Redistricting session on Thursday just a prelude

Legislators return to Richmond for one day Thursday to discuss congressional redistricting, but not much is expected to happen until next month.

Legislators from both parties say the House of Delegates and the state Senate will do little more Thursday than reject each other's redistricting bills and send the bills to a committee of conference.

That will allow six legislators — three from each body — to hash out the considerable differences over the bills.

Del. S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, a key legislator in the redistricting process, said he hopes the negotiators can come up with a plan that both bodies could approve by mid-July.

The Senate, controlled by Democrats, and the House, controlled by Republicans, are proposing vastly different redistricting maps for the 11 congressional districts.

The House wants to leave the districts much as they are. The sponsor of the House bill, Del. Bill Janis, R-Henrico, journeyed to Washington to consult with the 11 Virginia House of Representatives members about the redrawn lines and won their approval.

Most observers feel the new districts would enhance the re-election chances of the eight Republican and three Democratic representatives.

The Senate came up with an entirely new plan that would create a new black-majority district in the 4th District, now represented by Republican Rep. J. Randy Forbes of Chesapeake. Forbes has declined to comment on the proposed district, which would make his re-election more difficult.

To create this district, the Senate pulled African-American voters out of the 3rd District, which would reduce its African-American population from about 53 percent to 40 percent.

The district's current officeholder, Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-Newport News, who is African-American, says he could win in a district with a smaller African-American population. The first black congressman from Virginia since Reconstruction, Scott has represented the district since 1993.

Janis said he doesn't think the Senate plan complies with the Voting Rights Act, because it would reduce the minority voting population in the 3rd — a process called "retrogression." Courts have ruled against retrogression.

Virginia is covered by the federal Voting Rights Act because of a history of racial discrimination.

But Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, the chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, said 20 percent of Virginia's population is African-American, so blacks merit an additional representative in Congress.

State Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, who helped craft the Senate plan and who is African-American, said the plan will pass muster with the U.S. Justice Department, which reviews Virginia's plans under the Voting Rights Act.

Republicans are suggesting that McEachin wants to run in the proposed 4th District, but he has denied this.

"I'm interested in running for the 9th District (state) Senate seat," he said. He represents that district.

Neither of the congressional plans, nor the House of Delegates and Senate plans adopted earlier by the General Assembly, followed any of the recommendations of a bipartisan commission appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell to try to take political considerations out of redistricting.

Political scientist Robert Holsworth, chairman of the commission, said "the commission's influence will come from how it is perceived."

"We showed that an independent commission can draw lines that preserve communities of interest and compactness better than through the political process," he said.

Legislators are redrawing lines for House, Senate and congressional districts to reflect population changes determined by the 2010 federal census.

On Thursday, the Senate convenes at noon and the House at 5 p.m.

In addition to discussing redistricting, on Thursday delegates are expected to elect G. Paul Nardo to succeed the late Bruce Jamerson as clerk of the House of Delegates. Nardo has been chief of staff to Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford.

The two bodies have been unable to reach agreement on filling two Virginia Supreme Court vacancies, so that issue is not expected to come up Thursday.

twhitley@timesdispatch.com

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