waste our efforts in factional division, and
especially in a city such as Baltimore where
there is so much congestion we are unable
to get the very best type of representation,
unless we tie him down to the district he
should represent.
1 sincerely hope that you will defeat this
amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the
amendment?
DELEGATE LORD: Yes, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gill, do you
desire to speak in favor of the amendment?
DELEGATE GILL: I have a question.
THE CHAIRMAN: To whom is your
question addressed?
DELEGATE GILL: When will we vote
on the committee recommendation? 1 mean,
is it assured we will vote on the committee
recommendation, even if one of these
amendments should pass?
THE CHAIRMAN: If the committee
recommendation is amended, you would not
vote on the Committee recommendation.
DELEGATE GILL: In other words, both
of these amendments would have to fail to
give us a chance to vote on the Committee
recommendation?
THE CHAIRMAN: No. The Rybczynski
amendment, or I should not say it that way,
the amendment to the amendment could
pass and be substituted for the Amendment
No. 11 and then if Amendment No. 11
failed, the Committee recommendation would
be before you.
DELEGATE GILL: Suppose the Ryb-
czynski amendment fails; would we then
vote on the committee recommendation?
THE CHAIRMAN: You would vote on
Amendment No. 11. If it passed, you would
not have the opportunity to vote further on
the committee recommendation. If it failed,
you would.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Lord to
speak in favor of the amendment to the
amendment.
DELEGATE LORD: Mr. Chairman, fel-
low delegates, I rise to support, with some
reservations, I must admit, the Rybczynski
amendment to the amendment. I think per-
haps it would be best to attempt to clear
the air somewhat to explain the differences
between the two amendments. |
Under the amendment as submitted, No.
11, each subdivision would have one, two
or three delegates representing a district.
This would be determined at some future
date. Under the Rybczynski amendment, the
alternatives would be cut by one-third.
There would be either a single-member dis-
trict, or a three-member district.
I also should point out that there is no
relationship under the Case-Lord amend-
ment between the senatorial districts and
the delegate districts. It may well be, as
Delegate Dulany has pointed out, that
there would be two delegates running from
one district, and that that delegate district
would have to be joined with a single mem-
ber district in order to create a senatorial
district.
The ratio of three to one would never be
changed. It simply would not be quite as
automatic a solution as the Rybczynski
amendment.
Now, I should also state that I am un-
alterably opposed to Delegate Storm's sug-
gestion that this be left to the legislature.
I think that the maximum of three dele-
gates should be the outside limit, and one
that should be reached without a great deal
of consideration by the Commission that
will do the redistricting and reapportioning.
This is the outside limit. I think that
anything, be it four, five, six, seven or eight
delegates above the limit of three, would
be an unworkable solution, and would be
simply perpetuating many of the problems
that there are in the large metropolitan
areas.
I find myself in agreement with Delegate
Dulany on his point. There are now six
subdivisions of the State that are repre-
sented by two delegates in the House of
Delegates. I would assume this number
would be roughly the same under the 120-
man house of delegates as reapportioned
in 1970.
1 for one would not want to cut off the
opportunity of keeping two delegates in a
district and forcing a choice between one
and three.
I think the removal of that alternative is
unfortunate.
I should also point out that when the
Legislative Branch Committee made its re-
port, and this has been acknowledged by
the Chairman of that committee, single-
member districts were based on a house of
105. We now have a house of 120, so, while
the vote on that committee was 15 to 5 in |
