Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 2, 1991 TAG: 9104020434
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
A civil rights lobbyist accused lawmakers of wasting time on an illegal reapportionment plan, and Chesapeake citizens protested plans to carve up their city into 10 legislative districts.
General Assembly members were greeted by four bills, two sponsored by Democrats and two by Republicans, that contain widely varying proposals for redrawing the 100 House of Delegates seats and 40 Senate districts to reflect population shifts in the 1990 census.
Gov. Douglas Wilder told reporters he is drawing up his own redistricting plan and will compare it with House and Senate plans to see whether they are fair. He said his plan would not be an attempt to further Democratic Party interests.
The special session will continue until lawmakers agree on a redistricting plan. They will take a brief break from maps and population figures Wednesday to act on Wilder's budget amendments and vetoes of bills passed during the regular session that ended Feb. 23.
Opening shots in the politically charged redistricting battle came in disputes over matters as tiny as precincts and as large as entire cities.
Chesapeake residents picketed outside the General Assembly Building to protest Democratic redistricting proposals that would divide their city among three senators and seven delegates. "Don't Chop Up Chesapeake," read one sign.
The citizens contend Chesapeake is being punished for electing Republican legislators during the 1980s. The city has 152,000 residents, about the ideal size of a Senate district. An ideal House district should have 62,000 residents.
The lack of new majority-black districts in the Senate plan drew the ire of Linda Byrd-Harden, executive secretary of the state NAACP.
"I really thought it was April Fools' Day," Byrd-Harden said after she saw the plan. "It must be a joke, but I'm not laughing."
The latest Senate plan keeps the number of majority-black districts at two. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union have proposed creating five majority-black districts.
Byrd-Harden told the committee the Senate plan would never win approval from the Justice Department, which oversees changes in Virginia voting laws because of the state's history of racial discrimination.
Byrd-Harden said she was more satisfied with the House plan to increase from nine to 11 the number of black-majority districts.
But she said that still might not be good enough. The NAACP has proposed boosting the number of black House districts to 13.
The Senate plan has one majority-black district in Richmond and Henrico County represented by Sen. Benjamin J. Lambert III and another in Norfolk and Chesapeake served by Democratic Sen. Yvonne B. Miller.
The ACLU and the NAACP would like to create another black district covering Newport News and Hampton, one across several Southside Virginia counties and a third including Hopewell, Petersburg, part of Richmond, Charles City County and parts of Henrico and Chesterfield counties.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB