The Democratic Power Grab in Virginia

Control of the House could yet hinge on whether Virginia Democrats succeed in pulling off a partisan gerrymander in the Old Dominion. The attempted rewrite of the state’s constitution aims to reverse the will of voters who in 2020 established a bipartisan panel to draw electoral maps. Backers of the pro-Democratic voting map argue with a straight face that the measure is needed to, as the amendment puts it, “restore fairness in the upcoming elections.”The amendment, slated for a vote in a special election on April 21, pledges, too, that the gerrymandered maps will be in effect “temporarily,” presumably to help the Democrats in the midterms. Yet the measure avers that its approval would mean “ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census.” If voters fall for that promise, then we’ve got a bridge spanning Hampton Roads to sell them.Currently, Virginia’s House delegation is split between six Democrats and five Republicans. Passage of the amendment would give Democrats an edge in 10 of the state’s 11 districts. In the midterms that could foreseeably subtract four Republicans from the GOP ranks in the House, helping tip control to the Democrats. The proposed remap is only backed by what the Hill reports is a “slim majority of voters” in a politically divided state Yet the Democrats, salivating at the prospect of Congressman Hakeem Jeffries wielding the speaker’s gavel, are pulling out all the stops in a bid to get the gerrymander through. The party has “a significant fundraising advantage,” per the Hill, and “a string of new early voting locations” was seen as a way to give the amendment “an energy surge” over the weekend with the special election just days away. This exercise in political cynicism, to be sure, is of a piece with a wave of partisan redistricting that began this year in Texas in an effort to boost the GOP’s prospects in the House. GOP-led Missouri and North Carolina followed suit. Yet the Democrats parried by redrawing voting maps in California. Now, if Virginia Democrats succeed, the Republicans could well come up short in this contest of dueling gerrymanders. Mightn’t it have been a better idea for congressional Republicans to have taken advantage of their majorities on Capitol Hill to mandate an end to partisan gerrymanders nationwide? Congress has in the past used its authority under the Constitution to do just that, Chief Justice Roberts points out in a recent Supreme Court decision, Rucho v. Common Cause. As recently as the 1920s, Congressional districts were required to be “contiguous and compact.”That policy fell by the wayside, though, and technological advances now enable lawmakers to draw convoluted districts that maximize partisan advantages to a degree that would make an early pioneer of the practice, Governor Elbridge Gerry, blush. Yet voters in states including New York, Iowa, and, up to now, Virginia set up independent or bipartisan panels to draw neutral maps. That’s what Virginia Democrats seek to undermine in the name of “fairness.”

The Democratic Power Grab in Virginia

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