Of course he is. Protecting black Democrats will only increase the odds of Republicans winning surrounding districts through “bleaching” of the electorate.
MD is 29.4% black and around 57% Democrat. Assuming blacks are 28% of the electorate and vote 90% Democrat (which, if anything, understates the black turnout and propensity to vote Dem in MD), that means that non-blacks in MD (a group overwhelmingly composed of whites) vote 56% Republican and 44% Democrat. And since whites in southern Montgomery County and inner-city Baltimore are heavily Democrat, that means that whites outside those areas are over 60% Republican. So RATs need to make sure that districts are at least 25% Dem (at least 35% Dem in rural areas) if they want to win. And to draw districts that are 25%-35% black, they need to minimize the number of black-majority districts they draw, and minimize the black percentage even in the few black-majority districts that they countenance. That’s why MD blacks are getting the shaft from Democrats, and the same thing happens in just about every state the Dems control.
Thats my understanding of this. The white dems are trying to dilute the black vote with crazy shaped districts so that they can eliminate a few republican seats.
Republicans and black dems are working together to prevent this from happening.
I’m still pissed about the Congressional map. By putting more of Montco in it they manged to dilute the McCain % in the 6th to 42%. By my estimation the Bush % should be 5-7 points higher than that, a tie with Kerry at best.