In the hope of ending gerrymandering in the commonwealth, the state Senate unanimously passed a bill Monday that intends to make the state redistricting process less politically-driven and create more contested elections.
Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, has been a patron of the bill, known as the Bipartisan Redistricting Commission Act of 2009, for seven years, Deeds’ Senior Adviser Peter Jackson said.
The bill states, “All districts, to the extent practicable, shall respect the boundary lines of existing political subdivisions. More populous subdivisions shall be divided between or among districts before less populous subdivisions are divided.”
The bill effectively says that no political party has a monopoly on redistricting, Jackson explained, noting that voting districts should not be drawn so as to protect certain political parties or those currently in office. He said to avoid gerrymandering, the task of drawing districts will be “put it in the hands of commission that isn’t allowed to consider past voting results or party strength.”
Redistricting would give Charlottesville better representation in the state Senate because it would give the region a senator responsible for just representing that area, Jackson said.
“At this point in time, Charlottesville has not been affected by redistricting,” Charlottesville General Registrar Sheri Iachetta said. She noted, however, that “it could very easily happen because Albemarle is growing so much.”
The county has parts in the 57th, 58th and 59th House of Delegates districts in addition to the 24th and 25th State senate districts, said Jackie Harris, an independent elections consultant who works part time with the City.
Because these districts will capture entire precincts, Albemarle County’s boundary lines will be redrawn in the summer of 2011 after the 2010 census due to population growth, Harris explained.
Since the state takes a longer time to redraw the lines, Albemarle residents will “have to work more closely with the state so the state plans don’t conflict with local redistricting,” Harris said.
Harris further noted that the Department of Justice will be reviewing these plans and aims to more closely scrutinize district lines that have been proposed and sent for pre-clearance under the Voting Rights Act.
For some, the current mapping is less than satisfactory.
“We’ve always felt like the fifth congressional district is sort of a poorly drawn district in that Charlottesville has very little in common with some of the localities at the southern end,” City Mayor David Norris said.
He added that Charlottesville is significantly different in economics and transportation when compared to other neighboring southern counties. Economic and geographic commonalities are important factors to consider when determining boundary lines, he said.
“It’s really obscene how they use the district-drawing power to link up localities in congressional districts that have absolutely nothing in common with each other,” Norris said, noting, however, that he is “not terribly optimistic” that the bill will survive in the House of Delegates.
“The irony of the whole situation is that redistricting is about minimizing the influence of partisanship in the political process, but partisanship runs the General Assembly,” Norris said. “You’re asking partisans to set aside partisanship.”
Cordel Faulk, director of communications at the University Center for Politics, shared Norris’ skepticism about the bill’s fate.
“If it makes it out of committee, it’s going to have problems in the House of Delegates, [which] hasn’t been receptive to bills in the past,” Faulk said.
Jackson, however, remained optimistic that the bill will pass and will create real competition at the ballot box.
“Democracy is not supposed to work where elected leaders are choosing their voters instead of voters choosing their leaders,” Jackson said.
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