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Non-Partisan
Redistricting
Voters should
choose their representatives; politicians should not
choose their voters. Under current law, the
General Assembly establishes electoral districts for
members of the House of Representatives, the House
of Delegates and the Virginia Senate. In making
these determinations they must comply with federal
equal protection guarantees, but there are no
restrictions on favoring political parties. Thus,
Virginia voters may be packed into districts that
heavily favor one party. We believe that
gerrymandering is bad for voters and for the
political system. Packing voters into uncompetitive
districts disenfranchises those in the minority,
causes elections to be decided at the primary level
and moves the political dialogue towards the
extremes.
This year offers
an opportunity for Virginia to change its
redistricting system to one that fosters competition
and ignores entrenched political interests. The
General Assembly is split; Republicans hold the
House and Democrats hold the Senate. Redistricting
is coming and neither party knows whether they will
be in control of the process. Thus, both sides
should see a potential benefit in removing
partisanship from redistricting. The General
Assembly will be considering this issue in several
bills. Bills have been offered by Senator Janet
Howell, Senator Creigh Deeds, and
Delegate Kenneth Plum. We urge you to contact
your Delegate and Senator to urge them to support
Senator Howell’s and Senator Deeds’ bills on this
issue. All of the bills are described below.
Senator Creigh
Deeds has introduced two bills on non-partisan
redistricting. The first bill, SB 38, would
establish a Bipartisan Redistricting Commission.
The standards set forth in the bill would require
certain factors to be taken into account in drawing
district boundaries. Districts would be required to
be compact, contiguous and as equal in population as
is practicable. Districts should also respect the
boundaries of existing political subdivisions and
encompass communities of interest, to the extent
practicable. The standards would also prohibit
certain factors from being taken into account.
Prohibited factors include the impact on incumbent
legislators, members of Congress, or known
candidates for office, or promotion of the interests
of a political party.
The Commission
would be composed of five members selected from a
panel of retired judges. The Speaker of the House
of Delegates, the minority leader of the House of
Delegates, the President pro tempore of the Senate
and the minority leader of the Senate would each
appoint one member of the pool to serve on the
Commission. The four Commission members would then
appoint a fifth member, by majority vote. That
fifth member would be the Chairman of the
Commission.
The Commission
would then create a redistricting plan (the first
plan) based on the standards described above. The
first plan would be submitted to the General
Assembly. The plan could be accepted or rejected
but not modified. If the General Assembly rejects
the first plan, then the Commission would create a
second plan based on the standards and the comments
of the General Assembly. The second plan would be
submitted to the General Assembly. This plan could
also be accepted or rejected but not modified. If
the second plan is also rejected, the Commission
would create a third plan based on the standards and
the comments of the General Assembly. The third
plan would be submitted to the General Assembly and
could be accepted or modified.
This bill is an
interim measure that would improve the redistricting
process after the next census. The second bill,
described below, would provide a more permanent
solution, but requires amending the Virginia
Constitution which requires multiple steps and
therefore cannot be accomplished this year.
The second bill,
SJ 5, would amend the Virginia Constitution
to establish the Virginia Redistricting Commission.
The Commission would establish electoral districts
that are contiguous and compact and as equal in
population as is practicable. District boundaries
should coincide with existing boundaries of
political subdivisions. Districts may not be drawn
to favor a political party or incumbent legislator
or member of Congress. Factors that cannot be taken
into include addresses of incumbent legislators or
members of Congress, political affiliations of
registered voters, previous election results, or
demographic information, other than population
counts, except as required by the U.S. Constitution
and laws.
The Commission
would be composed of 13 members. Twelve members
would be appointed as follows: two by the President
pro tempore of the Senate, two by the Speaker of the
House of Delegates, two by the Senate minority
leader, two by the House of Delegates minority
leader, two by the chairman of the state committee
of the Governor’s political party, two by the
chairman of the state committee of the political
party whose candidate for the office of Governor
received the second most votes in the most recent
gubernatorial election. These 12 members would then
elect the 13th member, the independent
member. Election would require at least seven
votes. The 13th member would be Chairman
of the Commission.
The Commission
would hold hearings and establish electoral
districts. Approval of a plan requires seven
votes. If the Commission cannot agree on a plan two
plans receiving the greatest number of votes, but
not fewer than five, shall be submitted to the
Supreme Court. The Court will select and certify
the plan that most closely conforms to the
requirements of Virginia and federal law.
Once districts
are established shall remain unaltered through the
next year ending in zero.
Senator Howell’s
bill, SB 243, is essentially identical to SB
38 expect for the composition of the Commission.
Under SB 38, the five Commission members would be
selected from a panel of retired judges. Under SB
243, there would be seven members, appointed as
follows: one by the President pro tempore of the
Senate, one by the Speaker of the House of
Delegates, one by the Senate minority leader, one by
the House of Delegates minority leader, one by the
chairman of the state committee of the Governor’s
political party, one by the chairman of the state
committee of the political party whose candidate for
the office of Governor received the second most
votes in the most recent gubernatorial election.
These six members would then elect the seventh
member, the independent member. Election would
require at least four votes. The independent member
would be Chairman of the Commission.
Delegate Plum
has offered HB 339, the Virginia Advisory
Redistricting Commission Act. Although Delegate
Plum’s bill would be a step in the right direction,
we prefer the Howell/Deeds approach because those
bills give the Commission more power. HB 339 would
appoint a Commission whose duty would be to develop
a redistricting plan using standards similar to
those set forth in SB 38 and 243. HB 339 would,
however, submit only a single plan to the General
Assembly and the General Assembly could adopt or
modify that plan. In our view, this process is less
likely to result in a non-partisan plan since there
is no real incentive for the General Assembly to
adopt the redistricting commissions’ plan. The
Senate bills, because of the multi-stage process,
encourage negotiation and compromise. Therefore, we
believe they are better bills and urge you to urge
your Senator and Delegate to support SB 38 and 243
and SJ 5.
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