Virginia Democrats Clap Back

 

In May of 2024, Gov. Glenn Youngkin called the Virginia General Assembly into a special legislative session on the budget. The Democrats, who control both houses, slyly left that special session "open." In Virginia, if a special session is left "open," not officially closed by the General Assembly, then technically, the authority to reconvene that session -- just incidentally on the new pressing issue of redistricting -- goes to the state House speaker and the chair of the state Senate’s Rules Committee, both of whom have already admitted their intention to redraw the Congressional map of Virginia to add Democratic seats to make up for the recent NC Republican steal. And they will do that over the objections of Gov. Youngkin, who knows what's up.

But in Virginia, the law for redrawing the map is cumbersome, takes a constitutional amendment, which itself requires enabling legislation passed by both houses of the General Assembly -- not once but twice. The process has to start with a special session, which Gov. Youngkin would never call, but the Democrats did. The special session on a proposed constitutional amendment is now scheduled for next Monday. Theoretically, that gives the Democratic majority in the General Assembly just enough time. They have to vote the proposed constitutional amendment through both houses very quickly. Then after the election next month (Virginia votes in off-years), the next session of the General Assembly must also approve it -- a foregone conclusion, evidently, as the Democrats are polling well. Then put it to the voters in a referendum, who have to vote "yes" in time for a new map to be used in 2026. 

My head spins. So many hoops, so little time. But good on them if they can pull it off.

Now we can discuss the political brutality that gerrymandering brings to a state. Right now, because the spotlight is on their corruption, Republican loyalists love to parry the criticism by saying, "The Democrats did it worse to us when they were in charge." I don't know about "worse," but of course Democrats have pulled off their own outrageous and patently unfair map tinkerings. Which is precisely why the most progressive elements in the Democratic Party have pushed in recent years for independent redistricting for North Carolina. I myself worked on a resolution calling for an end to gerrymandering and the creation of an independent agency to draw fair maps. That resolution passed locally, passed at the district level, then went to the state Democratic convention. 

Admittedly, that was a quaint time when we thought the Republicans should join us in our high-minded opposition to the evils of gerrymandering, because Republican leaders had been calling for independent redistricting for years, obviously under the burden of Democratic gerrymanders that kept them down. But instead of helping to end gerrymandering, Republican leaders were just lying in wait, full of the same spirit of retribution that defines Trump. And they're getting their revenge. 

We're trapped in a revenge tragedy. What's a player to do but unsheath our own swords and start swinging? That's just survival. We can be reform-minded later when -- and if -- saneness reasserts itself.