-The Disgraceful Sheila Jackson Lee
Posted on 10/08/2014 12:20:43 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Virginia legislators packed too many black voters into one congressional district in order to make adjacent districts safer for Republican incumbents, a federal court ruled Tuesday.
The 2-1 ruling by a panel of judges left the state’s congressional districts intact for November’s elections but ordered the General Assembly to draw new boundaries by April 1 next year correcting the flawed 2012 redistricting plan. […]
With Democratic-backing, two voters from the 3rd District filed a lawsuit challenging the district map. The plaintiffs claimed that the lawmakers who drew it could have shifted a large number of black voters from (Bobby) Scott’s district into a neighboring district currently represented by a Republican, increasing Democratic influence there without substantially diluting the voting strength of blacks in Scott’s district. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Is it a Black majority, or Democratic majority district. What’s the difference?
The south largely views the Voting Rights Act as Reconstruction Part II. It should.
This racial district formation happened in Memphis which led to the creation of the Ford machine. Somehow white Dem Steve Cohen managed to get elected much to the disgust of black Dems who openly said that seat belonged to a black...democrat.
What I read yesterday is that the 6 that come up with the district were made up of 3 Republicans and 3 DEMOCRATS.................the news is making this like it was all the GOP’s issue and doings
Gerrymandering itself was done to get blacks elected (by jamming as many of them into one district); are they re-thinking that?
This 2-1 ruling is headed to the Supreme Court. There appears to be a contradiction between the Court’s ruling on gerrymandering (saying it’s legal) and the Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (saying that it it’s illegal because the data on which it is based is obsolete). Does this mean VRA-type “majority-minority districts” are illegal?
Furthermore, as to the facts of the case, Virginia’s lines are not so bad. The districts are relatively compact. It turns out that Democrats tend to be concentrated in urban districts, so that normal looking districts result in a good number of them being Republican.
The particular district under review, the 3rd, is rated very highly Democrat. This occurred by incorporating largely black communities in a district running from Richmond to Norfolk, to the north and to the south of the James River, as well as extending an arm to the City of Petersburg. It is now well established that Congressional lines can cross over bodies of water (in this case, the James River).
I think somebody has already pointed out that the Congressional map isn’t exclusively a product of the Republicans in the state legislature. At the time, the state House was two-thirds Republican, and the state Senate was controlled by the Democrats, and a Republican was Governor. (At this time, both houses are Republican, and the Governor is a Democrat.) So, there was some wheeling and dealing.
Virginia’s delegation is 8 Republicans and 3 Democrats, but among the districts, two are only marginally Republican (R+2). One of these two has an open seat this year because Frank Wolf is retiring. This should be a very competitive race, but we don’t have any public polling. An internal for the Democrat says the race is close, and an internal for the Republican says Barbara Comstock has something of a lead. Barbara has an advantage of this being a Republican year, and in the future should have the advantage of being an incumbent.
I was not happy that the amendments passed in 2006 by a Republican Congress and President extended Federal oversight of Southern states another 25 (!!!) years.
How much redrawing of a district is enough?
The only acceptable evidence is the result of having the district elect a Democrat.
How’s that for fascism?
They are going beyond safely electing a Democrat, they want to use some of their excess unassimilated minorities to threaten a neighboring district (read: elect TWO Democrats).
That district ends about a half of a mile from my house on my side of the tracks and runs past my house on the other side of the tracks. I am likely to be represented by Bobby Scott in the future as a result of this ruling. Ugh. I already lost Wittman last time in favor of Rigell, a RINO used car salesman with an R next to his name. The Scott boundary, meanwhile, has been slowly creeping in my direction for the last 20 years.
I have a better idea.
Redraw all the Virginia districts to reflect the state’s racial population That way it would be “fair”.
But then, that would eliminate the “safe” black (democratic/liberal/progressive/socialist) district. But, it would give them equal representation in all districts.
What/ That would be unacceptable. Wny?
Exactly.
They’re trying the same thing is Florida. The lib judges want to spread the Black vote out to elect more White democrats.
Packing mentally challenged democrat votes into super-safe districts is the only thing that makes sense for our country.
WHat!? Blasphemy! You, and the rest, should be ecstatic there was (R) control...just like the push every 2 yrs.
I mean, we have such great representation and Constitutional scholars, we were bequeathed with the TSA, DHS, NCLB...
wait, what?! They were supposed to give us LESS gov’t and more Freedom/Liberty? Uh, never mind.
Bingo. And right behind SJL, is the disgraceful mental-midget Corrine Brown.
Easiest solution is just to stop at the boundaries of the Counties. The leeches would have the cities and the rest of us that work...
It is odd because they are bucking their own trend of patching together far-flung sections of minorities to ensure safe districts; I guess as the white population dies out they have excess gibsmedats to spread around.
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