A lawsuit filed in Virginia
accuses the General Assembly of “racial gerrymandering” in an effort to pack black
voters into 12 majority black House Districts. The suit alleges that the
district lines were drawn in a way to meet a pre-determined 55 percent threshold
which diminished the influence of black voters in the surrounding districts. The
district maps were set in 2011, approved by Eric Holder’s Justice Department,
and passed in the House of Delegates by a bipartisan vote of 63-8. Someone
please cue the eerie music because I feel like I’m living in the Twilight Zone. (continue reading)
1 comment:
This is an old ploy to quiet the black voters who complain that the Democratic party is big on promises but deficient on delivery. You cram all the black voters you can into racially homogenous districts which then elect black representatives who are featured on the front page of the papers. Once in the state house the handful of blacks are told that the gravy train will run as long as they vote the party line and not wanting to lose a cushy job, they do. The white reps don’t have to listen to black constituents, and the black reps can’t get anything done beyond some token efforts.
The same trick works without the race factor. In Colorado there were some 120,000 more votes cast for Republicans than for Democrats. We got a 1 seat majority in the Senate and a Dem house and governor. Cram as many Republicans into their own districts as possible, and distribute the remainder into Dem-majority districts, and Voila! a permanent Dem government.
Iowa has a state law requiring districts to be compact and contiguous. We all need this.
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