Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 31, 1991 TAG: 9103310071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Like the Democrats' map, Miller's showed districts lumping incumbents together. But where the Democratic plan lumped Republicans with Republicans, Miller's lumped Democrats with Democrats.
"Your honor, I submit this as plaintiff's exhibit No. 1," a grinning Miller said to House Privileges and Elections Committee Chairman Ford Quillen.
The laughter died away quickly and nervously, because few in the packed committee room doubted that redistricting would end up in court and that everything said would be part of the trial transcript.
The House and Senate convene in Richmond this week to work on the most politically charged, legally sensitive job they have. Every 10 years, the legislature must redraw legislative and congressional boundaries to reflect changes in population.
The job is governed by federal law; the legislature must follow the one-man, one-vote rule with districts that are compact and contiguous. Because of Virginia's history of racially discriminatory voting practices it is one of nine Southern states under the Voting Rights Act, so the plan must be approved by the Justice Department.
But it is an exercise controlled at this stage by self-preservation, as politicians scramble to draw new districts where they can win re-election.
Gov. Douglas Wilder, who is entering his third redistricting battle, put the coming week's events succinctly:
"It starts off Republicans versus Democrats. Then it starts being friends versus those who are not with friends. Before long, and it doesn't take long, it's every man for himself," Wilder said last week. "You'll see people with their maps, holding them very close to their breasts [saying], `This is the only fair, constitutional map in the world.' "
Politics aside, the redistricting session will highlight the shift of power in Virginia toward the urban areas. It also is only the first step in a process that is, according to Republicans and civil rights groups, likely to end up in court.
Virginia's population is approaching 6.2 million, up from 5.3 million a decade ago, with the growth and accompanying political power shifting toward the urban corridor from Washington to Virginia Beach.
The House and Senate will draft, debate and pass bills covering their own districts and then trade the measures for perfunctory review by the other body. The measures then go to Wilder, who must sign them before they are sent to the Justice Department.
Wilder has 30 days to review the plans and the Justice Department has 60, giving legislators a tight calendar in order to meet filing deadlines to run in the new districts in November. The calendar gives little time for potential challengers to know who their opponents will be and to prepare for a campaign.
Congressional districts, including a new 11th seat likely to go to Northern Virginia, will not be drawn until late November; those elections come in 1992.
The impact of the shift in voting strength toward Washington, Richmond and Tidewater will be lessened because of the seniority of many rural legislators. Powerful Democrats such as Vinton Del. Richard Cranwell, House Speaker A.L. Philpott of Bassett and Fincastle Sen. Dudley "Buzz" Emick figure to maintain a strong voice for Western Virginia in coming years.
But even the smaller shift of seats to urban areas in the 1980 redistricting helped boost a coalition that rewrote Virginia's highway and education funding formulas to increase their share at the expense of rural Virginia.
Under the plans tentatively endorsed by the Democrat-controlled House and Senate redistricting committees, Southwest Virginia would lose one seat in the 40-member Senate and two seats in the 100-member House.
"It's like trying to fit a size 11 foot into a size 8 shoe," Emick said of attempting to absorb the loss of seats without damaging the re-election chances of incumbents.
All Roanoke Valley legislators apparently are secure under the draft plans except for Dels. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, and Lacey Putney, a Bedford independent, who would be placed in the same district. Republican Dels. Barbara Stafford of Giles County and Thomas Baker of Radford also are lumped together in the House plan.
The Senate's plan draws a What is driving this process is that finally there are going to have to be some members put in the same district, Democrats and Republicans. That is going to be the most agonizing part of it. Del. Richard Cranwell Democrat from Vinton Democratic district for the lone Republican senator from the region, William Wampler of Bristol, who would inherit most of the Democratic-leaning coalfield counties.
The partisanship of the Democrats' plans drew sharp complaints from Republicans. Last week, they introduced their own plans for each chamber, lumping Democrats together.
The final plans may include less partisan lumping but undoubtedly will end up pitting incumbents against each other, Cranwell said.
"What is driving this process is that finally there are going to have to be some members put in the same district, Democrats and Republicans," Cranwell said. "That is going to be the most agonizing part of it."
Southwest Virginia's loss is Northern Virginia's gain. The Washington suburbs alone would pick up two new Senate districts and six House seats.
The numbers - fewer Southwest seats and more in Northern Virginia - are likely to stay the same, but the lines that have been drawn are not.
Overshadowing all the individual and partisan sniping is the threat of having the redistricting plan trashed by the Justice Department or a federal court.
Virginia's redistricting plans ended up being rejected by the courts, the Justice Department or both in 1960, 1970 and 1980. In 1980, the legislature's plans first were vetoed by Republican Gov. John Dalton, then rejected by the Justice Department and later defeated in federal court. The fight was bitter, lasted more than a year and cost Virginia more than $1 million in legal fees.
Both Republican plans and a plan for the Senate offered by the American Civil Liberties Union provide more black-majority districts than either the House or Senate Democrats' plans.
The Democratic Senate plan retains the current two black-majority districts, but no more. That plan also cuts the minority percentage from 40 percent to 30 percent in the district represented by Sen. Robert Scott of Newport News, the only black legislator representing a majority white district.
The ACLU plan for the Senate draws two more black-majority districts and increases the percentage of blacks in Scott's district to 50 percent. It has a tentative blessing from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The House plan draws more black-majority districts - 11, up from nine. But the ACLU and the NAACP argue that more could be drawn and that the existing House black-majority districts have only slim black majorities - not enough to pass the muster of the Justice Department.
Both groups say they fully expect the Justice Department to throw out the plans unless they are changed to increase black voting power. And both groups are prepared, along with the Republican Party, to take the Democrats to court.
Keywords:
POLITICS, GENERAL ASSEMBLY
by CNB