Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, bi-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.
If we here at the Odd Dominion could wave a magic wand and implement a single federal law, it would be this: All current non-statewide voting districts in Virginia are hereby dissolved, and all future districts, on both the state and national level, shall be drawn by an algorithm that considers only population density, and designs the most evenly shaped contiguous districts possible.
This seems like a simple proposal. But believe us, if this were to actually become law, it would be the equivalent of a nuclear bomb detonated beneath the halls of Congress, with fallout affecting every statehouse in the country. To which party the benefits would accrue, it’s hard to say. There are compelling arguments to be made by both donkeys and elephants that such a change might boost their electoral chances.
But the chances of this happening, in Virginia or elsewhere, are infinitesimally small. In fact, even before Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed off on a partisan redistricting plan that advantaged Republicans over Federalists, “Gerry-mandering” (so labeled because one district in the 1812 Massachusetts map resembled a salamander) was common practice. With the advent of computer modeling and a Supreme Court that has, thus far, been largely unwilling to censor the practice, gerrymandering has become so sophisticated and widespread that the redistricting process is often little more than an unapologetic exercise in rigging a decade’s worth of elections for whichever party happens to be in power. (And even if the chambers are split, as they were in Virginia during the last redistricting, political self-
interest almost always results in a map that prizes incumbent protection above all else, and thus perpetuates the status quo.)
And yet, every once in a while, there arises a district that is so convoluted, and its intended effect so nakedly partisan, that even normally compliant courts feel the need to step in. This is exactly what happened with Virginia’s Third U.S. House District—a political abomination that was assembled, like Frankenstein’s monster, out of a number of black-majority areas connected only by the James River.
Long represented by Democratic Representative Bobby Scott, the Third was Virginia’s only majority black congressional district even before 2010, but that year’s redistricting shifted lines in such a way that the Third’s African-American population grew, while surrounding districts became even more white and Republican (a craven move that arguably cost House Majority Leader Eric Cantor his job, as he subsequently lost his primary to a more conservative opponent).
After the redistricting, a lawsuit filed by residents of the district alleged racial gerrymandering, and now—wonder of wonders—a panel of judges from the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed, ruling that the serpentine district “cannot survive the strict scrutiny required of race-conscious districting.”
What this means, in practical terms, is that the Republican-controlled General Assembly will have to redraw the boundaries of the Third, most likely creating a second majority-black district in the process. To be sure, Virginia’s GOP will fight this ruling all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. But maybe—just maybe—this heinous example of race-based gerrymandering will prove too egregious even for the right-leaning majority on the nation’s highest court. (A recent Supreme Court ruling that blocked the implementation of a controversial Wisconsin voter ID law shows that, even for a court as conservative as this one, some attempts at disenfranchisement are simply unacceptable.)
Now if you’ll excuse us, we have to get back to work on our algorithm—for some reason it keeps spitting out districts shaped like Terry McAuliffe’s teeth.