In an interview on MSNOW, DNC ChairmanKen Martinattempted to defend Democrats’ latest redistricting effort in Virginia by framing it as a justified response to Republicans.
But his argument overlooked the most important fact: what happened in Virginia is fundamentally different from typical redistricting fights in solid red or solid blue states.
Virginia voters narrowly approved aredistrictingreferendum, 51.5% to 48.6%, allowing the Democrat-controlled legislature to move forward with a new congressional map.
The map could give Democrats as many as 10 of Virginia’s 11 congressional seats, a dramatic shift from the current 6–5 Democrat advantage.
A Virginia judge laterblockedcertification of the vote, ruling that the measure violated the state constitution and that the ballot language was misleading. The state is expected to appeal.
That is not a minor technical dispute. It is the core of the issue.
Virginia already had a redistricting process built around a nonpartisan commission. The state’s current congressional map was not some extreme Republican gerrymander.
It reflected Virginia’s closely divided electorate, where Democrats and Republicans both have real political strength. That is why the delegation sat near the middle, not at a 10–1 partisan split.
The new Democrat-backed map would take acompetitiveswing state and turn its congressional delegation into something that looks nothing like the actual electorate.
Republicans redistrict in states like Texas and Florida because those states are already reliably Republican. Democrats do the same in places like New York and California.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
