Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 23, 1991 TAG: 9103230189
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Democrats have apparently accidentally placed Republican Del. Charles Hawkins of Chatham in a district with Democrat Willard Finney of Rocky Mount.
Hawkins could only chuckle Friday.
Thursday, Democrats announced their plan for new House of Delegates districts for the 1990s. The plan lumps 18 Republicans in districts with other Republicans.
The plan puts Hawkins in a long, thin district stretching from Chatham in central Pittsylvania County up to the tip of Lynchburg. That district also would include Republican Joyce Crouch, according to Del. Glenn Croshaw, D-Virginia Beach, who presented the plan to the House Privileges and Elections Committee.
Democrats had the right address for Hawkins, but their precinct information was outdated. When the City of Danville annexed 26 square miles of Pittsylvania County two months ago, precinct lines were redrawn throughout the county and Hawkins' home was moved from the Central Chatham precinct to the West Chatham precinct.
Generally, legislators use precincts as the basic unit during redistricting. In moving precincts from one district to another, Democrats apparently overlooked the fact Hawkins' address was the same but his precinct was different.
"They went to great pains to change the lines and put me in a district with Joyce, but it didn't work," Hawkins said. "I called the registrar this morning just to double-check, and I vote in West Chatham now. So, I'm in a district that, frankly, is winnable."
The proposed House district includes some of Pittsylvania, a rural county that was split six ways in the Democratic plan, most of Franklin County and all of Floyd.
Hawkins has a home in Floyd County near the Blue Ridge Parkway, and his wife was reared just across the county line in Patrick County. "I also have a lot of friends in Franklin," he said, noting that some of that county's strongest Democratic precincts have been placed in House Speaker A.L. Philpott's district.
Del. Ford Quillen, D-Gate City, said the change is "no big deal," but he hinted that Pittsylvania may undergo additional changes. "Everybody knew we were having difficulty getting numbers out of Pittsylvania because of this annexation."
In 1988, the General Assembly froze all precinct lines in the state so that 1990 census workers could count population in precincts that would not change before redistricting this year. "Apparently the court order [completing Danville's annexation] superseded that," Quillen said. " . . . There may need to be more adjustments down there."
"If they go back and change the plan to get Hawkins, it sure is going to weaken the claim that there was nothing personal in that plan," said Steve Haner, executive director of the Republican legislative caucus.
"What is shows is that the Democrats who drew this plan were incompetent," he said.
Quillen defended the plan. "What has happened in Pittsylvania and all across Southwest Virginia is a due to loss of population," he said.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY POLITICS
by CNB