Lost amid the hubbub of last week’s Presidential election was the passage of Proposition 11 in California, which created a 14-member bipartisan redistricting commission. Of course, California has a process whereby the citizens can bypass the legislature and get such things put on the ballot. In Virginia, we have to wait for our legislature to do right by the citizens and, as I’ve said before, I don’t see that happening in the 2009 session.
The Virginian Pilot seems to think that if we keep talking about it, perhaps the legislature will listen. Yeah, right. The window to pass redistricting reform was the 2008 legislative session, with the House under Republican control and the Senate under Democratic control. Despite passage by the Senate last year, I’ll be surprised if a redistricting bill makes it out of a Senate committee this year, mainly due to the results of last week’s election. And, like last year, I don’t expect a bill to get out of committee in the House.
This is one of those times when I wish Virginia had some mechanism for citizens’ ballot initiatives. Because, truth be told, that’s about the only way we are ever going to get redistricting reform. And that’s a real shame.
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VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 