Community leaders and concerned citizens turned out Monday to protest proposed redistricting maps at the Virginia General Assembly’s final public hearing. The hearing was held by the House and Senate elections committees as the General Assembly convened for a special session on redistricting. Sen. Janet Howell (D-32) presented Senate Bill 5001, the plan expected to be voted upon and approved by the full Virginia Senate, which has a 22-18 Democratic majority. In Howell’s proposed plan, the Senate Democrats grouped Republican Sens. Frank Wagner and Jeff McWaters, both of Virginia Beach, into the one district, and shoehorned Sens. Ralph Smith of Roanoke and Lynchburg's Steve Newman into another one. Sen. Frank W. Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, spoke out against the proposed redistricting plan: "They [Virginia Beach citizens] deserve — as a community of over 435,000 people — they deserve, they warrant, they earn two senators," said Wagner. “You want a yardstick for gerrymandering?” Carl Wright, a Virginia Beach resident asked the committee. “Come to our city! It’s been gerrymandered, gerrymandered, re-gerrymandered, and gerrymandered again ... “I’m asking you all today, when you look at the city of Virginia Beach, please consider all of the citizens with a fair and true representation. That’s all I ask.”
In the run-up to these hearings, Governor McDonnell appointed a bipartisan commission to make redistricting recommendations. The commission published maps that look more sensible. Three students from George Mason University showed the committee their map, which won the Virginia Redistricting Competition. Nicholas O’Boyle, one of the map’s designers, said the students’ map reduced the splits of counties to 161 from more than 300 in Howell’s map. The students’ map does not pay much attention to incumbents or political partitioning. Neither the Senate nor the House paid any attention to their inputs. Then again, since when do progressive elected officials listen to citizens when they can re-district them and thereby discount their vote.
Howell said she anticipates changes will be made to the legislation, but said her bill meets all federal and state requirements including the federal Voting Rights Act, which requires, among other things a percentage of voting districts in which minorities are a majority of the population. Not everyone agrees. In a letter to Senator Howell , Clarke County Board of Supervisors chairman Michael Hobert (Berryville) said “Clarke County strongly objects to being divided as part of the Virginia General Assembly redistricting process.” Hobert, an attorney, said that the plan also violates numerous legal precedents regarding election district creation. Citing the Guide to Local Redistricting for 2011, Hobert said that election districts are required to be “reasonably compact with irregular district shapes justified because the district line follows a political subdivision boundary or significant geographic feature” and must “represent communities of interest.” Hobert told Howell that her redistricting proposal achieves neither requirement and will divide Clarke County, a jurisdiction of less than 15,000 people and less than 10,000 registered voters, and violates the principles stated in the Guide to Local Redistricting for 2011 published by the Virginia Division of Legislative Services.
Robin Lind of the Virginia Electoral Board Association and Chesterfield County General Registrar Larry Haake said the new plans could create a substantial financial burden on Virginia's 134 counties and cities because of the number of voting precincts that would be split. Haake said that in Chesterfield alone, the plans could cost the county $600,000 to $1 million in the creation of precincts. State-wide cost is estimated at $6.2 to $6.7 million.
The governor can still fix this mess. McDonnell will get a shot at the final map. Then again, it must be approved by Obama's Department of Justice. Wonder how that will work out for the citizens of Virginia, especially Virginia Beach?
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