While I haven’t looked at all the districts yet, I’m very encouraged by what I’ve seen so far.
First, the highlights:
*All four Wilmington districts, and all four majority-minority districts, are retained in this plan.
*Two R districts in northern New Castle County disappear–the 11th (Lavelle) and the 20th (Manolakos). Lavelle is placed in Debbie Hudson’s 12th District, and Manolakos is grouped with Joe Miro (22nd RD).
*Two new districts are created—the 11th, which would ‘encompass the southwestern quadrant of southern New Castle County south of Middletown and west of U.S. 13 and the northwestern quadrant of Kent County. It would include the municipalities of Townsend, Kenton and Hartly;’ and the 20th, which ‘would incorporate the municipalities of Lewes and Milton, running south near Long Neck, encompassing the Harbeson area and reaching west near the city limits of Georgetown’. The numbers indicate that these will both be swing districts, and that independent voters will likely decide the winners. The 11th has a stronger D registration edge (about 10%) but I’s in this area tend to be conservative. The 20th has a very marginal D edge, less than 400 more registered D’s than R’s. But I have to think that Pete has someone in mind here who could win. We’ll see.
*The redrawn 37th (Briggs-King) would take in the entire City of Georgetown, and would increase the Hispanic population in the 37th ‘from 17.22 percent to 19.39 percent.’ This is probably the best that could be done to maximize the Hispanic influence in this district, but I’ll defer to those who have a much more intimate understanding of those population patterns than I do.
Now, my opinions:
I love, love how Brandywine Hundred has been redistricted. The 7th RD (B. Short) picks up a significant portion of Claymont between Green Street and Philadelphia Pike, and loses a couple of its more Republican subdivisions, Chalfonte and Foulk Woods. The district becomes both more compact and solidly Democratic all at once.
I’m a little less in love with the 6th (Heffernan), as it picks up tony Surrey Park and Chatham (home of Bob Weiner) from Short, and Deerhurst from Lavelle. However, the 6th also picks up a nice D ED from Short, S. Graylyn Crest, and one from Lavelle, Green Acres. With Heffernan’s name recognition with the Brandywine School Board, this should still be her district to lose.
Dennis E. Williams’ 10th remains a swing district but with a pretty decent D plurality (1700 more registered D’s than R’s). While he picked up Republican communities like Chalfonte (he’d previously had a small portion of this huge community, now he has the whole thing) and Foulk Woods, he and/or the caucus wisely kept him east of the Concord Pike, thus eliminating his Chateau Country ED’s. I’d call it at worst a wash. Plus he keeps his districts east of Marsh Road, which are D districts.
The city districts are interesting. Dennis P. Williams (1st) goes further east up Washington Street Extension beyond his current Brandywine Hills boundary. It will have only a marginal impact on his district.
The 2nd District (Bolden) will now extend through the riverfront and pick up Browntown and Alban Park.
The 3rd District (Keeley) picks up some of Gerald Brady’s area going out Lancaster Avenue, including Colonial Heights.
The 4th District (Brady) will now venture almost out to Hockessin. Which is not to say that Gerald Brady will venture out to Hockessin.
One other district of note is the 21st (Ramone), which has 2000 more registered D’s than R’s. This looks like by far the best pickup opportunity for the D’s in 2012…if they bother to run someone this time.
There appears to be at least one major glitch on the maps. If you click on the 31st, Reps. Scott and Bennett appear to have been drawn into the same district. Leaving no incumbent in the 32nd. That has to be a mistake, right? Anybody?
Anyway, I don’t pretend to be an expert when it comes to Kent or Sussex Counties at all. So I encourage everybody to weigh in on what they see on these maps, who might be in line to run in the new districts, and just to snark away.
Plus, you can bet I’ll be back with more. Lots more.
ADDING: Additional, more detailed, higher-res maps have been released with Before and After looks at the House maps.