The long battle over Maryland’s oddly-shaped congressional districts is finally over: Republican Governor Larry Hogan signed into law a new map after months of tussling with Democratic lawmakers. Democrats’ original map was thrown out last month by a judge who called it “a product of extreme gerrymandering.”

“It’s a tremendous victory for democracy and for free and fair elections in Maryland,” Hogan said in a press conference after signing the legislation creating the new maps. “When these maps came out in December, I said they were unconstitutional and violated the law. The courts agreed.”

In the ruling on March 25, Anne Arundel County Senior Judge Lynne Battaglia declared the Democrats’ redistricting plan unconstitutional, calling the map of long, twisting, disconnected districts cutting haphazardly across county lines “an outlier,” and giving lawmakers five days to redraw it. The new districts, released by lawmakers on March 30, are much more compact and regular in shape.

Maryland is one of the few states where Democrats stood to gain seats through redistricting following the 2020 census. Lawmakers’ original map made Maryland’s already-contorted districts even stranger. District 1, for example, is currently the only seat held by a Republican member of congress and includes the rural and conservative Eastern Shore. The Democrats’ map would have added a big, non-contiguous chunk of liberal Anne Arundel County to the district, making it harder for a Republican to win. District 6 would have stretched all the way from the tony D.C. suburb of Potomac to the westernmost border, in the heart of Appalachia. The original map would have made it possible for Democrats to control all eight of the state’s seats in Congress.

The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which rates state redistricting plans based on partisan fairness and other measures, gave the Democrats’ initial map an F. The project has not yet graded the new maps but gave similar maps created by a redistricting commission launched by Hogan an A.

“I think gerrymandering is a cancer on our democracy, regardless of which party does it,” Hogan said. He also noted that it’s often his own party that is guilty of the practice.

“A number of maps have been thrown out in other states around the country — Republican maps. This is the first time in the United States that a set of Democratic maps have been thrown out for the same reasons,” Hogan said.

Attorney General Brian Frosh had planned to appeal Judge Battaglia’s ruling, but said today in a press release that he would accept the new map.

“We are pleased Governor Hogan has agreed to sign the proposed congressional redistricting map approved by the General Assembly. This map, like the one previously passed by the General Assembly, is Constitutional and fair. Both sides have agreed to dismiss their appeals, and our state can move forward to the primary election.”

The original maps were challenged by the group Fair Maps Maryland, which applauded today’s news.

“While this map isn’t perfect it’s a tremendous improvement from the absolute unconstitutional disaster we started with late last year,” said Doug Mayer, a spokesperson for the group, in a press release.

“This has been a long time coming but we finally have congressional districts that don’t look like prehistoric animals and aren’t specifically designed to suppress Marylander’s right to vote,” Mayer said.