Editorial: House GOP Kills Redistricting Reform
Roanoke Times
February 16, 2008

Protecting its majority status in the short term won out over reform. House Republicans may come to regret that in the long run. Others already do.

A Virginia House of Delegates subcommittee killed a bipartisan redistricting plan Friday that would have elevated the public's interest over raw political interests in drawing state and federal legislative boundaries.

More precisely, three Republicans killed it.

But make no mistake: Their votes reflect the will of a House GOP leadership that shows no interest in bipartisan governance.

On a straight, 3-2 party-line vote, the GOP members of a House Privileges and Elections subcommittee killed Senate Bill 38. With it went a historic chance this year to break the long tradition of political gerrymandering by lawmakers, who control the process of redrawing district lines every 10 years based on census data. Virginia's next redistricting will be in 2011.

Sen. Creigh Deeds' bill would have created a bipartisan commission to redraw district maps based on nonpartisan criteria, mainly population changes. The plan is far from ideal. The commission would be bipartisan rather than nonpartisan, and the General Assembly could reject or amend its recommendations.

Still, it would be a far sight better than the status quo. Now, incumbency protection guides the process, with both Democrats and Republicans, in turn, manipulating district lines to partisan advantage when they hold sway in the General Assembly.

This year's power split between Democrats in the Senate and Republicans in the House offered the serious prospect of reform. The Senate passed the bill with the support of Republicans. Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine and Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling got behind it. Business leaders and other advocacy groups supported it, too.

The House GOP chose instead to cling to and try to protect its power rather than trust the party's future to the strength of its ideas in a more competitive political process. And the party did it on an unrecorded vote, no less.

Democratic Privileges and Elections Committee members tried and failed Friday to bring the bill before the full committee. After a show of hands, Committee Chairman Mark Cole refused even at that point to allow a recorded vote. Arrogance on top of short-sightedness.

Voters should turn the knaves out at the next election -- but political gerrymandering will make that very hard to do.