Bipartisan Redistricting After the Census - One Chance Remains: the 2010 G. A.

“The public needs to be active,” the Rev. Doug Smith, executive director of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, told the Richmond First Club at its September meeting.

Smith referred to attempts to move bipartisan redistricting legislation through the General Assembly and into law before the 2010 census results in new legislative and congressional districts. Attempts have failed for several years. Smith said the 2010 session provides one more opportunity for a bipartisan commission that would fairly draw lines in communities of interest.

Every statewide candidate, Republicans and Democrats, supports bipartisan redistricting, Smith said.

Redistricting legislation passes the Virginia Senate but has been stymied in a House of Delegates, Privileges and Elections subcommittee where the bills are killed and never make it to full committee much less the House of Delegates.

Citizens, Smith said, need to let their legislators know they want an end to protection of seats in Congress and the Virginia General Assembly by the party in power that has resulted in growing political polarization and governmental gridlock.

The Virginia Redistricting Coalition, organized by business, community and political leaders joined to fix “the broken system” that now allows, as Smith said, “elected leaders to choose their voters rather than voters choosing their elected leaders.”

Since last year, the work of the Coalition on redistricting has been shifted to Smith’s Interfaith Center for Public Policy. A fervent advocate of the need for bipartisan redistricting, Smith described modern gerrymandering, the age-old practice of both parties in drawing political lines to favor their party.  The use of computers has brought new sophistication to the practice.

A result, Smith explained, are Legislative districts that often result in legislators representing widely disparate areas that remove elected leaders from their constituents and lessen the opportunity for responsive government.

Twelve states have independent bipartisan commissions that draw the lines for Legislative and Congressional districts which, then, must be approved by the legislature.

Smith pointed out that under the present Virginia system, few elected leaders are challenged for their seats. As a result election in a gerrymandered district is often tantamount to staying in that office. In 2007 just 17 of 140 seats (House and Senate) were in serious competition. The number is similar in this year’s 2009 election for the House of Delegates.

Citizens should contact the following legislators, Smith said, to urge their support of bipartisan redistricting legislation: Delegates Bill Howell, Morgan Griffith, Chris Jones, Steve Landes and Kirk Cox. To learn more, visit: http://www.fixthelines.org/.

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