So I stumbled upon a diary on Daily Kos that was posted last week, and found it fascinating. The diarist created the State of Delmarva by taking Delaware and adding the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland and Virginia and then examines the effects on redistricting of on this new state.
At just under 1.4 million residents, [the state of Delmarva] has two congressional districts, gaining one in addition to Delaware’s original at-large district[.]
DE-01 (blue): Rep. John Carney (D) – 64.9% Obama, 33.4% McCain
This very blue district contains all of liberal New Castle County and all of conservative Cecil County, as well as most of Kent County (MD) and parts of Queen Anne’s County and Kent County (DE). (Obviously something would have to be done about those two Kent counties.) Ultimately, it comes out to one of the bluest non-VRA districts in the mid-Atlantic. Carney, who lives in Wilmington, would romp here. Safe Democratic.
DE-02 (green): OPEN – 46% Obama, 52.9% McCain
Due to Delmarva’s concentration of population in the urbanized north, this southern district is considerably larger, including most of the Eastern Shore taken from Maryland and all of Virginia’s portion of the peninsula. Southern Delaware and the Middle Shore are famously conservative, though their red tinge is tempered somewhat by liberal population centers in Somerset and Wicomico counties, as well as the state capital of Dover. It still ends up being a district in which Republicans would be slightly favored, but the area is also ancestrally Democratic and not averse to electing Blue Dogs. Frank Kratovil Jr. might want to take a run here. Lean Republican.
Thinking about scrambling the state boundaries has always been a kinda hobby of mine. Yeah, I’m weird. I have created maps showing the new states of Appalachia (West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania), a unified state of Carolina, North California and South California, the new state of Jefferson (Southern Oregon and Northern California) and Cascadia (Idaho and eastern Oregon and Washington State) a smaller state of Oregon (Coastal Oregon and Washington). The reason is many of our states are at odds culturally with themselves. Chicagoland versus downstate Illinios. Philly v. Pittsburgh v. the Alabama T in the middle. New York City versus Upstate.
Hell, look at Delaware and our above and below the canal battles. Such a battle is not solved with a new state of Delmarva. To solve that, you create a state of Delmarva sans Northern New Castle County, which is added to a new state of Franklin (SE Pa and Southern Jersey). But I digress. What do you think of this? I have always felt Delaware deserved a second congressional district as we approach a million Delawareans. But I doubt it will ever happen unless the state actually gets bigger. LOL.
While we are at it, perhaps some new counties in Delaware. Make Middletown a county seat of a new below the canal county between New Castle and Kent. And divide Eastern Sussex and Western Sussex into two counties. Yeah, yeah, I know, not practical or feasible in this day and age of budget cuts and consolidation. But I dream.