The “Yes” side won in a closer-than-expected congressional redistricting referendum in Virginia, with the final count on Tuesday night giving “Yes” 51.4 percent of the vote, for a 2.8-point win over “No.”
The “No” forces are not going to go away quietly, though, as we know.
Sixth District MAGA back-bencher Ben Cline was among those on his side who filed suit earlier in the year to try to block the referendum from even taking place, with oral arguments scheduled at the Virginia Supreme Court next week, though it’s hard to imagine that the justices would want to overturn the results of an election in which more than 3 million Virginians cast votes.
ICYMI
- Ben Cline announces launch of ‘grassroots effort’ to save his job in Congress
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“You can only imagine how voters would feel or perceive the legitimacy of the court, or maybe the partisanship of the court, if voters vote yes on this, and then the court subsequently throws it out. I think it’s a really hard thing for the court to do,” Leslie Caughell, a political-science professor at Virginia Wesleyan, told 13NewsNow in Norfolk.
Doesn’t mean the likes of Cline, whose district was moved from a “Safe Republican” rating to a “Leans Democratic” rating by the UVA Center for Politics in the wake of tonight’s results, won’t be trying to save their jobs, which is all the “No” side has been about these past five months.
At this writing, nearing the 11 p.m. ET hour on Election Night, Cline hasn’t commented on the results of the referendum, though his opponents from the Democratic side in the Sixth have been all over the news.
“Folks around here can agree on one thing – we are paying way too much for gas, groceries and healthcare. It’s time to fire congressmen like Ben Cline who jacked up costs to protect the corrupt,” said Tom Perriello, an Albemarle County native who represented the next-door-neighbor Fifth District in Congress for one term, from 2009-2011.
“I’ve held hundreds of listening sessions across the Blue Ridge, and families deserve a representative who will fight to get costs down, paychecks up, and common sense back in the driver’s seat,” Perriello said.
“Today, Virginians’ voices were heard,” said Beth Macy, a bestselling author and journalist who was the first to get into the race to challenge Cline in the Sixth last year. “Regardless of what the Virginia Supreme Court may decide in the coming weeks, Virginians have made it clear that they’re willing to fight tooth and nail against the excesses of Donald Trump to hold the wealthy and powerful accountable and build a new system that works for everyone.”
“The people of the new Sixth District need a representative who will stand up for everyone, defending their interests and their constitutional rights, rather than just another rubber-stamp for whatever crazy idea Donald Trump springs on the country,” said Robert Tracinski, a writer, commentator and political activist running for the Democratic nomination in the Sixth.
“Now that the redistricting referendum is over, we can focus again on the Democratic primary, where I’m the only candidate who is putting this constitutional balance of power at the front and center of my campaign,” Tracinski said.
Augusta County: From one, to three
The Sixth was, forever, the ballgame for the Greater Augusta area in Congress, but the new map will have Augusta County and the cities of Staunton and Waynesboro split into three districts – the Sixth, which “Leans Democratic,” the Seventh, which is “Likely Democratic,” and the Ninth, which is “Safe Republican.”
The two cities will be rolled into the new Sixth, along with Harrisonburg and Charlottesville/Albemarle, in a district riding the Blue Ridge all the way through Roanoke and Blacksburg.
A swath of the northern and western parts of the county will move into the Seventh, which touches both the West Virginia border and the edge of the District of Columbia.
The rest will join the Ninth, currently represented by MAGA Republican Morgan Griffith, in a district that is about as rural as you can get, touching West Virginia, Kentucky and the mountains of North Carolina.
Local vote tallies
Kinda went how you’d expect – Augusta County and Rockingham County, reliably MAGA, gave big majorities to “No,” while Albemarle County and the cities in our area, with one exception, the one that I live in (!), went “Yes.”
The “No” brigade
- Augusta County: 78.1 percent “No” (19,122 votes margin)
- Rockingham County: 75.3 percent “No” (18,255-vote margin)
- Nelson County: 55.0 percent “No” (721-vote margin)
- Waynesboro: 54.0 percent “No” (642-vote margin)
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!’
- Staunton: 55.1 percent “Yes” (1,002-vote margin)
- Harrisonburg: 65.0 percent “Yes” (3,077-vote margin)
- Albemarle County: 64.8 percent “Yes” (14,352-vote margin)
- Charlottesville: 85.4 percent “Yes” (10,771-vote margin)
Final tally in our readership area: the “No” side won with 52.8 percent of the vote.
That’s closer than I would have expected.
May have to stop saying that AFP is a progressive website in the reddest part of Virginia.
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Chris Graham
