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If D.C was granted statehood there would be two more Democrats in Congress, two more Democratic Senators and one more Democratic Governor. It would have no change on the Electoral College.
If it were to go to Maryland, Maryland would gain an additional Congressional seat, in the 2010 Census it would have come at the expense of a Minnesota seat (no way to tell which seat would have been impacted, Minnesota's redistricting for Congress was done by the Courts in 2010). There would be three less EV's, Obama's 2012 margin would have been 65-33 instead of 62-36 and Maryland's Governor would have very likely be a Democrat.
How about this? Why don't we (MD) give the counties bordering DC to DC. They can have Baltimore as well! I for one, and many that I know don't associate with that part of the state anyway.
More representation in the House of Reps, more gov money?
Hire the chinese to build two islands off the coast, one for the UN and the other for DC..with a foot bridge in between.
Alternatively only bring pols together for special events and make them spend at least 80% of their time in their own states. Turn DC into one big museum and privatize its ownership.
I remember something from my history classes from school in that Washington DC was cut out of Maryland and Virginia but, the Va part was returned and it became Alexandria. IMHO it's time to hand DC back to Maryland except for a few blocks around the White House down to the river which would be covered by the Capital cops.
I think retrocession to Maryland is the only feasible solution. Yes, Maryland would become more Democratic, but its nearly hopeless anyway. I know. I live there. Beats adding two more Democratic Senators (Please liberals, were DC full of Republicans, you would feel the same way).
I don't like topping off the Democrats tank. But I like a politically disenfranchised population even less.
If I recall correctly the last time this idea came up the Maryland government said they didn't want the territory, so unless their opinion has changed in the meantime some other solution will probably have to be worked out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moth
DC Native here.
I think retrocession to Maryland is the only feasible solution. Yes, Maryland would become more Democratic, but its nearly hopeless anyway. I know. I live there. Beats adding two more Democratic Senators (Please liberals, were DC full of Republicans, you would feel the same way).
Indeed they would feel the same way. Of course, if DC statehood as a deep-blue state is objectionable you could balance it out by creating a new deep-red state. Conveniently, there are several solidly Republican areas of the country where a large part of the population is currently interested in forming a new state.
Even more conveniently (depending on your point of view), one such area happens to be western Maryland; the proposal is for the western five counties to form their own state, which would be a skinny state comparable to Delaware in area with a population of 659 000 or so (between Wyoming and Alaska). Romney won 65% of the two-party vote there in 2012, so this area would make a nice small red state right in DC's backyard.
One possible solution that I'd like to throw out there is retrocession for purposes of federal representation only - DC would be included as part of Maryland for purposes of federal House apportionment and DC residents would be full participants in Maryland federal Senate elections, but would be governed entirely separately from Maryland like it is today. It would behoove us to get Maryland's consent for this too, since doing it without their consent could plausibly be construed as altering a state's Senate suffrage without its consent (which is illegal), and in any case we don't want the door being opened up to something like lumping in Wyoming and Puerto Rico together for Congressional representation.
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