Gutting GOP seats

Virginia inches closer to gutting GOP seats through redistricting

Democrats argue it’s crucial for lawmakers in Virginia to alter maps.

By Brakkton Booker

Virginia Democrats on Friday paved the way to aggressively gerrymander in the state — the latest step in a process they hope will hand them as many as four more congressional seats in this fall’s midterm elections.

The Democrat-dominated Virginia Senate passed a constitutional amendment along party lines that allows state lawmakers to begin redrawing congressional maps. The final decision will eventually go before voters in a spring special election. Earlier this week, the House of Delegates approved the measure by 62-33.

Virginia is the last opportunity for national Democrats in the pre-midterm redistricting wars. The party is seeking to keep pace with Republican-led states including Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina, which have all gerrymandered at the urging of President Donald Trump, to give Republicans an advantage this fall and help maintain GOP control of the House. California Democrats previously pushed through a major redistricting effort.

Democrats argue it’s crucial for lawmakers in Virginia to alter maps, arguing it helps the party keep pace with GOP-led states that have already enacted mid-decade changes to their congressional lines. Democrats won unified control of the state in last November’s elections; Democratic-Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger will be sworn in on Saturday.

Ahead of the amendment’s passage, Republican state Sen. Mark Peake accused Democratic of initiating a push to redraw maps to punish Trump.

“Because you hate the man that’s in the White House, and that’s really the only thing that’s behind this … you want to blunt his power, then [Democrats are] going to politically gerrymander and take away the rights of the people,” he said.

Virginia Republicans contend that state Democrats are conducting a blatant power grab — the same argument Democrats use in criticizing Trump’s redistricting push — and reneging on a voter-passed amendment approved a few years ago giving authority to draw congressional lines to a bipartisan commission of slate lawmakers and citizens.

“They didn’t imagine that we’re going to have a hyper-partisan, fascist ideologue telling state legislatures around the country to basically … redesign their districts to maximize his own personal political power,” Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, a Democrat, said of the president’s push to prolong control of the House.

Democrats currently hold six congressional seats in Virginia, while Republicans hold five. State lawmakers, including House Speaker Don Scott and state Senate President pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas, have said they support a new map that would give Democrats a 10-1 advantage.

Democratic party leaders this week suggested they would release a mock-up of their preferred map by the end of this month to give voters a sense of what they’d be voting for.

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, the Democrat’s group running point on the party’s national redistricting push, presented two maps to Virginia lawmakers: One would render a 9-2 party advantage and shield Republican incumbents Reps. Ben Cline and Morgan Griffith. The second 10-1 map would leave Griffth’s seat as the lone Republican-held district.

Virginians for Fair Elections, a Democrat-affiliated group running the statewide campaign to urge voters in the Commonwealth to vote “yes” on the pending ballot measure, released a video ad Thursday laying out its case for redistricting. “Virginia, here we believe in fairness especially when it comes to our elections but right now fair elections are under unprecedented threat,” a narrator says over a still black and white image of Trump.

The campaign is being headed by Kéren Charles Dongo, a longtime political operative in the state who served as both campaign manager and state director for Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).

Virginia-based GOP strategist Michael Young has been tapped to lead the upcoming Republican campaign to urge voters to scuttle the ballot initiative, according to four GOP strategists who were granted anonymity to discuss the matter. While he would not confirm his role in leading the Republican’s “no” campaign, he blasted Democrats for usurping political norms.

“Virginia Democrats broke the law and violated the Virginia Constitution to get this far,” Young said via text. “We will fight them in any available venue if they continue to pursue this lawless power grab.”