see an opposing proposal.

The Daily News Journal reports:

Rutherford County is on the verge of being drawn into a different congressional district, a move that could create a spirited Republican primary when the state Legislature approves reapportionment in 2012.

State Sen. Bill Ketron, chairman of the Legislature’s Republican Majority Caucus, said this week “there’s a real possibility” Rutherford County could be placed into the 4th Congressional District served by Republican Rep. Scott DesJarlais of South Pittsburg, removing it from its long-held spot in the 15-county 6th Congressional District.

Asked if he would run for Congress in a newly-drawn 4th District, Ketron, of Murfreesboro, said, “I haven’t ruled that out. But it’s all speculative right now because I don’t know how it’s going to pan out until January.”

There has been some chatter that Senator Bill Ketron might challenge newly-elected Congressman Scott DesJarlais in the Republican primary next year if Rutherford County is drawn into the Fourth Congressional District. Currently, Rutherford County is wholly in the Sixth Congressional District.

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According to today’s Daily News Journal, it appears as though Rutherford County will pick up an additional full State House seat in this year’s redistricting process:

Rutherford County’s explosive growth will net a fourth full House district in early 2012, likely on the county’s west side in the Blackman and Almaville areas, legislators say.

State lawmakers this week confirmed the county, which grew 44 percent to 262,600 in 2010 from 182,023 in 2000, will receive a new House seat in the coming redistricting of the state Legislature.

Redistricting is done every 10 years following the federal census to ensure the populace has equal representation. House members are holding meetings to start the process, which could be done in January.

According to 2010 Census data, Rutherford County was one of the fastest growing counties in the state from 2000 to 2010. The fastest growing parts of the county is the area immediately west of Murfreesboro — the Blackman and Almaville communities (where I grew up). The image in this DNJ article gives you an idea.

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