Thursday, September 09, 2010
Legislative redistricting met with skepticism at forum
Concerns focused on whether partisanship would too heavily affect legislative redistricting.
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A group of four state delegates kicked off the 10-year redistricting process Wednesday in Roanoke with a meeting to gather public input.
What they heard -- at least from the speakers who weren't elected officials -- was a fair amount of skepticism that the redrawing of state and federal legislative districts will be done fairly and without the taint of bitter partisan politics.
About 20 people attended the meeting at Virginia Western Community College -- the first of a half-dozen hearings to be held around the state.
A couple of people expressed hope that the process will be handled in a bipartisan or nonpartisan manner, but others complained that the process is inherently skewed to the majority party, whose members draw lines to their advantage.
Subcommittee Chairman Mark Cole, R-Fredericksburg, said that to his knowledge this is the first time in Virginia history the House and Senate have been split between two parties. Because each chamber must vote on the other's plan, there's no choice but to have a bipartisan process, Cole said.
The redistricting process, held each decade in conjunction with the U.S. Census, is unlikely to be kind to Western Virginia, which has not kept pace in population with some other parts of the state. The area's three congressional districts will change dramatically, and the region could lose at least one seat in the 100-member General Assembly.
Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke, is among those who will be affected in a substantial way -- his district falls 11 percent short of the targeted size. Ware said he hopes the legislature tries its best to keep districts relatively compact so that voters will be in close proximity to their representatives.
"I hope we don't have somebody living in, say, Roanoke whose district stretches all the way past Montgomery County," Ware said. "I think that would be a travesty to the people."
Ronkeith Adkins, the secretary of the Roanoke County electoral board, noted that none of the redistricting subcommittee members in attendance were from Western Virginia. The member from the farthest west, in fact, was Del. Jackson Miller, R-Manassas.
Sen. Ralph Smith, R-Botetourt County, however, quickly stepped up to say that he and Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, both sit on the committee that will handle redistricting from the Senate's side of the process.
