1985 was a busy year in Howard County Council districting news, so busy I’m having to split it into two parts. Part 7 covered the creation and public unveiling of various proposed district plans, starting with Plans A, B, and C, and continuing with Plan F. We pick up the story in the fall:1 November 1985. The county council holds public hearings on the three proposed district maps, ahead of the December date C. Vernon Gray had previously mooted; 32 people testify. The Columbia Council and other Columbians ask that all of Columbia’s villages be included in the proposed Columbia districts, and not be split between districts. David Marker of the Columbia Democratic Club notes that in practice this would be difficult, and recommends the council adopt a variant of Plan E; Angela Beltram of the Ellicott City Democratic Club offers a similar proposal. Republicans still favor a variant of Plan F. ...

As we concluded part 6 of this series proponents of electing Howard County Council members by districts had finally achieved their goal of amending the county charter to require election by districts. In this post we’ll see how the council went about its appointed task of drawing up council district lines. Yes, I realize that I’m now at part 7 and am just now getting to the ostensible topic of this history. So, no more delays: ...

In part 5 of this series nothing much happened in relation to actually doing something about council districts (as opposed to just talking about their potential effect, as in the case of Charles Feaga’s unsuccessful 1982 council bid). In this post “doing something” moves to the fore. 1983. The council district controversy continues to attract attention. Attorney C. William Michaels uses one of his weekly Baltimore Sun “County Counsel” columns to make the case against council districts: “[Districts] would not solve the problem of urban-rural rivalry, but only crystallize and intensify it. . . . Columbia and Howard county are inextricably intertwined. . . . Columbia residents are hard to convince about . . . the interests they should have in preserving [the county’s] unique and very special mix of urban, rural, and suburban life. Columbia residents need to be convinced of this rather than being given up for lost.” He proposes resurrecting the idea of incorporating Columbia, to “give Columbia its own power base, and its own political spokesperson”.1 ...

In part 4 of this series proponents of Howard County Council districts failed to get a referendum on the ballot in the November 1980 general election. In this post the council district controversy provides the backdrop for Howard County politics in the early 1980s. (Readers of this series should also check out the comments from Ken Stevens on part 1 and part 3 for some informative insights from someone who was involved in the events in question.) ...

Thursday I happened to be in the vicinity of the Miller branch of the Howard County Library system at the time of the “topping out” ceremony for the new Charles E. Miller Branch and Historical Center being constructed next to it. I’d read about the ceremony in the morning while reading news feeds on my phone (a waking-up ritual for me) and thought it might be interesting to stop by. Fortunately I was dressed appropriately for a somewhat muddy construction site (unlike some of the local politicians who were present). I listened to the speeches, took some photos with my phone, signed the beam myself, and watched it be hoisted into place. ...

In part 3 of this series Columbia’s new-found political power was tested in a referendum in 1976 on a proposal to expand the Howard County Council from five to seven members and elect all members by districts instead of at large. The referendum failed, but a Maryland constitutional amendment left the door open to further attempts. On with our story: 1977. After electing a Columbia-dominated county council and beating back an attempt to move to council districts, Columbians celebrate the tenth birthday of the new town. Columbia’s population exceeds 45,000 (more than the entire population of Howard County in 1960), and is well-educated and affluent (averaging over $25,000 per year in family income, almost double the national median household income).1 ...

At the end of part 2 of this series Columbia Democrats had finally achieved political power within Howard County: The 1974 general election produced a 5–0 Democratic majority on the County Council, including four Columbians, and a county executive sympathetic to Columbia’s concerns. However again the rest of the county sought various ways to curb the power of Columbia, including in particular a proposal to elect council members by districts. Let’s go to the tape: ...

In part 1 of this series I discussed the formation of the Howard County Council as part of an bipartisan effort to modernize Howard County government at the time Columbia was founded, with five at-large council members elected in 1969. In part 2 we see the beginnings of a political backlash against Columbia on the part of rural Howard County voters, a backlash that however proves unable to stop the growing political power of Columbia. (Yes, we still haven’t talked about county council districts, let alone redistricting, but trust me, this is background you need to know.) ...

In doing research for my series on the history of Howard County Council redistricting one thing that became apparent was the major impact that the founding of Columbia had on the population growth of Howard County. That prompted me to put together a spreadsheet of Howard County population from 1950 through 2009 from US census data. The data is also available as a text file suitable for use with the R statistical package.1 ...

Now that the 2010 Maryland general election is over, the thoughts of Howard County political activists are turning to the 2014 county elections. Adding an extra twist to the conversation is the upcoming task (occasioned by the 2010 census) of redrawing district lines for national, state, and county legislative districts. I have a particular interest in redistricting as it relates to the Howard County Council, and have been doing some research into past council redistricting efforts in an effort to understand how we came to the present point. ...