Under pressure from a court order, two Democratic Senators in Virginia have proposed plans for redistricting. Senator Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax) has proposed SB5001 and Senator Mamie Locke (D-Hampton) has proposed SB5002 . An interactive map of Senator Petersen’s proposal may be found here and Senator Locke’s proposal is here.
In both proposals, the 3rd District becomes more Republican; in Locke’s plan it becomes 15.4% more Republican. Under Petersen’s plan, the 3rd District is physically much larger but only 8.4% more Republican. All the other districts also change. In my 10th District, we grow more Democratic in either scenario. In Petersen’s proposal the 10th District becomes 6.4% more Democratic and in Locke’s proposal it becomes 8.2% more Democratic. Neither will likely be a problem for Barbara Comstock, who won by 16% in 2014. In some cases Republican Congressmen will be redistricted out of their own district.
We have no idea if the General Assembly will reconvene to consider these or other proposed redistricting changes, or if a panel of federal judges will decide our fate. The deadline pursuant to the court’s order is September 1.
