Lining it up
New congressional map would split Albemarle County
Virginia’s 2021 redistricting cycle is nearing a close. Last week, the state Supreme Court-appointed map drawers released drafts of the Virginia Congressional, State Senate, and House of Delegate districts that could go into effect next year.
In the past, the party in control of the state legislature has had the power to draw its own district maps. This time around, after a newly formed bipartisan redistricting commission couldn’t come close to agreeing on the best way forward, each party nominated one special map drawer, and the two collaborated to put the maps together. Public hearings will be held to discuss the maps on December 15 and 17, and the Supreme Court hopes to sign off on a final draft by the 19th.
The Virginia Public Access Project analyzed each of the proposed maps based on recent statewide election results. VPAP says Virginia’s 11 current congressional districts have five seats that are strongly Democratic or lean Democratic, five seats that are strongly Republican or lean Republican, and one toss-up—the new maps would shift lines around but maintain that split.
In the Senate, VPAP says Dems currently have the advantage in 21 districts, Republicans have the advantage in 17, and two districts are toss-ups. The proposed map would result in Democrats netting one new strong D seat, at the expense of a toss-up. In the House, VPAP projects a 47 Dem, 12-toss-up, 41-GOP split to shift to 49-10-41 in favor of the Democrats. (Remember, these are just projections: In last month’s election, Republicans took 52 House seats to Democrats’ 48.)
The map creators, UC-Irvine political scientist Bernard Grofman and RealClearPolitics election analyst Sean Trende, emphasized their efforts at neutrality in a memo accompanying the maps. “Our duty is owed not to the parties that nominated us, but rather to the Court that appointed us and to the residents of the Commonwealth that it serves,” they wrote.
The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, a nonprofit redistricting analysis group, graded the maps based on a variety of key redistricting criteria. The Congressional and House maps received As, indicating that the maps’ partisan breakdown fairly reflected the breakdown of the state, and the Senate map received a B.
Locally, the map contains one major quirk: Albemarle County is one of the few counties in the state split right down the middle. If the new maps are approved, Albemarle residents who live north of Greenbrier will live at the southern edge of a district that stretches north towards Northern Virginia, while those who live in the city of Charlottesville and the southern half of the county will share representation with southern central Virginia, all the way down to the North Carolina border.
UVA alum and attorney Sam Shirazi attempted to rationalize the split on Twitter: “Raising Cane’s is in the 5th because it is more culturally aligned with Southside,” he wrote. “Across the street, Trader Joes and Sephora are in the 10th [because they’re] more suburban like Loudoun…I’m being facetious, [the] split is absurd.”
In brief
Pulled the Woolley over our eyes
Charlottesville’s almost-city manager Marc Woolley spoke with Bloomberg Law last week about why he quit job the day before he was supposed to start. Woolley cited family reasons when he announced that he was pulling out of the role earlier this month, but sang a different tune last week. ‘“There’s just no way that an interim person can work underneath that craziness,” he told Bloomberg Law. “My eyeballs were always going to be looking over the fence.”
Off to a hot start
Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin has announced that he plans to pull Virginia out of a 10-state regional greenhouse gas alliance. Dominion Energy says the move will save an average energy customer $52 a year. A joint statement from Democratic leaders in the legislature puts a different spin on the proposal: “We only have one world—with Hampton Roads perpetually flooded, the Chesapeake Bay’s future at risk, and Virginians’ health declining, there is no time left to play politics with Mother Nature,” they wrote.
UVA football begins new chapter
After the shock resignation of head coach Bronco Mendenhall, who led the Cavaliers for six seasons, UVA football has found its new top man in Tony Elliott, the former offensive coordinator at Clemson University. Elliott comes with a winning pedigree, having won the national championship in 2016 and 2018 with the Tigers. “I’m so excited, the time is finally here,” Elliott said in a video from the plane to Charlottesville. Here’s hoping he’s half as good as the other Coach Tony in town.