Virginia Republicans cry foul over Dems’ congressional redistricting move

Virginia’s five-member Republican congressional delegation, which could number as few as two or even one a year out, is not happy with Democrats going full Trump on the matter of redistricting.

“I was a part of partisan redistricting. But the voters of Virginia spoke in 2020 that they didn’t like that happening. They didn’t want it, whether it be Republicans or Democrats in the backroom. They wanted no more of a partisan redistricting process,” said Morgan Griffith, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, who is actually probably safe as the MAGA congressman from Southwest Virginia, at a press conference in Richmond on Monday.

I say Griffith is probably safe because there are only so many ways Democrats can redraw congressional boundaries, and none of them can get Southwest Virginia to turn blue.

Ben Cline is also probably safe; it would take a lot to get the Shenandoah Valley into a blue district.

I’m still hopeful that Waynesboro can be an appendage for a redrawn Fifth District, grafting us into something with Charlottesville and Albemarle, which only makes sense anyway, as contiguous communities of interest.

I digress.

The MAGAs east of the Blue Ridge, into Central Virginia and toward Tidewater, though, are smart to be worried.

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ICYMI

• Virginia Democrats fighting gerrymandering fire with gerrymandering fire

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“This is about overturning the election results of 2020, pure and simple,” said Rob Wittman, who represents the First District, which includes the Richmond suburbs and Northern Neck.

Wait a sec: did Wittman seriously use the words “overturning the election results of 2020”?

Rob Friggin’ Wittman, who actually voted, hours after MAGA cosplayers had overrun the U.S. Capitol, to decertify the 2020 presidential election?

When Rob Wittman uses the words “overturning the election results of 2020” in the context of redistricting, he’s not talking about armed Democrats in inflatable frog costumes waving Pride flags overrunning the State Capitol; Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly have proposed a constitutional amendment that would reverse an amendment passed by voters in 2020 setting up a nonpartisan redistricting commission that, ultimately, failed, miserably.

The way Virginia’s constitutional-amendment process works, the General Assembly would need to pass resolutions this week and then when it reconvenes in January, then have the voters approve a new amendment in a statewide referendum in the spring.

So, when Wittman says Democrats “want to deny the voters’ desires to have a bipartisan redistricting commission,” I mean, the voters would have to express a new desire via referendum to get rid of that failed bipartisan redistricting commission for anything to happen.

He has to know this; he also has to know that, his seat would be going bye-bye.

The reason for that isn’t Democrats.

It’s on their Dear Leader, Donald Trump, who engaged Republicans in Texas to get legislators there to redraw their congressional maps to give MAGAs five more seats in Congress.

Republicans in other states are starting to pile on, but Democrats are fighting their gerrymandering fire with gerrymandering fire.

It’s no longer about playing fair.

“When Trump pushed for Texas to redistrict prior to the midterms, all of that went right out the window,” State Sen. Louise Lucas, a Hampton Roads Democrat, said on Monday.

“Now, with Texas, North Carolina and Indiana gerrymandering for Republicans, it’s only reasonable for Dems to respond. We will fight fire with fire,” Lucas said.