Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Maybe the Redistricting Commission is Working Out After All

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

These maps compare the existing state Senate districts in Northern Virginia with one of two draft maps submitted to the Virginia Redistricting Commission. Source: The Virginia Mercury

In two recent articles in Bacon’s Rebellion, Dick Hall-Sizemore has thoroughly documented the sausage-making that has gone into the Virginia Redistricting Commission. It’s ugly, and it’s discouraging, and makes you wonder if there is any hope for humanity. But the release of two draft maps shows what the new districts could look like. The maps above, taken from The Virginia Mercury, show a proposed re-write of state senatorial districts in Northern Virginia that was submitted to the Commission.

It is a thing of beauty.

Without knowing the partisan implications — do the new boundaries throw incumbent legislators in the same district, do Republicans or Democrats gain ground or lose it? — who wouldn’t prefer the redrawn districts? Who wouldn’t prefer a system where the citizens pick their representatives over one where the politicians pick their citizens?

— JAB

Update: The Virginia Public Access Project reproduces the Republican and Democratic drafts for both Senate and House districts here.

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4 responses to “Maybe the Redistricting Commission is Working Out After All”

  1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    It does look better than the current one, but don’t get excited. It was drawn without consideration of incumbent residences and the comments by members indicated that would probably be a factor in their deliberations. Barker jokingly complained that he had been put in a district, most of which is now represented by Chap Peterson. The draft map also does not include Loudoun and Prince William.

    That being said, it would be hard to see how the draft map could be rejected because it might provide an advantage to one party. All the incumbents are Democrats. Based on recent voting histories, it probably would be mathematically impossible to draw a Republican-leaning district.

  2. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    so these are the easy ones….

    1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
      Dick Hall-Sizemore

      These and and the ones in far Southwest Virginia will be the easy ones.

  3. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    The senate map drawn by the democrats looks a wee-bit “gerrymandered” to me, but none of the four maps I saw at the link are anywhere near as bad as the current districts.

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