Friday, March 25, 2011
Roanoke College students navigate district data in competition
Roanoke College had one of 18 teams competing to draw lines for state districts.
Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times
Heath Brown (center), a professor in Roanoke College's public affairs department, led a team of students, including Sophie Huemer (left) and Anne Whitesell, in drawing district lines that aimed to meet target sizes while respecting political and community boundaries as much as possible.
General Assembly 2011
Among the major issues: The state's continuing efforts to provide services with fewer dollars and Gov. McDonnell's plan to privatize liquor stores. Session ends Feb. 26.
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The days of state lawmakers drawing district lines in a political vacuum are no more.
It used to be the public had little view of how legislators drew districts lines every decade after U.S. census data were collected.
But now, with mapping technology and block-level census data available on the Internet, anyone with a personal computer and access to the Internet can draw their own House, Senate and congressional districts.
That's exactly what an eight-member team from Roanoke College -- along with 17 more teams from 12 universities and colleges across Virginia -- did the past few months as part of a statewide competition.
The Roanoke College team didn't win, but it did draw compact, contiguous House and Senate districts that will inevitably be compared with whatever the General Assembly comes up with later this year.
"If people get discouraged by the younger generation, they should have seen these kids make all the presentations they made," said former Virginia Commonwealth University professor and political analyst Bob Holsworth, chairman of a redistricting commission appointed Gov. Bob McDonnell. "They were fabulous. And the level of engagement of the community was tremendous, as well."
A team from Radford University also submitted a map for the Virginia Senate.
The Roanoke College team started with a blank map and drew district lines that aimed to meet the target population size while respecting the boundaries of localities and aiming to keep "communities of interest" linked as much as possible. Their map didn't take into account voting patterns or incumbents -- one Senate district lumps Sens. Ralph Smith, R-Botetourt County, Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta County, and Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, together.
But all the districts in both maps meet the target populations, and they're all contiguous. And depending on one's point of view, they may well represent an improvement over today's districts.
"I know my home district looks like a salamander," said Sophie Huemer, a political science major from Newport News.
Huemer was essentially drafted to assemble a team by Heath Brown, a professor in Roanoke College's public affairs department. The group, which included students with majors in environmental science, chemistry, computer science and anthropology, met at least six times -- mostly on weekends -- and worked in four-hour blocks to complete the maps, Huemer said.
They researched law on redistricting from past court cases in Texas and elsewhere. They sought input from campus Republican and Democratic groups and from the Black Student Alliance. And they debated the meaning of "communities of interest."
In eastern Virginia, for instance, Huemer said many people have military ties, which provides a community link. That changes elsewhere, such as more rural stretches of Southside and Southwest Virginia. The group had to take that into consideration as it made decisions on district lines.
After completing its maps, the team presented them at a March 14 meeting of the redistricting commission in Roanoke that was attended by political activists and representatives of a variety of advocacy groups.
Anne Whitesell, a political science major from near Annapolis, Md., handled the presentation and fielded questions.
"And then, as soon as it was over, they started peppering her with questions," said Holsworth, who was at the meeting. "And the student was extraordinary. She was articulate. She said where she knew things. There were a couple of things she didn't know because she was from outside of the state, so she had done things analytically rather than politically or culturally. But they had gone and they had spoken to students from across Virginia about what do you consider your community of interest."
Whitesell said, "I got a lot of questions like, 'Where is District 9?' I have no idea where District 9 is right now so I can't tell you where it was in my plan," Whitesell said. "I got a lot of questions about that and why I drew the lines they way I did."
Teams from the University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary swept the awards for congressional and state Senate districts, while the University of Richmond and George Mason University took first-place prizes in the House of Delegates division.
Roanoke College's team members came away with a clearer understanding of the science that goes into redistricting, however. And when state lawmakers submit their own plans later this spring, they'll be watching with a skeptical, knowing eye that comes from having been there before.
Staff writer Michael Sluss contributed to this report.
