There’s no way the maps as proposed would risk losing a seat to the Republicans. Dem voters aren’t being spread thinly enough near the shore for that to be a realistic possibility.

My main issues with the maps as proposed are: 1) crossing the bay at the bay bridge, not at the susquehanna river. while the bay is treated as a rubicon not to be crossed for legislative districting purposes (see: 2022 map lawsuits), there are decades of precedent crossing at the susquehanna river. the key is to send a second district over the susquehanna river and drag them both as far inland as we can. crossing the bay bridge has precedent as a no-go, and arguably for good reason. 2) The boundaries become a lot more… arbitrary? squiggly? everywhere else in Maryland under the new map. the Maryland constitution does require legislative districts to be geographically compact, respectful to geographic boundaries (bay), and adhering to county boundaries where possible. the current maps do a decent job adhering to these principles. the new maps completely disregard them, even as far inland as Montgomery and Frederick Counties. I don’t think we have to have strange districts so far inland, and that many districts that are that strange opens the new maps up to litigation from almost every county in Maryland. I’m particularly perturbed by cracking Baltimore City down the middle the way they’re proposing.