This is entirely theoretical and I do not invite commentary on the ethics of gerrymandering.
Maryland is a heavily Democratic state, and its legislature accurately reflects that. However, it still has occasional troubles passing progressive legislation (e.g. marriage equality in 2011). That was blamed upon the influence of African American churches projecting a false uproar to their legislators, but socially conservative (or just conservative) white members were just as big a problem. The solution? Well, we could try to defeat the troublesome senators, but given that some of them represent very swingy territory, that probably wouldn't work too well or easily. The answer is simple: elect more Democrats with a better gerrymander. We controlled redistricting in 2010, as we will for the foreseeable future, but the map I've made would have had no chance of passage due to machine politics, parochial concerns and incumbency. On that last note, however, I will say that all current Dem territory lies with Democratic districts except for a few Eastern Shore precincts. Thus, we are dealing with 35 incumbents into 42 districts.
Now onto the numbers! We control the Maryland Senate 35-12 (and the House of Delegates 97-43, with each Senate district electing 3 delegates, with some districts split into two or three parts), but under the proposed map, we would very likely hold a 42-5 majority and with few split districts, the HoD a corresponding 126-15. My map creates 13 African American VAP majority districts, as opposed to the current 12, has 41 districts where Obama received at least 58% in 2008, one Eastern Shore district where he received 51.1% and five intractably Republican districts where Obama received no more than 40.3%. I have little concern about our holding the 58%+ districts. We currently control all districts that gave Obama at least 49.7% (we hold 5 McCain seats). As far as local Dem performance, the only seat that less than 55.6% (36 seats are 58%+) is the Hagerstown-Frederick district, which at 53.2% avg. Dem, is still better than any GOP held seat. A grand total of 18 Obama precincts lie in GOP districts, and all of them lie either in the panhandle or the Eastern Shore.
Below my Senate map I have two Congressional maps: one that does what no other 8-0 map has done (that I know of): have all districts above 60% Obama '08. The other (which I don't feel bad posting, as the GOP will never control Maryland) tries to give the GOP five seats.
DC region:
Baltimore:
Current vs. Proposed districts, Obama '08 and Avg. Dem performance in 2006-2008 statewide races:
District type:
Lime=African American majority (one 87%, 12 68-77% Obama districts), Dark blue=75-85% Obama (4 districts near DC), Blue=60-64% Obama (5 districts), Sky blue=58-59% Obama (19 districts), Turquoise=51% Obama (one district), Red=33-40% Obama (5 districts)
District |
White VAP |
Black VAP |
Hispanic VAP |
Asian VAP |
Obama |
Dem |
1 |
91.5% |
5.9% |
1.1% |
0.6% |
33.6% |
35.9% |
2 |
94.0% |
2.2% |
1.8% |
