Republican judge says Dems’ redistricting effort is ‘blatant abuse of power’

A judge appointed by disgraced former governor Bob McDonnell threw a monkey wrench into the congressional redistricting effort schemed up by Virginia Democrats, which means, not much, in the grand scheme of things.

My read: it’s still going to go through.

Deep breath. Exhale.

Repeat.

“Nothing that happened today will dissuade us from continuing to move forward and put this matter directly to the voters,” a list of Virginia Democratic Party leaders, led by House Speaker Don Scott and Senate President Louise Lucas, said in a joint statement on the ruling, from Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr.

Translation: this one’s going to the Supreme Court of Virginia, which will have the final say, not the court-shopped guy in the southwest corner of the state.

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ICYMI

• Virginia Democrats fighting gerrymandering fire with gerrymandering fire
• Virginia Republicans cry foul over Dems’ congressional redistricting move
• Virginia moving forward with redistricting: What it means for us locally
• Lucas to Kaine, Warner: No comments on redistricting from the ‘cuck chair in the corner’

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Hurley, the court-shopped guy, in the legal opinion he issued in the case, is saying Democrats were guilty of a “blatant abuse of power” in adding the redistricting amendment to the special session of the General Assembly held last fall, which would seem to be the end of the matter.

He also went kitchen sink in the ruling, though, making sure to cover the bases, saying Democrats also didn’t get the amendment passed before early voting began in the 2025 election cycle.

MAGAs got what they wanted from their McDonnell appointee: he validated their points of contention almost word for word.

“Republicans court-shopped for a ruling because litigation and misinformation are the only tools they have left,” said Keren Charles Dongo, the campaign manager for an outfit that styles itself Virginians for Fair Elections.

Dongo was the campaign manager for Tim Kaine’s U.S. Senate re-election effort in 2024, and is now back on Kaine’s Senate staff with the title State Director.

Everybody’s got a dog in this fight, obviously.

“We’re prepared for what comes next, and Virginians deserve both the right to vote and the chance to level the playing field,” Dongo said.

That’s the thing here: it’s not as if Democrats are trying to ramrod something through the way, you know, Republicans have been doing in states like Texas, which just up and redid its congressional maps without going to state voters, and after a federal court ruled that the new maps, which targeted the seats of five Black and Latino Democrats, was unconstitutional.

Texas Republicans didn’t have to court-shop their appeal there; because the ruling was in a federal court, all they had to do was get the Trump-packed U.S. Supreme Court to rule in their favor.

I would expect the Virginia Supremes to defer to the General Assembly, and to the voters, who would still have to vote in favor of the referendum before Democrats could do anything to our congressional maps.