Redistricting- Forget the people, it is All About Power 

This year Virginia’s voting districts are being adjusted.  The Republicans have control of the legislature. The Democrats have control of the executive office.  The citizens have control of nothing.

The courts will resolve the issue.

Historically when the Democrats are totally in power they redistrict to their political advantage. The Republicans scream about partisanship.  When the Republicans are totally in power they redistrict to their political advantage. The Democrats scream about partisanship.

The citizens are forgotten.

Federal law stipulates that all districts, whether congressional or state legislative, must meet two primary criteria:

Equal population: According to All About Redistricting, federal law “requires that each district have about the same population: each federal district within a state must have about the same number of people [and] each state district within a state must have about the same number of people

Race and ethnicity: Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 states that district lines must not dilute the voting power of racial or ethnic minority groups. This provision «applies whether the denial is intentional, or an unintended end result.” Courts essentially test whether the way districts are drawn takes decisive political power away from a cohesive minority bloc otherwise at risk for discrimination.

The race and ethnicity issue is a two edged sword. It implies that minorities cannot be adequately represented by anyone other than a member of that minority. This means that any district that is not 100 percent of any ethnicity has members who are not being represented, which violates our constitution.  This means that whites can only be represented by a white, blacks can only be represented by a black, Hispanics can only be represented by an Hispanic, men can only be represented by a man, women by a woman, and on and on ad nauseum .

The fact is, race should not be an issue unless a deliberate attempt is made to reduce the effect of a minority’s vote.

As a nation we elected a black president. As a commonwealth we elected the nation’s first black governor. Obviously blacks can and are being elected in Virginia.

As far as state requirements just following the rules should be simple to achieve.

Contiguity refers to the principle that all areas within a district should be «physically adjacent.»

Compactness refers to the general principle that «the distance between all parts of a district» ought to be minimized. The United States Supreme Court has «construed compactness to indicate that residents have some sort of cultural cohesion in common.»

A community of interest is a «group of people in a geographical area, such as a specific region or neighborhood, who have common political, social or economic interests.»

Our congressman Robert Hurt serves the fifth congressional district, which runs from the North Carolina border to beyond Front Royal in Northern Virginia. It includes the city of Charlottesville as well as ultra-rural Southside which is clearly in violation of the “compactness” and “community of interest” requirements.

Maybe this redistricting can be reasonable representing all Virginians.