Useless redistricting commission

Local, Politics, Virginia 1 Minute

According to The Washington Post, Governor Bob McDonnell is appointing a bipartisan redistricting commission. Good, right? Well…

Rather than proposing legislation to establish the commission and give it legal teeth, as other states have done, he is creating it by executive order and giving it only an advisory role. The 11-member commission, equipped with neither staff nor budget from the state, will have less than two months once detailed Census figures are released in February to propose a map with state legislative and congressional districts. Lots of luck.

Pure window-dressing. McDonnell was never really a proponent of bipartisan redistricting, anyway. He jumped on board at the urging of  his running mate, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, himself a member of the Virginia Redistricting Coalition. Had McDonnell been serious about doing this, he would have made it a legislative priority and convinced his fellow Republicans in the House to pass a commission bill. Instead, he sat on his hands as the bill was killed in committee, after having passed the Senate with bipartisan support.

To be honest, I’m surprised he’s even bothering to name a commission, but then again, I shouldn’t be. After all, he gets to check the box that he fulfilled a campaign promise.

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9 thoughts on “Useless redistricting commission”

  1. Agreed that legislation giving commission some teeth is necessary. Perhaps the new citizens committee in California can be a model for the other 49 states on how to make the process fair and clean. http://www.wedrawthelines.ca.gov/

    As Common Cause President Bob Edgar has said: “Both parties, and the American people, deserve better. We deserve a system where voters choose their elected representatives — and not one where elected representatives choose the voters they want to represent.”

  2. Pingback: Tweets that mention Useless redistricting commission « VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local -- Topsy.com

  3. Just as the governor wants the VRS raid from last year paid back after he is out of office and will leave it to future governors to figure out how to service the debt his highway bonds will create, he’s created a commission that MIGHT affect the next redistricting, but not this one.

  4. No party in power wants to give that power to someone else. The democrats wouldn’t do it when they were in the majority, and the republicans won’t do it now.

    1. No, Doug, POWER is the most important thing. Party is just a means to that end. When that means does not satisfy, you jump ship. (See Lieberman, Murkowski, Jeffords, Specter, etc.)

  6. It’s not hard to predict what will happen when bills for non-partisan redistricting were routinely shot down in the General Assembly. For a while there was no record and meetings were held at 7AM in order for the public not to see that nasty sausage being made in Capitol Square.

    Toothless, and without power or mandate. Thanks Bob.

    1. Well, as Vivian pointed out, McDonnell was never really in favor of this. He was a consistent vote against when he was in the legislature. He got caught by someone asking for a campaign pledge and he knew which was the answer the people wanted. Didn’t mean he ever really planned to do it.

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