Tired of Waiting on LIS?

By Shaun Kenney | Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 | Policy

These are screen captures — not enough for the most addled political geek, but enough to whet your appetite.

First, the House of Delegates proposal (click to embiggen):

Next, the Virginia Senate proposed two redistricting proposals. The “good cop” version from Watkins:

…then the “bad cop” version from Janet Howell:

Of course, when this all calms down, you are free to try the atrociously slow LIS Silverlight version… couldn’t they have just published PDFs?

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About the author

Shaun Kenney

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.

Comments

12 Responses to "Tired of Waiting on LIS?"

Samuel Gilleran March 29, 2011 18:46 pm
The line between the 20th and the 15th SDs is incomprehensible. I’m just going to toss this out there: does that possibly violate the “compactness” criteron?
Steve Vaughan March 29, 2011 18:51 pm
Samuel: Well it’s a theoretical critereon, after all. Louise Lucas’s district used to go halfway across the state. No, I mean even worse than it does now.

I noticed that the new 3rd District jumps two rivers, the James at Yorktown…which I guess is okay, since there’s a ferry there and that was the standard 10 years ago for the 64th House District..and the York to take in the lower tip of the Northern Neck.

Williamsburg is drawn out of Sen. Norment’s district and into John Miller’s. Norment is not a happy camper, I talked to him about an hour ago
Shaun Kenney March 29, 2011 19:19 pm
These lines are FUBAR right across the line. Too bad they couldn’t take an aggregate of what everyone recommended and just munge the House and Senate districts…
Steve Vaughan March 29, 2011 19:26 pm
Shaun…they should have taken the districts the college students drew in the competition. Compact, contigous and they didn’t take politics into account.

BTW, you may have screwed up Bearing Drift by linking to those broke ass maps;-) Now this site is slow.
SE VA MWC Alum March 29, 2011 19:34 pm
Shaun thanks for posting the maps. LIS is gridlocked like the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. Does anyone have a precinct list. Its hard to get much detail out of the urban areas. Particularly interested in the Peninsula.
Willie Deutsch March 29, 2011 19:41 pm
This looks like a precinct list for the HOD map.

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?112+ful+HB5001
SE VA MWC Alum March 29, 2011 19:48 pm
Thank you Willie!
J.R. Hoeft March 29, 2011 21:20 pm
Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) made a hilarious comment on his Facebook page regarding the Senate Democratic plan:

OK, here’s the Senate Dem’s redistricting map — sorry that it looks like the lines were drawn with a fat magic marker. Like I said it’s their map.
Shaun Kenney March 29, 2011 23:26 pm
SV –

I take full responsibility for the first redistricting-driven server crash… remarkably, they held up!
Craig Kilby March 29, 2011 23:54 pm
@Steve. The Northern Neck does not border the York River. I think you meant the Middle Peninsula. At least they seem to have left the Northern alone in the 99th House and “good cop” map of Stewart’s district.

Speaking of 99th House district. Now that Pollard is retiring (again) I “hear” there are five Repubs running, including Catherine Crabhill (again) and somebody with a big sign in Montross that says “RANSONE: DELEGATE”. Is anybody here up on this race? Can’t seem to find any news about it.
Scott SVTPP March 30, 2011 01:54 am
Okay, this is just out of the pale. 7-10 senators from the D.C. area? I know they have a lot of population, but really?
Why can’t they just draw little boxes of population and let the chips fall where they may. May I make this suggestion to the House so that they have some credibility in 10 years to run on for the Senate?
ToR March 31, 2011 23:06 pm
Could we get a nonpartisan, unbiased commission to agree to use different mapping software for 2020?

In all seriousness though, please, please tell me why we can’t have nonpartisan redistricting? I’m specifically asking you Shaun. I would love to see pros and cons (economic, political, etc.) of non-partisan vs. political redistricting. What are your opinions on the matter?

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