Yet Another Democratic Maryland-mander

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday September 28, 2011 · 8:14 AM PDT

2011/09/28 · 08:14

Well, I've been fine-tuning this effort to give Democrats a shot at 8-0 in Maryland for a few days now and during that time roguemapper, KingofSpades, SaoMagnifico, glam, and jncca have each produced Maryland efforts that are all worth a view.

Like most Swingnuts, I've tinkered with Maryland many times. This (final) time around, I decided to really throw caution (read: communities of interest) to the wind. The map I have produced is a callous piece of gerrymandering that would spark a torrent of criticism from any good government group.

The only "rule" I really obeyed was that the Eastern Shore cannot be split.

My goals were as follows:

1. Make every Dem incumbent's seat 60.0 or more based on President Obama's vote.
2. Make MD-1 a true toss-up that a Frank Kratovil-type Dem can win and hold by making the district as Democratic as possible without splitting the Eastern Shore.
3. Take out Roscoe Bartlett while somewhat maintaining a "western district."

GeoffreyVS

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday June 12, 2011 · 1:42 PM PDT

2011/06/12 · 13:42

Presently, Virginia is locked in the beginning of what may end up being a very lengthy battle between the conflicting Congressional redistricting plans of the Virginia State Senate (under Democratic control) and the Virginia House of Delegates (under GOP control). Just a couple days ago, each side passed its own version of the new map. The VA Senate plan proposes the creation of a second majority-minority district in VA-04 with a black majority, a plan that turns Bobby Scott's current majority-minority district (VA-03) into one with a black plurality. The map sets up three solid Democratic seats and one likely Dem seat in northern Virginia. Meanwhile, the GOP-dominated House of Delegates' plan attempts to shore up the eight Republican incumbents as best as it can.

After examining the Democratic plan, I wanted to see what two fully black-majority districts would look like on the map. In the process of drawing this map, I also decided to construct a majority-minority district in northern Virginia. The result was a map that is not exactly pretty but is interesting nonetheless. Remember this is all hypothetical and considering the violations of communities of interest and compactness, I doubt such a map would be given any serious consideration. Still it's a fun exercise. Please read on:

RSS

Yet Another Democratic Maryland-mander

Virginia: Three Majority-Minority Districts