1.0% |
33.3% |
34.6% |
3 |
88.3% |
6.0% |
2.3% |
2.1% |
37.3% |
40.3% |
4 |
84.5% |
10.0% |
3.5% |
0.8% |
40.3% |
44.5% |
5 |
64.6% |
29.0% |
3.6% |
1.4% |
51.1% |
51.1% |
6 |
80.2% |
13.5% |
3.3% |
1.7% |
40.0% |
42.3% |
7 |
61.9% |
29.9% |
3.6% |
2.4% |
59.2% |
62.2% |
8 |
59.0% |
31.9% |
3.7% |
3.0% |
58.0% |
62.9% |
9 |
41.1% |
50.3% |
3.7% |
2.7% |
69.7% |
70.8% |
10 |
41.4% |
50.7% |
3.7% |
2.2% |
73.1% |
73.4% |
11 |
35.0% |
54.5% |
4.9% |
3.5% |
77.0% |
76.8% |
12 |
41.1% |
52.0% |
3.6% |
1.6% |
72.0% |
70.5% |
13 |
35.5% |
57.6% |
3.1% |
2.1% |
74.6% |
72.9% |
14 |
38.8% |
51.4% |
4.8% |
3.0% |
73.3% |
71.9% |
15 |
15.7% |
54.4% |
25.2% |
2.8% |
86.9% |
87.4% |
16 |
51.4% |
33.7% |
6.3% |
6.4% |
62.4% |
63.8% |
17 |
56.0% |
30.0% |
7.4% |
4.2% |
58.0% |
60.3% |
18 |
58.2% |
23.4% |
6.8% |
9.2% |
58.3% |
60.8% |
19 |
41.7% |
28.0% |
17.6% |
10.0% |
76.3% |
75.9% |
20 |
20.9% |
31.1% |
39.1% |
7.0% |
85.4% |
85.1% |
21 |
52.9% |
21.4% |
15.0% |
8.3% |
79.2% |
79.2% |
22 |
76.7% |
3.8% |
6.8% |
10.8% |
74.3% |
74.9% |
23 |
64.6% |
6.8% |
7.4% |
19.4% |
64.3% |
65.4% |
24 |
63.6% |
12.9% |
8.9% |
12.7% |
58.1% |
56.4% |
25 |
62.2% |
14.5% |
11.6% |
9.6% |
58.0% |
57.3% |
26 |
71.2% |
14.0% |
8.7% |
4.1% |
58.1% |
53.2% |
27 |
60.9% |
12.7% |
12.8% |
11.6% |
58.1% |
55.6% |
28 |
58.6% |
10.8% |
15.2% |
13.2% |
58.9% |
59.0% |
29 |
56.2% |
13.3% |
19.7% |
8.9% |
58.5% |
60.0% |
30 |
59.4% |
10.9% |
14.6% |
13.0% |
59.8% |
62.0% |
31 |
56.3% |
22.9% |
7.6% |
11.3% |
59.2% |
56.8% |
32 |
61.8% |
15.1% |
4.5% |
16.4% |
60.7% |
59.5% |
33 |
66.6% |
16.7% |
5.4% |
9.1% |
58.7% |
60.4% |
34 |
40.9% |
51.0% |
3.0% |
3.4% |
70.5% |
71.4% |
35 |
63.4% |
25.9% |
4.5% |
4.4% |
58.4% |
58.5% |
36 |
42.2% |
51.0% |
2.6% |
2.7% |
70.5% |
68.8% |
37 |
42.4% |
51.2% |
2.2% |
2.9% |
67.9% |
66.8% |
38 |
41.7% |
51.3% |
2.4% |
3.3% |
70.2% |
71.5% |
39 |
73.2% |
18.1% |
2.6% |
4.4% |
58.1% |
60.4% |
40 |
68.1% |
20.3% |
3.1% |
6.8% |
58.6% |
61.2% |
41 |
42.5% |
50.3% |
2.3% |
3.3% |
73.1% |
73.2% |
42 |
40.7% |
50.9% |
4.8% |
2.2% |
73.5% |
75.0% |
43 |
63.2% |
27.0% |
4.6% |
3.2% |
58.4% |
60.9% |
44 |
58.9% |
33.2% |
4.0% |
2.2% |
58.6% |
64.7% |
45 |
65.6% |
24.1% |
6.4% |
1.9% |
58.2% |
66.1% |
46 |
63.1% |
25.6% |
5.0% |
4.2% |
63.7% |
65.7% |
47 |
67.3% |
18.9% |
8.9% |
3.1% |
58.0% |
58.7% |
All Congressional districts above 60% Obama '08
Secret: Split the Eastern Shore between African American majority districts while including only the super-Dem precincts with the worst turnout.
GOP Gerrymander: 5 48.1-48.2% Obama '08 seats
Secret: The third Dem district (Montgomery and Prince George's Counties) should encompass, firstly the most liberal white areas and secondly the remaining African American pockets. The GOP districts can more easily absorb Hispanic areas that have low turnout as opposed to liberal white areas with high turnout. No district has higher than 74.1% white, which is pretty incredible for likely GOP seats outside of the superpolarized areas of the Deep South.