Republican redistricting of state electoral boundaries for political gain, a ploy in which Virginia's very own down-home Republicans have been the vanguard, has not been definitively squashed as it should be. The proposed redistricting would create one new District in which a black candidate would almost certainly win, while also creating as many as eight safe Republican districts in which Democratic candidates would have very little chance of success.
Republicans have designed a clever trap, one that could force Democrats to turn down something their party supports (minority districts) if they are going to head off an effort that would put them in permanent minority status in the state.
Are some Democrats about to fall into it? Incredibly it is now reported that some current African-American members of the state Assembly are giving serious thought to voting for McDonnell's plan, on the grounds that it would "have a great impact on African Americans."
Morning Fog hopes that the Af-Am legislators in question are simply blowing smoke, hoping, as some observers suggest, to gain leverage. It's incredible that they could be taking the Republican offer seriously.
As for that "great impact," another black Senator, elected by a heavily black electorate, would in my view become someone whose views could more easily be ignored by the Republican majority that will be created. If it weren't for constant gerrymandering by both parties, the whole concept of federally mandated safe minority districts would be an affront to racial equality - almost a "separate-but-equal" doctrine applied to politics rather than to schools. As it now stands, however, black politicians won't see the full potential of their power until they can be elected by a mixed constituency in which whites may be a majority.
It's been done on the national level (and even in the state); there's no reason it can't be done more often in future, as a matter of course, right here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. But the Republican plan is an obstacle which, if approved, could delay that day a good long while.
Comments