RICHMOND – On a 74-21 vote, the Virginia House of Delegates Friday passed a Republican plan to redistrict the state’s 11 congressional districts, sending the plan to the Senate for a vote next week.
House Bill 251, sponsored by Del. Robert B. Bell, R-Albemarle, is the exact same redistricting plan that Senate Democrats shot down last year.
When the legislation gets to the Senate next week, it could be the first test case of Republicans’ newly proclaimed power in the chamber.
If the Senate votes on the redistricting plan along party lines, it would create a 20-20 split with Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling breaking the tie and pushing it through.
Bolling left no doubt today that he would support the GOP plan.
“I will,” he said. “It’s a bill that the congressional delegation supports on a bipartisan basis, so my hope would be that it would have wide bipartisan support, but last year that was not the case.”
Democrats object to the plan — drawn last year by now-retired Del. Bill Janis, R-Henrico – because it retains only a single black-majority district, the 3rd, rather than creating a second from the 4th District.
Some also contend that the issue of redistricting should no longer be in the legislature’s hands since the state’s constitution expressly states that the process “shall” be completed in 2011.
Based on that argument, a lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on behalf of six Virginia voters asking that the federal court carve new districts ahead of this year’s elections. That lawsuit is pending.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement