Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 6, 1991 TAG: 9104060116
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE/ POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
That action prompted several members to predict that the plan will be rejected, either by Gov. Douglas Wilder or the U.S. Justice Department.
On a voice vote, the Senate passed a plan that keeps the current two black-majority districts but fails to draw two to three more - as civil rights activists wanted and as several alternative plans had shown could be done.
"It is an exercise in futility to even consider that plan," said Sen. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News. Scott, one of three black senators, represents a white-majority district.
The House of Delegates also gave preliminary approval Friday, 59-40, to its redistricting plan, which raises the number of black-majority districts from nine to 11.
The House debate featured partisan squabbles, as Republican delegates tried to untangle the plan that placed 17 of their 39 members in House districts with each other.
Both bills are scheduled for final action today by the respective chambers. Then, each House will examine the other's work.
Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk, whose plan for four black-majority districts was killed by the Senate 21-17, said times have changed. "You're accustomed to having things your way," she told her colleagues. "The reality is the laws have changed, the rules have changed."
Miller's plan won the support of Republicans because it helped Sen. William Wampler, R-Bristol, whose district had been redrawn to increase Democratic voting power.
But minutes later, Republicans supported an amendment from Sen. Richard Holland, D-Isle of Wight, to leave black districts at two. That plan - which also protected incumbent GOP members - was barely defeated when the Senate tied 19-19 and Lt. Gov. Don Beyer cast the deciding vote against it.
But the Senate overwhelmingly approved an amendment from Sen. Howard Anderson, D-Halifax, to change the new black-majority district in such a way as to reduce the black population to 52 percent - a percentage that historically has been rejected by the U.S. Justice Department as too low to assure political power for blacks.
Sen. Dudley "Buzz" Emick, D-Fincastle, argued against a motion by Scott to send the redistricting measure back to committee.
"He knows as well as I do that this game is not over," Emick said, suggesting that the Senate will be forced to redraw its lines again by Wilder, the Justice Department or a federal court.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People both have promised lawsuits against the Senate plan.
"All they did today was go from bad to worse," said Kent Willis, Virginia director of the ACLU. Willis expects Wilder will veto the bill, but "if by some chance it gets by Wilder, it will certainly die at the door of Justice."
Senate Privileges and Elections Committee Chairman Joe Gartlan, D-Fairfax, said the final plan is "defensible," but he was not optimistic about its chances of getting past the Justice Department.
In the House, partisan debate ruled from the opening remarks by Privileges and Elections Committee Chairman Ford Quillen, D-Gate City.
"We didn't do anything that was illegally partisan," Quillen said, pointing out that the courts have never overturned a redistricting purely because of gerrymandering.
Republicans tried to amend the plan to get themselves out of districts with other Republicans.
Del. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, was the only one to succeed. He removed himself from a district shared with Del. Pete Giesen, R-Waynesboro, and into an open seat stretching from Alleghany County to Augusta.
Keywords:
POLITICS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
by CNB