Editorial
If there was a sliver of a silver lining for Democrats in last week’s Supreme Court of Virginia ruling nullifying the April 21 redistricting referendum, it was that two high-profile Democratic contenders for Congress won’t be facing each other in a party primary.
Under the redistricting plan approved by voters in the referendum, former Congressman Tom Perriello and bestselling author and longtime journalist Beth Macy would have been forced to square off in a primary on Aug. 4 to determine the Democratic nominee to challenge Sixth District Republican Congressman Ben Cline in the Nov. 3 general election.
Now that the present congressional districts are apparently going to stand, barring a successful appeal by state Democrats to the U.S. Supreme Court of the state supreme court ruling, Perriello and Macy are in separate districts with fairly clear paths to their party’s nominations in this year’s congressional races.
Roanoke resident Macy is in the Sixth District and will be the favorite to win the Democratic nomination over Rockingham County resident Ken Mitchell in the upcoming primary. Perriello, now in the Fifth District, is the prohibitive favorite to be the Democratic Party’s nominee challenging Republican incumbent Congressman John Mc-Guire.
Although Macy and Perriello are expected be field strong candidacies in their respective races this fall, both will likely face uphill battles to actually win elections in districts that are Republican strongholds.
Republicans have to be pleased with recent court rulings that have aided and abetted their efforts to retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the Nov. 3 elections. The U.S. Supreme Court on April 29 struck down a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that allowed race to be considered in drawing up legislative districts. This ruling is expected to favor Republicans as state legislatures with GOP majorities rush to eliminate Black-majority congressional districts ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
We don’t know whether this U.S. Supreme Court ruling will assure a continued Republican majority in Congress. What this ruling will most definitely do is decimate representation in Congress by African Americans. The end result is that there will be far fewer African Americans serving in Congress next year. Our country will be worse off for it, in our estimation.
In spite of Democrats’ setback in Virginia, gerrymandering battles will continue elsewhere. It’s too early to say which party will ultimately prevail in the midterm elections. Some gerrymandering plans could backfire in certain instances. Redrawing legislative districts to favor the majority party runs the risk of weakening the party’s strongholds in other districts.
Whatever the outcome of this year’s gerrymandering war, we continue to believe that it is an abhorrent practice that undermines our democracy. Would that the U.S. Supreme Court someday rule partisan gerrymandering to be in violation of the U.S. Constitution and consigned to the dustbin of history. That would be a court ruling we could embrace.
