ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 13, 1996 TAG: 9609130133
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
While much of the evidence in a redistricting case in federal court this week boiled down to conflicting statistics and dry testimony, the American Civil Liberties Union attorney pleaded for fairness, not just legality.
Virginia has spent most of its history gerrymandering voting districts to give whites the advantage, Gerald Hebert argued Thursday. He asked a three-judge panel in Roanoke to let the black-majority 3rd Congressional District remain intact.
"For the first time this century, this has let black voters elect the candidate of their choice to Congress," he said.
The judges must decide whether Virginia's only black-majority district - stretching from Tidewater to Richmond - passes constitutional muster in light of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that struck down such districts in other states. They said at the end of the two-day hearing that they would not decide the issue before November's election.
The General Assembly was complying with U.S. Justice Department rules when it drew up the black-majority district in 1990. But now that the rules have changed, the state argued that race was just one of a number of reasons for drawing up the district.
"We do not dispute that the General Assembly intended to create" a district in which blacks were a majority, said Greg Lucyk of the attorney general's office. But to be found unconstitutional, he said, such a district must have been drawn contrary to traditional redistricting criteria, which include being geographically compact.
The Democrat-controlled General Assembly also sought to protect congressional incumbents and economic interests at the naval shipyards, Lucyk said.
But attorneys for the two men who filed suit against the state maintained that Virginia was trying to manufacture other reasons for the district after the fact. Del. John Watkins, R-Chesterfield County, testified that race was the primary consideration when the House Privileges and Elections Committee came up with the district.
And Ronald Weber, a University of Wisconsin government professor, testified that his research showed that "the state was not paying attention to traditional redistricting principles. They subordinated construction of the district to reliance on race."
Weber is an adviser to Campaign for a Color Blind America, which helped represent the two plaintiffs. The group believes voting districts should be drawn without any consideration of race.
Expert witnesses for the state countered with data from previous elections indicating that few white Virginians supported black candidates.
Some black politicians, such as former Gov. Douglas Wilder and Rep. Robert "Bobby" Scott, who represents the 3rd District, were able to win with white votes, but it was only later in their career, political scientist David Canon testified.
The plaintiffs, Republicans Donald Moon, who is white, and Robert Smith, who is black, contend the district could have been redrawn to have a black majority slimmer than the current 64 percent.
Weber testified that a district 45 percent black would be enough to elect a black candidate.
But Lisa Handley, a political scientist and adjunct professor at George Washington University, said her analysis of past voting records indicates a black candidate in Virginia could not be elected to Congress in a district that was just 40 percent to 50 percent black.
Much of the testimony focused on the unusual shape of the district in light of the Supreme Court's requirement that such districts be geographically compact. The 3rd District is about 100 miles long and just 40 feet wide in spots, including one place where the only thing connecting two areas is an exit ramp. In other places, the district contains no voters because it follows a river to connect two predominantly black areas.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICSby CNB