Reshaping Virginia, the Republican way

Shane Wade
Opinion Editor

What happened in the Virginia General Assembly last week was the kind of political shenanigans you’d expect to come straight out of Hollywood; it’s the kind of chicanery that exemplifies the worst of politicians.

On the day of President Barack Obama’s second inauguration, Republicans in the state legislature pushed and passed a redistricting bill by a single vote. The plan drastically alters Virginia’s Senate district map by removing a Democrat’s seat in the state’s western end, relocating other Democratic seats into predominately Republican areas and placing what amounts to roughly  half of the state’s voting populace in new senate districts.

Under normal conditions, the move would have been less controversial, but a number of circumstances makes this  move among one of the most despicable political maneuvers of the year. Senate Republicans waited to vote on the bill until the date of Obama’s second inauguration, when the 79-year-old Civil Rights leader and state Sen. Henry Marsh III, D-Richmond, left the state  to attend the inauguration.

Sen. Marsh’s absence gave Republicans the 20-19 win needed to pass the redistricting measure that disadvantages Democrats, creates more Republicandominant districts and almost completely overturns the political districting of Virginia.

In addition to the surprise vote, Senate Republicans operated under the guise of making a technical adjustment.

The Virginia Constitution dictates that districts be redrawn once every decade, following a formal census. The most recent round of redistricting was completed in 2011, meaning after that, only technical adjustments are to be made.

Re-proportioning nearly half of Virginia isn’t a technical adjustment. At best, it’s technical fraud. Rarely are bills, or even revisions to bills (which this was), voted on on the same day they’re introduced; imagine the amount of secrecy and backdoordealings that had to go on in order for the twenty Republican senators to read and agree upon the legislation. Secrecy and hastily-passed revisions are out of bounds for legislative bodies that are, by intention and nature, supposed to act deliberatively. What occurred here flies in the face of the Constitution. Actions like this explain why demographic groups are shying away from the GOP and politics in general.

Fortunately, the bill is not yet law. Under section five of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, not only must the House of Delegates (also Republican-controlled) and the governor, approve and pass the bill, federal law dictates that the U.S. Justice Department must approve changes to district boundaries. Furthermore, it’s unlikely to pass both federal review and the governor’s review, as Gov. Bob McDonnell himself expressed surprise and disapproval at the measures Republicans took to pass the bill.

What we should be wary of is the precedent set by the actions of Senate Republicans. Not only have they effectively publicized their true colors as politicians willing to stoop to the lowest tricks to score meaningless victories, they have, as the former communications director of the Republican Party of Virginia, Shaun Kenney, wrote in an article for BearingDrift.com, “endangered the relationship with their cohorts across the aisle.”

If ploys and plays on technicalities is the new standard of Virginia politics, there should be no complaints if Democrats decide to make similar plays that blindside the public, opponents and party members alike. Even if, as state Senate Republican Tommy Norment, R-Williamsburg, believes, Democrats, as this revision does, attempted this trick in the original 2011 version of the redistricting bill, that doesn’t justify re-trying it. The idiom ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ is generally taught to pre-schoolers, but maybe it’s necessary for it to be embedded in the Senate Chambers.

Actions have consequences and those consequences can be as simple as public rebuke. Gerrymandering is among the most  egregious abuses of power a politician can engage in. There must be justice to atone for this abuse. The entirety of this issue could and would be avoided if politicians abided by the will of the people and passed legislation that bases redistricting strictly on populations and prevents future politicians from making adjustments to those guidelines.

Coincidentally, a similar bill currently exists in the Virginia Senate. Senate Bill 742, proposed by state Sen.Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, and on the House side by Delegate David Toscano, D-Charlottesville, establishes a five-member, nonpartisan Virginia Redistricting Commission. That commision, in turn, would comment on redistricting plans brought forth during the legislative session and ensure limitations on the use of political data within those plans.

Although introduced last December and passed by the Senate with a 33-7 vote, there’s been little press coverage or public
discussion.