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Redistricting Effort to Be Revived
May, 2013
By Nancy Finch
In October 2009, Richmond First Club adopted political redistricting as a club project. With the 2010 decennial census coming up, the club joined the Virginia Redistricting Coalition that had been working on achieving political support for nonpartisan redistricting.
During 2010 and into 2011, club members wrote letters, appeared at committee hearings, press conferences and distributed information in numerous ways. A major project was providing each member of the General Assembly and the administration with videos that told the effects of gerrymandering on government and gave examples from states that have initiated fair methods of redistricting.
Discouraged but not deterred at the failure of the governor and the General Assembly to pass the many nonpartisan or bipartisan bills that are submitted regularly, a new redistricting effort is being organized. Leigh Middleditch, a Charlottesville lawyer long active in good government endeavors, is heading the new effort.
Richmond First Club has been invited to provide names of those who would like to be included in the "informal group of business and civic leaders from across Virginia." The time to act is now even though redistricting won't occur again until 2021 after the 2020 census. Experience has taught that seeking redistricting reform in Virginia is no easy matter so now is the time to begin.
We hope that we can count on our RFC members to continue to support and work on redistricting as you did during our 2009-2011 project. To sign up or for additional information on this effort, please e-mail Sam Seeley: sseeley@comcast.net
"Want to Watch Gerrymandering ?
Requests were made by Richmond First Club members to watch the documentary that was shown in snippets at the February 9 meeting by writer/director Jeff Reichert.
RFC Secretary Jonathan Macdonald is conducting a lending service of the dvd that can be shown on computers or television sets with a dvd component.
To borrow Gerrymandering an entertaining and educational 77-minute film about redistricting practices and abuses, contact Jonathan at: jbmacdonald@hotmail.com. |
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Could Redistricting Be Different in 2011? The Opportunity Is There!
Redistricting in Virginia in 2011 has four opportunities to create the fairest and most compliant-to-the-law lines ever drawn in Virginia. Redistricting, minus gerrymandering, was the message from Richmond First Club, Del. Ken Plum (D-Reston) and sent by Sen. Jill Vogel (R-Winchester) at a news conference at the General Assembly Feb. 9. Del. Plum has submitted bipartisan redistricting reform bills since 1982. Sen. Vogel submitted legislation last year for a law establishing a bipartisan commission with the power to redistrict.
The process can be entirely different this year thanks to, first, Governor Bob McDonald's newly created Independent Bipartisan Advisory Commission that will come up with a plan to recommend to the Governor and the General Assembly by April 1.
Second, college students on 16 teams at 13 colleges and universities are competing under the direction of faculty sponsors to design districts that meet the legal requirements of being compact, contiguous, represent communities of interest, are equally divided as nearly as possible and satisfy the Voting Rights Act.
The teams will submit their work to judges by March 10. Winning plans will be provided to the Governor's Bipartisan Commission and will be available to the General Assembly. The student-drawn districts can assist legislators who will draw districts based on new census figures in April after the veto session. Legislators return to Richmond to consider gubernatorial changes to their budget. Prizes will be awarded to the winning college teams that produce the best plans. The plans will be posted in the State Library for public consideration
Third, redistricting software, expertise and technology never available before will be used by the student teams and are available for the Commission or legislators.
Fourth, the Commission will hold public hearings in several locations around the state to give the public opportunity to be a part of the process under the direction of the first-ever Commission.
Encouraging the fairest and best drawn plans possible has been the goal of Richmond First Club for a year and a half since the club joined the Virginia Redistricting Coalition, an umbrella organization that has been working for several years to get legislation passed to establish a bipartisan process for redistricting in Virginia.
Following the news conference, club members and volunteers from the League of Women Voters and other organizations delivered 143 copies of "Gerrymandering," a documentary, to the Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General and all members of the General Assembly. The documentary was provided to educate politicians to the need for redistricting reform that can bring about better representation and, as a result, better government.
Gerrymandering has contributed in Virginia to legislative and congressional districts that challenge legislators to represent their constituents well. Some legislative districts have up to eight counties in their districts. As Sen. Vogel points out, her large district combines rural Valley of Virginia constituents with urban residents of Northern Virginia often creating a conflict for her.
Reporters from print, tv and radio were provided copies of the 'Gerrymandering' documentary to help them in their coverage of redistricting.
In addition, representatives of Richmond First Club attended the first meeting of the Governor's Advisory Commission and presented each member along with chairman Bob Holsworth a copy of the dvd.
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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City of Richmond & Region Chesterfield County Henrico County
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