Parrott, Judicial Watch file suit over new congressional district maps

Del. Neil Parrott, R-Washington, doesn't like the new congressional maps approved earlier this month by the Maryland General Assembly.

And he's suing the state to get them thrown out.

Parrott announced in an email message to supporters early Wednesday that he is the lead plaintiff in Parrott v. Lamone, which seeks to overturn the map.

The suit was filed Tuesday by Judicial Watch, a conservative Washington-based foundation. Linda Lamone is the administrator of the Maryland Board of Elections. Parrott is one of 12 plaintiffs in the case, and the only one from Western Maryland.

Parrott is seeking the 6th District U.S. House seat currently held by Democrat David Trone. Republican Roscoe Bartlett held that office for 20 years, until redistricting after the 2010 census added more of Montgomery County to the district and eliminated Carroll, Baltimore and Harford counties and most of Frederick County.

In other words, fewer Republicans and a lot more Democrats.

Backstory: Maryland congressional map could enable Democrats to go 8-0

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Parrott and others also filed suits over the current map. One of those suits, Lamone v. Benisek, went all the way to the Supreme Court — twice. The district map approved this month doesn't look substantively different.

"We have been cheated of real representation for 10" years, and "now is the time to bring our communities together and to get our voice back," Parrott said in his message.

He added that he believed he could win the congressional race with the map that was approved, but "I don't think it is fair to communities of interest and people all across the state."

While Parrott has a personal stake in the outcome of the suit, he's not the only one raising objections to the new district maps. Gov. Larry Hogan, also a Republican, vetoed the maps, but the General Assembly immediately overrode the veto.

In an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal last week, Hogan invited the U.S. Department of Justice, currently suing Texas alleging its Republican-drawn redistricting map violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to sue Maryland, too.

Attorney General Merrick Garland "and the Biden administration can live up to their rhetoric by holding both parties accountable for discriminatory gerrymandering — or it can politicize the Justice Department by holding red states and blue states to different standards," Hogan said.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Parrott, Judicial Watch sue over Maryland congressional district maps