2020 Census and Redistricting Thread: Virginia

[Brittain33]

How easy is it to draw out Bob Good? He’s such a joke.

Not sure where he lives, but Virginia geography requires a conservative Southside district, so if he’s willing to move it is hard.

[Brittain33]

Davis is not running again, he has burned his bridges with the national Trumpified GOP.

[Brittain33]

This is my third cycle paying attention and I wasn’t prepared for how comprehensive and disastrous a sh**tshow redistricting was going to be in every state.

[Brittain33]

This is my third cycle paying attention and I wasn’t prepared for how comprehensive and disastrous a sh**tshow redistricting was going to be in every state.

Yea this cycle (my first) has really made me realize how ineffective, untransparent, and easily manipulated "independent commisions" really are.

Sadly I don't know an alternative. I have thought of a (very large) comission selected by the supreme court but that seems a bit unrealistic and equallly problematic

Yeah. I think Michigan is doing ok, and Iowa could be ok, and Colorado isn’t as bad as a gerrymander would be. I think there are elements that can be successful but only if assembled properly and there are safeguards against one party gaming the system (VA, IA). But some of these commissions are just dead on arrival - OH, NJ, VA failed immediately.

[Brittain33]

Was the last map drawn by a GOP trifecta?

No, the Democrats controlled the State Senate at the time. But in any event recall that the Democrats had held VA-09 right up until the 2010 elections (the Republicans failed to even field a candidate there in 2008!), so "gerrymandering" in 2011 would not feel like gerrymandering these days anyway.

It actually was drawn by a GOP trifecta in 2012 after they flipped the state senate in 2011.

And then VA-4 and adjacent districts were redrawn by a court to resolve VRA issues.

[Brittain33]

This has been a bad week for political hackery. Good thing for Democrats that New York didn’t try to release a map while redistricting Mercury is in retrograde.