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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991                   TAG: 9104110517
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

SENATOR REVISING REDISTRICTING PLAN TO ADD 4TH SEAT

The chairman of the Senate redistricting committee proposed a new plan Wednesday that would include four districts in which blacks are the majority.

Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax County, said he was responding to Gov. Douglas Wilder's threat to reject the plan approved Tuesday that creates three black-majority Senate seats.

Gartlan, chairman of the Privileges and Elections Committee, said his plan is similar to one proposed by Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk, which passed on a 21-17 vote in the Senate Friday.

"I believe it is possible to build a Senate coalition which could secure enactment of such a measure. I would work to that end should you propose an amendment in this form," Gartlan said in a letter to the governor.

Laura Dillard, the governor's press secretary, said the governor has not said how many black-majority Senate districts he will propose, but The Richmond News Leader reported Wednesday that he will insist on creating five in the 40-member chamber.

That plan could put Newport News Sen. Robert Scott, one of three black senators, in the same district with Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews of Hampton, a Wilder critic.

"I don't think it's possible to do that without putting them both in the same district," Gartlan said in an interview.

The House and Senate redistricting plans approved Tuesday should reach the governor's desk this week. Wilder then will have seven days to act.

Gartlan's latest Senate plan would keep two existing black-majority districts in Richmond and Hampton Roads and add two more in Southside.

by CNB