Interestingly enough, that gerrymandering resulted in me having the lone GOP congressman (Dr. Andy Harris) in Maryland. I live in Harford County (about 40 miles from Baltimore) and am represented by Harris whose district encompasses the entire eastern shore. Doesn’t make much sense.
Maryland’s districts are about as nakedly partisan as they come. That’s why the 6th District was redrawn, so that the liberals in upper Montgomery County could outweigh the conservatives in Western Maryland and deprive them of representation. Ditto for the 8th District, where the conservatives of upper Frederick County and lower Carroll County are swamped by the liberals of lower Montgomery County.
I live at the confluence of the 2nd, 3rd, and 7th districts, where they flow side-by-side into a narrow funnel on their ways to and from the more heavily Democratic precincts on all sides. Truth be told, I don’t even know which district I’m in — not that it matters, since my vote is outweighed in any of them.
About a decade ago, Arizona voted to have a 5 person panel draw up new Congressional Districts. 2 Republicans, 2 democrats and 1 Independent. Unfortunately, the ‘Independent’ that Jan Brewer appointed was really a Democrat. The 3 Dems met behind closed doors (illegal), drew up new Districts (illegal) and voted for their new Districts which were then implemented. Brewer sued to overturn the new Districts and a Leftist judge ruled against her. So, in a state with an R Governor, and R Sec of State, an R Atty General and 2 Senators, the Dems took 5 of 9 Congressional seats. Democrats ALWAYS accuse Republicans of doing what they, the Dems, are really doing. Our Party is really late to the manipulation game. We MUST catch up if we are going to have any chance of saving this country.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
Not sure how to stop gerrymandering but one thing that would help would be to make it such that districts cannot cross a municipal or other governmental boundary.
Connie Morella was one of the few repubs in MD. They got rid of her by changing her district to include parts of both Montgomery and Prince Georges counties.