
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991                   TAG: 9104040500
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

REDISTRICTING PLANS FACE VOTE

General Assembly committees aim to vote today on plans for redrawing their legislative district lines after sorting through proposals submitted by Democrats, Republicans and civil rights groups.

The chairmen of the House and Senate Privileges and Elections committees had talked about settling on plans Wednesday, but a session to act on Gov. Douglas Wilder's vetoes and amendments ran late and the committees met only briefly.

The House committee adopted a plan submitted by its chairman, Del. Ford Quillen, D-Scott, and agreed to consider amendments to the plan today.

Quillen's proposal protects most Democratic incumbents while pairing several GOP incumbents in the same districts. It also increases the number of majority-black districts in the 100-member House from nine to 11.

Republicans and civil rights groups have been pushing plans that would increase the number of minority-controlled seats to 12 or 13.

Senate Privileges and Elections Committee Chairman Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax, said he hoped to get a Senate plan ready for a floor vote by Friday.

The assembly began its special redistricting session Monday, and legislators have been hoping to wrap it up by the end of the week.

"If we're going to expedite the bill, we're going to have to get it out tomorrow," said Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton and a committee member.

Gartlan's proposal for redrawing the Senate's 40 districts would keep the number of majority-black districts at two. But Republicans and civil rights activists have called for increasing the minority seats to four or five.

But Republicans and civil rights activists have called for increasing the minority seats to four or five.

Linda Byrd-Harden, executive secretary of the state Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said she is working on another plan that would increase the majority-black districts to six.

The sixth district would be in Portsmouth, she said.

Other proposed majority-black districts would be in Newport News, Southside Virginia, Hampton Roads and Richmond.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB