REDISTRICTING PLAN BREEZES THROUGH SENATE PANEL
Yet the measure's true test will come as it faces the partisan divide between the Senate and the House of Delegates.
By Mason Adams
Roanoke Times

RICHMOND -- A coalition of Virginia political leaders said Tuesday that the partisan split between the Senate and House of Delegates offers a historic chance to pass a bill to overhaul the once-a-decade process that sets state and federal legislative districts.

Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican, endorsed legislation in the Virginia Senate that would create a seven-member bipartisan redistricting commission to draw new state and federal legislative districts based only on population -- not on past election results or the addresses of incumbents or potential candidates.

The Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections approved legislation Tuesday to do so. Senate Bill 38, co-patroned by Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, and three others, was sent to the full Senate without opposition.

But even the bill's most ardent supporters admit the plan's not perfect. The commission may present the legislature with a bipartisan plan that's based only on population, but there's nothing in the bill that forces the General Assembly to abide by that recommendation. Legislators can tinker and re-draw lines for any reason they like.

"This is a compromise. This is a bill that gets introduced in the General Assembly, and then the General Assembly can do its will," Deeds said. "The coalition's hope on this is that once the commission goes through the process of drawing up the plan, you create a huge amount of pressure on the General Assembly to adopt the plan."

The only way to force the legislature to accept the commission's plan as written is to change the Virginia Constitution. Last year, Deeds introduced an amendment to do just that. It cleared the Senate but was killed by a committee in the House of Delegates.

"I would prefer for this to be outside the legislative process," Deeds said. But, "the appetite I don't think is there to change the Constitution right now."

In the meantime, SB 38 seems to be the best hope for those who want to change the redistricting process. Senate Republicans, who held a chamber majority from the late 1990s until this month, are among those joining the bandwagon this year.

"While political gerrymandering is constitutionally permissible, it should not be the primary focus of our redistricting efforts in Virginia because when it is, we end up with legislative districts that don't make sense," Bolling said. "We end up with counties and cities and towns and precincts split for political advantage. There is a better way."
Sens. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax County, Ken Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, and Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax County, are co-sponsors of the bill.

The bill also drew praise from former Virginia Govs. Mark Warner, a Democrat, and George Allen, a Republican. But although Allen said in a news statement that he supported SB 38, he also called for "a few amendments."

Allen wrote that incumbency and members of Congress should be considered when redistricting, and he said that the redistricting process "could be just as easily handled" by having legislators sitting on the commission instead of appointees. And he emphasized that the General Assembly and governor must retain a voice in the process, which they would not have had under last year's proposed amendment to the Virginia Constitution.

Despite the praise and passage of the bill by the Senate committee, there remains the question of the House of Delegates. The House has already killed at least one redistricting bill in subcommittee this year.

Bolling said he's already heard both opposition and support from delegates regarding SB 38.

"But this is a Senate bill and the first step is getting this out of the Senate," he said.
Others said they think the political atmosphere could change as the bill works its way through the Senate this week and next.

"Once we get out of the Senate with a good vote, the political dynamic will begin to shift," Cuccinelli said.