RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – A debate over race and representation in Congress awaits Virginia’s General Assembly when it returns to the former Confederate Capitol after a two-week Easter break.
The clash between the House’s majority Republicans and the Senate’s Democratic majority will determine whether Virginia, a state that’s 20 percent black, keeps only one of its 11 U.S. House districts mostly black or adds a second minority-opportunity district in southeastern Virginia.
But even after the legislature and Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell have their say, the plan faces scrutiny by Democratic President Barack Obama’s Justice Department because Virginia is among 16 states still under the civil rights-era Voting Rights Act that prohibits dilution of minority voter ratios.
There’s also the likelihood of a further challenge in federal court over the redrawn lines, all in a tight timeline because of elections this fall for all 100 House and 40 state Senate seats.
On Tuesday, Senate Democrats quickly rejected the House’s 71-23 vote to pass Del. Bill Janis’s GOP plan to concentrate more black voters in Virginia’s lone majority black district.
In place of Janis’s bill, the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee substituted one by Democratic Sen. Mamie Locke that reduces the black voting age population of Rep. Bobby Scott’s 3rd District to about 41 percent while raising it to about 51 percent in the 4th District, now represented by Rep. J. Randy Forbes.
Locke and her bill’s supporters say the 56.3 percent black voting-age population that Janis’s plan would concentrate into the 3rd District is far more than necessary for Scott to win. He is a popular 10-term Democrat and Virginia’s first black congressman.
The 3rd District’s voting-age black population under the House plan compares with 53.1 percent for the existing district, and is even higher than the district’s overall black population of 56.2 percent now. By moving heavily black precincts into the redrawn 3rd District, adjacent districts Republicans now represent become whiter and more GOP. Critics call the tactic “packing.”
“This is a matter of fair representation and the Janis plan is a continuation of packing,” Locke said.
Both new districts under Locke’s plan encompass precincts that vote overwhelmingly Democratic.
Locke is chairwoman of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, which last month called for a second minority-influence U.S. House district, though not without dissent from a few caucus members from the House who find themselves in relatively safe, new black majority districts.
As she explained her plan to the committee, fellow Democrat John Edwards, D-Roanoke, asked her how many congressional seats blacks should control in Virginia if pro-rated for population.
“Two-plus,” Locke replied.
The partisan friction and its racial subtext yielded the day’s most confrontational moment. As Republican Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, interrogated Locke about why her bill was kept under wraps until Monday, she faced him defiantly – back rigid, arms folded, unsmiling, and her glaring eyes locked on him.
“This bill was not done in secret,” Locke said tersely. “Nothing was done to remove any sitting legislator from his district. It wasn’t as though it was done on the sly.”
Janis said that his plan meets the explicit intent of the Voting Rights Act.
He said that by remaining as true as possible to Virginia’s current Congressional map, his plan minimizes voter confusion and disruption and noted that he got approval from each of Virginia’s congressmen.
Del. J. Chapman Petersen bore in on that issue, asking if Janis’s map isn’t really the collaborative work by Virginia’s congressional delegation, drafted to protect the incumbents.
“I had help drawing it up. I did not actually sit at the computer and draw these lines,” he said. “I had staff assistants help me.”
Both Janis’s and Locke’s bills keep all 11 congressional incumbents in their current districts.
The House’s decision one day after completing passage of legislative redistricting bills to recess for two weeks caught many by surprise. But with no pressing business in Richmond, legislators have no reason to stay, said Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott County.
The House and Senate redistricting bills should reach Gov. Bob McDonnell later this week, and he has seven working days to sign, amend or veto them. That would a return before the Monday after Easter unlikely.
And because congressional elections are still more than a year away, state legislators can conclude that task at their leisure.
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