State Redistricting Update

Friday, April 08, 2011

The General Assembly is making progress on redistricting, with the state Senate passing a bill Thursday which approved both the House and Senate options.

With census numbers out, the state needs to redraw all its voting districts in order to have roughly equal populations in each. The General Assembly is on a tight schedule for revamping its state House and Senate lines to have them in place in time for upcoming elections. Follow the process, get updates and view all the various proposals on the Virginia Public Access Project’s website.

The Republicans’ version of the House map that redraws the state’s 100 House districts passed Wednesday (visit the state’s redistricting website, which shows all the various maps) and then included in a bill which joined the Senate and House maps into one piece of legislation. Locally, Del. Robin Abbott was drawn out of her 93rd District and deposited onto Del. Glenn Oder’s turf. Abbot has the option to run against Oder, should she so choose.

The Senate Democrats’ map which passed Thursday is slightly altered from its original plan. The Democrats have significantly changed Sen. Tommy Norment’s 3rd District, which would run from the Northern Neck down through part of James City County and part of York County and would cut him out of part of Williamsburg under the proposal being considered. His district would extend down to Poquoson along one ‘prong’ and then down through part of Isle of Wight County into Suffolk along the other ‘prong’.

While one of the winning student maps from the recent college redistricting competition had a champion in Del. Bob Brink, it didn’t make it out of committee. The college maps along with those recommended by the Governor’s bipartisan committee have support from various outside groups and a few legislators but couldn't compete with the more partisan House and Senate versions.

The General Assembly began discussing the various maps this week in Special Session. The two map options, now combined into one bill, will go to the House of Delegates which will reconvene Monday. Aside from choosing Senate and House Maps, state lawmakers also need to vote on Congressional districts.