The people’s will v. Dick Saslaw
By Norman Leahy | Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011 | Politics, VirginiaThe RTD’s Bart Hinkle offers a brutal take down of Sen. Dick Saslaw’s contention that Senate Republicans “‘are trying to overrule the will of the people and claim a majority they did not earn’” because “‘half the state voted for Democrats.’” Bart says the opposite is true, and the reason is gerrymandering:
If Senate seats were apportioned according to aggregate vote totals, then Democrats would be entitled to 16, not 20. So how did they get 20? By drawing the new district lines in a manner guaranteed to favor Democratic candidates. Instead of letting voters choose, gerrymandering essentially lets parties assign voters to candidates.
One of the early narratives spun out of the general election was that the GOP wasted mounds of money and a rare opportunity to capture a clear Senate majority. And perhaps, in certain instances, they did. Every campaign does (consider the $222,000 the Democratic party wasted on Brandon Bell’s losing bid against Republican Ralph Smith).
But as I noted during the BD live blog of the election, “Gerrymandering is good, and it did very good for the Dems this year” (and yes, my meager grammar skills fail entirely after 10 PM).
That was the real story coming out of the election, and it wasn’t lost on Bart:
…Democrats redrew Senate district lines to give themselves maximum partisan advantage on Nov. 8 — and still received 232,000 fewer votes than Republicans did. They might have any number of good arguments for insisting that the Senate GOP share power. But “the will of the people” is not one of them.
If chastising Republicans for using the wrong message and blaming them for frittering away money and momentum makes you feel better, then have at it. But never forget that Senate Democrats drew the best lines they could for themselves (just as Republicans did in the House). Their actions helped them avoid a rout, but not enough to avoid losing control of the Senate.
But there’s another bright spot for the Republican faithful: take away the custom-made districts, and Democrats have nothing.
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About the author
Norm Leahy has written about Virginia and national politics online since 2002, beginning with One Man's Trash (OMT), and continuing through Bacon's Rebellion (both the blog and the e-zine), Sic Semper Tyrannis, NBC12's Decision Virginia, Richmond.com and Tertium Quids. He is the chief blogger at "The Score" and a producer of "The Score" radio show as well as being a Washington Post contributor.
Comments
One Response to "The people’s will v. Dick Saslaw"
Apparently Hinkle seems to think margins run up in unopposed races mean something.
In the races that were contested between the two parties…including some were the opposition was token at best…Dems squeaked out a majority of the vote. In the Senate, not the House of course. Also, of the 24 Senate races that were contested between the two parties, Dems won 16. Hard to say that’s a Republican landslide.
On the other hand, I think the Republicans have the law on their side on the issue of if the L.G. can vote on organizational matters, so I expect they will be able to enforce a “majority.”
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