ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991                   TAG: 9104040633
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

THIRD BLACK DISTRICT PROPOSED/ PRESSURE FROM CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS, WILDER

Facing pressure from civil rights groups and the governor, Senate Democrats today proposed a reapportionment plan that would add a third majority-black district in Southside Virginia.

Senate Privileges and Elections Committee Chairman Joseph Gartlan, D-Fairfax, said the plan was changed after senators realized that it would not win Justice Department approval without the third district.

"The legislative process is evolutionary," Gartlan said. "Views change."

The Justice Department must approve Virginia voting law changes because of the state's history of racial discrimination.

One black senator predicted the plan would not win approval unless it creates four majority-black districts in the 40-member Senate.

"I don't think it's going to fly without four districts," said Sen. Benjamin Lambert, D-Richmond. "I want to say for the record that I can't vote for it without four."

Gov. Douglas Wilder also has indicated he thinks the Senate plan should have more than two black districts.

But Gartlan, a frequent critic of the governor, said Wilder "had zero influence in the deliberations of this committee."

The revised plan, which has yet to be approved by the committee, creates one open seat in Northern Virginia by putting Sen. John Buchanan, D-Wise, and Sen. William Wampler, D-Bristol, in the same Southwest Virginia district. Buchanan is ill with cancer and is unlikely to run for re-election.

Democrats had originally proposed two open seats in Northern Virginia by placing Republican Sens. William Truban of Shenandoah and Kevin Miller of Rockingham in the same district. But the revised plan gives each GOP senator his own seat.

The third majority-black district covers the area now represented by Sen. Elmon Gray, D-Sussex. It covers Brunswick, Greensville and Sussex counties and parts of Petersburg, Emporia, Colonial Heights and Suffolk and Mecklenburg, Lunenburg, Nottoway, Dinwiddie, Chesterfield, Southampton and Prince George counties.

The existing black districts are in Richmond and Norfolk.

Keywords:
POLITICS GENERAL ASSEMBLY 


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