Democrats Supported Redistricting Reform in Virginia. Was It a Mistake?
When Virginia voters amended their state constitution to create a bipartisan redistricting commission, they thought they were ending the partisan squabbling that plagued the state’s redistricting process for centuries. Instead, they may have made it worse.
The Virginia commission—added to the state constitution by legislative approval followed by a referendum in 2020—was supposed to establish a fair, transparent process that discouraged politicking and incentivized compromise. It shifted power over the creation of new maps from the General Assembly (which Democrats now control) to a 16-member commission made up of eight legislative leaders and eight citizens. Both groups are evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. The commission must draw compact districts that do not favor any political party, and may adopt new maps only with supermajority support from both the legislators and citizens. If the commissioners can’t reach an agreement, the Virginia Supreme Court—where conservative justices currently hold a majority—draws the maps.
The commission has repeatedly deadlocked along partisan lines, failing to reach the beginnings of an agreement after hours of negotiations. The commissioners have already asked the Virginia Supreme Court to redraw state legislative districts, and they appear poised to give up on congressional maps as well. Democrats currently hold seven out of the state’s 11 congressional districts. The court’s map, however, may give several districts back to Republicans; indeed, it appears that the commission’s Republicans sought a deadlock in the hopes of securing a favorable map from the court. Democrats, who generally supported redistricting reform in the legislature, now fear the new process will diminish their odds of retaining control over the House of Representatives—and, by extension, killing the possibility of a federal ban on gerrymandering anytime soon.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/10/virginia-redistricting-commission-democrats-mistake.html
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