Virginia Senate Passes New Redistricting Map; McDonnell to Sign (Updated – Friday, 5 a.m.)
By Jason Kenney | Friday, April 29th, 2011 | PoliticsThe Virginia Senate passed a new redistricting map 32-5.
VPAP has the following analysis:
In Tidewater, Virginia Beach is keeping its two senators, but Senators Blevins and Quayle were drawn into the same district. Senator Quayle’s District will now be located in Loudoun County to account for population shifts.
In western Virginia, Sens. Newman and Smith remain in the same district. A new district will stretch from Lynchburg to the Goochland County/Henrico County border. Plans for a new Richmond-area senate district were scrapped during the negotiations.
The House may vote on the plan as early as tonight.
UPDATE: PDFs attached from Silverlight. Not the best in the world but you work with what you’ve got…
[Update]
Governor McDonnell announced late tonight that he would sign the bill, releasing the following:
“I thank the General Assembly for passing this new redistricting plan. I will sign this legislation as soon as it reaches my desk. The plan as passed does address most of the criteria I outlined in my veto letter, and ensures that the elected members of the legislative branch fulfill their constitutional obligation to draw our electoral lines every ten years.
In my veto letter, I asked the Senate to send me a plan that was bipartisan and addressed potential legal issues. The plan approved today is in line with those goals. This plan retains more geographic and municipal boundaries, contains districts that are somewhat more compact, and passed the Senate on a strong bipartisan vote. In these aspects it is similar to the House plan. It is a great improvement over the previous plan that I vetoed, and which failed to gain a single vote from the minority party. I applaud the Republican and Democratic members of the Senate who worked well together to craft this compromise plan.
At my request, the Attorney General’s office has reviewed the preliminary data regarding the plan. Based on this review, they concluded that the plan meets the relevant legal requirements of the U.S. Constitution, the Virginia Constitution, and the Voting Rights Act. I have asked the Attorney General to ensure that the legislation will be precleared in a timely fashion so that the 2011 election process can get underway.
UPDATE 2:
* HB 5005 will be enrolled early this morning, Friday April 29, 2011.
* Speaker Howell (as presiding officer of the House) and Lt. Governor Bolling (as presiding officer of the Senate) will sign the bill.
* After both of these constitutionally required signatures, HB 5005 will be delivered to Governor McDonnell for his review.
* Assuming that the bill is presented to the governor today (April 29), the Governor will have 7 days (since the General Assembly is still in Special Session) to either sign, amend or veto it.
* The deadline for the governor’s actions to be returned to the General Assembly is 11:59 PM on Friday, May 6. Given the governor’s statement above, it appears he will not be making any amendments and will sign it quickly.
HB 5005 passed the House 63-7 and in the Senate 32-5.
Interesting in the Senate that Senators Martin, Obenshain, Smith, Stanley, and Stuart voted against the bill (Senators Quayle and Newman did not vote). Senator Obenshain wrote on his Facebook page:
“After much gnashing of teeth, we are going to pass a redistricting bill. Ralph Smith and [Fred Quayle] will lose their seats. I voted no. We’ll wait or the Governor to decide whether to sign, amend or veto. If it is signed, we’ll be ready for the fight in the fall,” he wrote. “VERY disappointed with the treatment of Ralph Smith. There was an easy fix — it did not fly today. It would not have affected any Democrat OR sitting Republican. Governor . . . a little help?”
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About the author
Jason Kenney has blogged at J’s Notes since 2001, is the director of RedStormPAC providing online fundraising for Republican candidates in Virginia, and co-founder of K6 Consulting. He is a graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University and resides in Richmond, Virginia.
Comments
13 Responses to "Virginia Senate Passes New Redistricting Map; McDonnell to Sign (Updated – Friday, 5 a.m.)"
Acch. Silverlight and Linux do not play well together. Can’t see the new map.
Silverlight does not play well with Firefox, IE, Windows XP etc. Someone at the department of legislative services messed up big time. I still remember how easy it was to view the maps 10 years ago. The current web site is inexcusable.
I thought it wasn’t working either until I zoomed in enough. I’m glad to have both Senators McWaters and Wagner representing most of Virginia Beach. Perhaps the comments at the hearing in Hampton were heard!
I’ve attached PDFs from Silverlight. Not the best. Why they don’t just use a Google Maps overlay is beyond me. Someone made a lot of money off of this junk.
Prince William is still screwed. A county which alone justifies two complete Senate districts, plus a small one of another, gets one complete district, and the rest is divided among five others. That’s absurd.
james young: having alot of senators representing your county does have its pluses. but when its time to pick judges, you will have a clusterfark
Silverlight doesn’t work with Firefox.
Kelley: actually Northern Virginia…at least Fairfax…has had it’s act together on choosing judges. Unlike other parts of the state — Hampton Rhodes comes to mind — Dems and Republicans have actually sat down together prior to legislative sessions and worked these things out. Since Judicial Districts encompass more than one county, that could still be the case.
Well, since this seems to be a done deal — Governor says he’ll sign it — I think you’d have to say Republican won redistricting. While they redrew the House to gain at least four seats immediately and ultimately as many as six, the held Democrats in the Senate to a plan that …at best …maintains the current numbers.
Where can I get a map with incumbent names annotated? Or is that too much to ask…
Probably is too much to ask. You could cross-reference the maps with the list of Senators and Delegates on the GA website, which have their current districts listed with them. Although you’d have to keep in mind that the new plan includes districts which were drawn open with no incumbent. There are two of those in the Senate and at least one in the House, the 93rd.
Eastern Loudoun remains screwed. The 31st Senate district continues to be an abomination.
Loser in this map-the Peninsula. Hampton still divided in three different senate districts. Same for YC. James City split with Williamsburg in the district with the small part. No senate district completely located on the Peninsula. I am very disappointed.
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