I never lived in MD but part of my territory when I worked out of Wilmington, DE included Salisbury. My experience is that Western MD and the Eastern Shore bear no resemblance to the rest of the State. It is a little like Cook County and Chicago defining what IL is.
I'm surprised that there isn't an open rebellion in the Eastern Shore over this. There are a lot of good ol' boys there. Perhaps they've just decided to ignore it and go on with their lives.