While gerrymandering proceeds apace elsewhere, it won’t be happening here in Virginia, ahead of this year’s congressional elections.
The Supreme Court of Virginia on Friday ruled 4-3 against the April 21 redistricting referendum in which the state’s voters approved a state constitutional amendment that would have redrawn the state’s congressional districts.
The effect of the ruling is that congressional districts in Virginia will stay the same as they have been in the past two elections. Locally, that means Rockbridge County, Buena Vista and Lexington will remain in the Sixth Congressional District which is currently represented by Republican Congressman Ben Cline. Had the redistricting map approved by voters in the April 21 referendum election held, the Rockbridge area’s three jurisdictions would have moved into the Ninth Congressional District, currently represented by Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith.
The Democratic Party-controlled General Assembly passed the redistricting plan in an effort to increase the number of Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation. The redrawn district could have resulted in increasing the Democrats’ congressional advantage in Virginia from 6-5 to 10-1.
Gerrymandering efforts in other states that began last year when Texas redrew its congressional districts to favor that state’s majority Republican Party are continuing. The pace actually has picked up following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that struck down a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that allowed race to be considered in drawing up legislative districts.
