Senate Republicans pulled a fast one this afternoon with a “technical corrections” bill in which they completely redrew the Senate districts. As this map shows (click to enlarge) the red lines represent the plan that was approved in 2011, after the redistricting. The green lines represent the districts approved by the Senate 20-19.
The power grab by Senate Republicans was well planned:
- Consideration of HB 259 was “passed by for the day” on every single day of session prior to today
- Today, one Democrat was missing from session. Senator Henry Marsh attended the inauguration.
- Why not bring up the bill before? Perhaps because Republicans weren’t sure they could count on Bolling.
- Seems even Gov. Bob McDonnell was caught by surprise.
- The new maps? Already loaded into the redistricting website, including the statistical data and the shape files. The images in this post came from there.
On this day, when we celebrated the birth of Dr. Martin Luther Kings, Jr., and when we celebrated the inauguration of our re-elected president, Sen. John Watkins stood and proclaimed that we need a sixth minority-majority district, invoking the words of the nation’s first black governor, Doug Wilder.
The maps seem to take out two white Democratic senators: Creigh Deeds in the 25th and George Barker in the 39th.
The irony isn’t lost on me.
This is no “technical corrections” bill. This is a coup.
This is what Republicans do instead of fixing the roads and improving our education system. We’ll see this in the Virginia Supreme Court.
Posted by Mark Brooks | Monday, January 21, 2013, 8:39 pmThis is what Republicans do when they can’t win elections on issues. Where is the fierce Tea Party now to inform us of the lost principles of the founding fathers?
Posted by lauren victoria burke | Tuesday, January 22, 2013, 7:27 pmAccording to Kenton Ngo, 45% of the voting age population was moved from one district to another in this “technical corrections” bill.
Posted by Vivian J. Paige | Monday, January 21, 2013, 9:34 pmBlatant power grab. I am very disappointed.
Posted by Mark Brooks | Tuesday, January 22, 2013, 7:07 amthis is sets numerous dangerous precedents. Please see most post on Shaun Kenney’s article for more about them.
Posted by SE VA MWC Alum | Tuesday, January 22, 2013, 11:51 amThis does set a scary precedent. I was at a talk given by Justice Scalia once. He was talking about France and their constitution. He described how many constitutions France had because when a party changes power they would rewrite the Constitution to what they want and the bad effects it has had. I see this as going down the same road what is to stop any state from redrawing lines when ever what ever party is in power. This is nothing more then trying to slip what you want through to grab more voters to win districts. It is bad enough that they do so much gerymanddering but now they will flip all around when ever it is convinent. I hope the DOJ looks in to this and stops it.
Posted by Carole Garrison | Tuesday, January 22, 2013, 4:15 pmSorry for mis spellings having trouble viewing post.
Posted by Carole Garrison | Tuesday, January 22, 2013, 4:16 pmI doubt that DoJ will have any objection to this plan. They’re only concerned with racial discrimination, not partisan politics (at least they’re supposed to be) and this actually creates a NEW majority-minority district (an explicit goal of the Voting Rights Act). It should make no difference to DoJ whether the plan results in fewer Democrats in the Virginia Senate.
Posted by Joseph | Tuesday, January 22, 2013, 4:29 pm