Governor McAuliffe really wants the General Assembly to act before the courts do hurry up. So a special session for 17 August seems to be in the cards after all, courtesy of the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
“This special session is an opportunity to work together to fix Virginia’s congressional district lines so that politicians do not have a greater say in who represents Virginians than voters do,” McAuliffe said in a statement.
“I look forward to working in a bipartisan way to meet the court’s mandate to pass a fair and equitable map by the court’s deadline.”
Of course you do, Governor.
Meanwhile, the Speaker’s Office and the Senate Majority Leader are understandably non-plussed about the rush to session before the courts have settled the matter of federal redistricting, in a joint statement:
“As we have said before, the General Assembly fully intends to exercise its legal right to remedy any legal flaw ultimately found by the Courts with respect to the current congressional districts. However, we continue to believe it would be inappropriate to act before the defendants have fully litigated this case.
“Attorneys acting on behalf of the House of Delegates and Senate of Virginia filed a letter this morning to the Judges in the congressional redistricting case, respectfully asking the Court to extend its deadline to November 16. This would allow the defendants the opportunity to further pursue their appeal, give the General Assembly the necessary time to prepare for a special session, and save taxpayer dollars by avoiding the potential for two specials sessions without causing prejudice to the plaintiffs.
“As the Constitution requires, the General Assembly will convene at the date specified by the Governor, but we are confident the Court will grant our request.”
So if the courts decide otherwise, folks could just be coming down to Richmond for a gavel banging?
Games.
