Chutzpah is a Yiddish term meaning audacity, nerve, or bold confidence, often with a connotation of brazenness or cheekiness. It can describe someone acting with shameless boldness, sometimes admirable for its courage, other times criticized for crossing ethical lines.
In 2011 redistricting, Maryland Democrats, under Governor Martin O’Malley, displayed chutzpah by aggressively redrawing the 6th Congressional District to flip it from Republican to Democratic control. The map stretched from rural Western Maryland to liberal Montgomery County, a move critics called audacious and manipulative. X posts from that era (archived) describe this as “political chutzpah” for its disregard of community cohesion.
This week the Texas State Legislature tried to undertake the perfectly lawful process of voting to change the congressional representation of voting districts to accommodate the changing demographics of the state. To avoid a vote on the matter, the Democrats of the state legislature decided to leave the state to prevent a quorum, thus delaying a vote.
But I don’t live in Texas, I live in Maryland … a politically “Blue” state that in 2025 has only one republican representative in the United States Congress … and why is that? The answer is gerrymandering! Yet some of Maryland’s legislators are nothing short of outraged at the actions of Texas and now threaten to gerrymander Maryland. Seriously? I am old enough to remember Martin O’Malley and the elimination of Rosco Bartlett’s Republican seat in Congress. It was not always this way.
Following the 2000 census, Maryland’s Democratic-led legislature redrew congressional and state legislative maps. The state had 8 congressional seats, as it does today. The outcome was that the maps were designed to protect Democratic incumbents, resulting in a 4-4 split between Democrats and Republicans in congressional seats, despite Maryland’s Democratic lean in statewide votes. Districts were relatively compact compared to later cycles, but subtle manipulations ensured safe seats for Democrats in urban areas, such as Baltimore and Prince George’s County.
The 2011 map was widely criticized as one of the nation’s most gerrymandered. It flipped the 6th District to Democratic control by incorporating liberal areas of Montgomery County, significantly reducing Bartlett’s vote share. The map secured a 7-1 Democratic advantage in Congress, despite closer statewide vote margins (e.g., Obama won 62% in 2012). The 6th District’s convoluted shape, stretching from rural Western Maryland to urban Montgomery County, became a symbol of gerrymandering. Even more notable was the 3rd District. Sometimes referred to as a “broken-winged pterodactyl,” the 3rd District’s unusual shape was intended to consolidate the Democratic vote in what could be called “soft” Democratic districts by making sure they were “hardened up” for future elections.
The 2020 census prompted another redistricting. Democrats again controlled the process under Governor Larry Hogan (Republican), creating tension. Maryland’s population grew slightly, but the state retained 8 congressional seats. The Democratic-led Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission proposed a map that maintained the 7-1 Democratic advantage but made the 1st District (Republican-held) more competitive by incorporating Democratic-leaning areas like Annapolis. This map was criticized for diluting Republican votes further.
In the Szeliga et al. v. Lamone legal challenge, Lynne Battaglia, senior judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals, struck down the 2021 congressional map as an “extreme partisan gerrymander” violating Maryland’s constitution, which requires compact districts respecting natural and political boundaries. The ruling highlighted the 1st and 6th Districts’ irregular shapes.
A revised map, which was approved by Hogan on April 4, 2022, restored some of the compactness and strengthened Republican chances in the 1st District while maintaining a 7-1 Democratic edge. The 6th District became slightly more competitive, with Biden’s 2020 margin reduced from 23 to about 10 points. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project graded this map a “B” for fairness.
This year, Maryland Democrats, led by figures like House Majority Leader David Moon, have proposed reactive redistricting in response to other states (e.g., Texas) altering maps mid-cycle. Posts on X, such as from @RedistrictNet, suggest this could target the 1st District again to secure an 8-0 Democratic sweep by redistributing voters across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
Never mind what is happening in Texas, Maryland congressional representation remains 7 to 1 across 8 seats … hardly representative of the body politic in the state. So David Moon — go back to trying to figure out how to deal with your billion-dollar budget deficit… or try harder to attract new business to the state to bolster the shrinking tax base, or just sit down and stop trying to rig the next, or any, election.
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