Re-Districting in Virginia Beach

UPDATE: Vivian has the schedule of redistricting public hearings posted, which includes one Sept. 22, 7pm, at Roper Performing Arts Center, Tidewater Community College in Norfolk.

When voters go to the polls in November 2011 will they be showing up at new, redrawn districts? What will those districts look like?

I’ll be curious to see if or how the 90th, 21st, 84th, and 81st might get re-drawn. According to NLS, overflow from Beach house districts would be pushed into Algie Howell’s district, thus “de-Democrating” the 21st, Bobby Mathieson’s old district. They could also push certain blue-trending precincts in Sal Iaquinto’s district into the 90th district.

The Beach gets redder. Oh joy…

The 2nd congressional district is too small while Forbes’ 4th district is too big. Look for red Chesapeake to be added to the 2nd is my prediction.

The 2nd congressional district gets redder. Oh joy…

We’re moving back to the 1950’s. Is there anything Democrats can do to stop this or at least to minimize the punishment?

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12 Responses to “Re-Districting in Virginia Beach”

  1. David Campbell Says:

    Democrats lost the redistricting battle in the last Governor and General Assembly elections.

  2. David Campbell Says:

    Open Left provides a state-by-state analysis of who will control redistricting, including Virginia:

    “Local elections will not be held until 2013, so we already know which incumbents will be responsible for the next round of redistricting. Republican Governor Bob McDonnell will be helped by the GOP majority in the House of Delegates, but Democrats have a 22-18 majority in the Senate. (Their standing would have been far more fragile had they not picked-up a seat in a special election in January 2010; there are still rumors that a Democratic lawmaker might change parties or that McDonnell will appoint Democratic state Senators to government positions to force special elections.)

  3. David Campbell Says:

    Vivian Paige has a good op-ed piece on redistricting reform in the Virginian-Pilot today. McDonnell and Bolling supported it (until they were elected).

  4. LittleDavid Says:

    I think redistricting reform is appropriate. To look at how the system can be grossly abused without reform, one only needs to look at what happened down in Texas a couple years ago. The Republicans didn’t even wait for a census. After the 2000 census, districts were redrawn in a way that gave Republicans an advantage. After new electoral successes, in 2003 they redrew the districts again to give themselves an even greater advantage.

    No system will be perfect, but surely we can come up with something that will not expose Virginia to such gross abuse of power like we saw down in Texas.

  5. David Campbell Says:

    UPDATE: House Republicans killed the Senate Democrat non-partisan redistricting plan for the last three years. Now they have even refused to hold joint hearings.

  6. INGAAS : Says:

    beach houses are nice because you can swim anytime you want and the beach is a great view too.;*

  7. David Campbell Says:

    Election victories today resulted in Republican control of the Governor and both houses of the state legislature in Alabama, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. They will have complete partisan control of redistricting for the next decade.

  8. Halogen Cooker · Says:

    beach houses are really nice and it would always be a warm and relaxing place ,.-

  9. David Campbell Says:

    UPDATE: Gov. McDonnell has named a bipartisan redistricting commission to make recommendations to the General Assembly.

  10. David Campbell Says:

    UPDATE: After passing the Senate unanimously (40-0), Republicans Del. John Cosgrove (Chesapeake) and Del. Chris Jones (Suffolk) in a House subcommittee killed the last chance for nonpartisan redistricting.

    A Virginian-Pilot editorial provides the eulogy.

  11. David Campbell Says:

    UPDATE: The Cook Political Report is reporting that the Department of Justice may intervene in Virginia’s redistricting to create two new majority-minority districts under the Voting Rights Act. One may be based in Hampton Roads and the other in Richmond. That could threaten the seat of Chesapeake Republican Rep. Randy Forbes.

  12. LittleDavid Says:

    OK, let’s get this ball rolling then. If the Dept of Justice is going to intervene, it needs to happen quickly. If there is going to be an earthquake, it needs to happen now so that we have a chance to recover by election day.

    Not sure how you come up with that Randy Forbes district would be threatened as a result. The 3rd could be redrawn minus Richmond and inclusive of heavily minority areas of Suffolk maybe? If those areas are excluded from the 4th, which areas will be added to the district to make up for it?

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