Two Minority Districts?
By Shaun Kenney | Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 | PoliticsSo argues the leader of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus as reported by the Daily Pilot:
“To accept an incumbency protection plan as is currently being proposed is not in keeping with the spirit of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” said Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, who chairs the caucus.
In a statement, Locke suggests drawing another district with a sizable minority population will help put Virginia’s plan in greater compliance with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in votings and elections.
Quick question — it’s not a foregone conclusion that a minority district is necessarily a Democratic district, is it? For instance, should we carve out the 11th District up in Northern Virginia to offer a better representation of Northern Virginia’s dynamic minority communities — including Hispanics, Koreans, Arabs, Vietnamese, New Jerseyans, or Indians — would this not offer Gerry Connolly a new base to whom he would have to explain his policies?
Corey Stewart vs. Gerry Connolly, anyone?
In the spirit of compromise…. why not? Let’s do this!
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About the author
Shaun Kenney is the Chairman of the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors, former Communications Director for the Republican Party of Virginia, and an active blogger since 2002. Shaun lives in Thomas Jefferson's backyard with his wife, six children, and a modest attempt at a farm in Kents Store, Virginia.
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15 Responses to "Two Minority Districts?"
Hey, watch those cracks about New Jerseyans. My wife grew up off of Exit 7A on the Turnpike. (For those not familiar with New Jersey, you typically describe where you are from by referencing the nearest exit on the NJ Turnpike.)
Seriously, Corey Stewart vs. Gerry Connolly? Ugh. That would be like picking between Bob Marshall or Jamie Radtke and Tim Kaine.
Two minority-majority districts is possible. Vivian Paige had a map of such a plan on All Politics Is Local last week.
There’s also this, as part of the ongoing redistricting competition that college students are participating in the law students at W&M created a plan that actually draws a compact and contigous majority-minority district (unlike the current 3rd) by using the Eastern end of the 3rd and some territory currently in the 4th…it’s sort of a crescent shaped district that runs from Newport News and Hampton through parts of Norfolk and Portsmouth.
That allowed them to draw a district around Richmond and it’s close in suburbs, excluding the West End where Cantor lives that, while not a minority-majority district, would be a minority impact district with — I’m guessing here, but it’s an educated guess — probably between 40-45% African-American voters.
Adding a note, that plan won the competition.
This entire proposal presumes that minority voters are currently the victims of systemic discrimination that prevents them from full participation in democratic elections. This is 2011, not 1965, folks. Where’s the beef?
Voter suppression in Virginia today is as big a canard pushed by the left as voter fraud is when pushed by the right. When only half of the registered voters turn out for a midterm Congressional election, it is hard to pinpoint where minorities are being disenfranchised. The Voting Rights Act was an important piece of legislation in its day and provided equality to people of all races. But its usefulness has passed.
This is a serious question – can someone explain why, since southern states abandoned previous discriminatory voting practices decades ago, a racially gerrymandered district is still appropriate and/or necessary?
Jay D,
I would share your outrage about gerrymandering to achieve a racial outcome if it wasn’t so common in majority majority districts as well. I offer VA-8,10, and 11 as evidence. And can someone explain VA-5? Where is the regional homogeneity in that mess?
It is long past time for us to stop redistricting that serves only to protect the incumbents, regardless of their race or political party.
Furthermore, why does this district have to be drawn in Richmond? Why not draw it in Northern Virgnia where our minority populations are growing rapidly?
After all, we’re not drawing a Democratic seat. We’re adding to our strengths by representing the full spectrum of Virginia’s demography. Right?
Shaun,
Sadly, when the Doug Wilder Democrats talk about minorities they mean blacks. I have neighbors who are ethnically Korean, Indian, Japanese, and Hispanic, as well as African. Most of them are not Democrats.
This second minority majority district is all about the Cult of Victimhood and not about minority representation.
Shaun, surely you know that it’s not about minorities. It’s about African Americans, that’s how the law reads. It’s not about Asian minorities or Hispanics or Jews or anyone else. It’s about Blacks, and Black districts. Why do we still have this silly law when places like NOVA have a higher percentage of Asians than Blacks? I have no idea why this law hasn’t been repealed.
Who has to give up their district to make this new minority district happen? Eric Cantor or Randy Forbes? Will the current DOJ make it happen? UUUmmmmm……..I’m inclined to think they will.
LL,
As long as we have the Roberts Supreme Court it won’t happen. Eric Holder is the worst AG since Ramsey Clark, although John Ashcroft is up there too, but the SCOTUS has a long, proud tradition of reining in political excess–just as the Framers intended.
HisRoc – not outraged at all, just puzzled the Supreme Court hasn’t reversed or chipped away more on this one. VRA was important and necessary in ’65 America but continuing the race-gerrymandering practice reinforces false stereotypes:
-White folks won’t vote for black or other minority candidates– because of skin color.
-Black candidates can’t succeed on merit alone.
Both are last-century thinking and not all that helpful to race dialogue. BWTH – this type of gerrymandering should disappear when the “black vote” becomes as unreliable as the “white vote” as the sole (or sure bet) predictor of election outcome… maybe?
HR- I can explain the current 5th. There aren’t any people out there so the districts have to be hella big. Now, I can’t explain the one in the recently released incumbent protection plan that goes from Danville to Loudoun County.
It’s about damn time to repeal the VRA in its entirety.
What is it about democrats that they can’t compete without quotas and set-asides. Sad.
I think Baptists should get 3 majority districts, because they do make up 27% of the population. How do we get that minority properly represented in our Congressional delegation? We have two Roman Catholics, and two Presbyterians, but only one Baptist. Just kidding of course.
The real problem is that when each representative has 600,000+ people, there are a LOT of minorities that can’t win elections anywhere.
I’d like to think that Gerry Connolly represents me. After all, he was elected to represent me. If I don’t think he can represent me because he’s a democrat, or because he’s a Catholic, or because he’s a white male, then “representative democracy” doesn’t mean what it’s supposed to mean.
But when we adopt as a principle that minorities require people physically like them in order to be “represented”, we do great damage to the principle of representation. I know if I was black, I’d be embarrassed by the a lot of the “representation” that is in Washington supposedly sticking up for me.
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