Democrats push redistricting amendment as special session jolts Virginia ahead of election

With just one week before Polling Day Virginia lawmakers returned to the state Capitol Monday for a surprise special session that swiftly turned into a partisan clash over the future of the state s congressional map and potentially its balance of political power for years to come House Democrats using procedural maneuvers that caught Republicans off guard pushed through a procedural resolution crafted by House Majority Leader Charniele Herring D-Alexandria which if effective would allow the General Assembly to consider a proposed constitutional amendment granting lawmakers authority to redraw Virginia s congressional districts mid-decade Under the resolution adopted on a party-line vote in both chambers lawmakers may now consider budget and revenue bills judicial appointments and constitutional amendments related to redistricting and reapportionment The measure effectively removes the usual constraints that limit special sessions to subjects designated by the governor or legislative leaders This was an fundamental vote for us to take this week in order for us to have that option declared Del Cia Price D-Newport News chair of the House Privileges and Elections Committee If we were not to take this action right now then we would be pulling an option from the voters Republicans decried the legislative action as an ambush carried out largely behind closed doors Democrats argued the procedural expansion is needed to respond to what they view as a growing national campaign by Republicans encouraged by President Donald Trump to reengineer congressional maps mid-decade As first stated by The New York Times last week Democratic strategists including former Attorney General Eric Holder have urged Virginia to act preemptively in affair federal courts uphold new Republican-drawn maps in states such as Texas North Carolina and Missouri that could tilt the balance of the U S House The actions that Texas and Missouri and North Carolina have taken have triggered this Price revealed The trigger has already been pulled when it comes to attacks on our democracy So that s why Virginia is here We are going to do our job to protect democracy in Virginia Republicans cry foul Republicans blasted the maneuver as a constitutional overreach designed to change electoral contest rules days before voters decide three statewide races House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore R-Scott declared Democrats had sidelined the minority and the residents in an opaque process that left multiple guessing what was literally being planned There s a lot of issues that we need to talk about to the voters of Virginia but obviously the ruling party had other plans Kilgore narrated reporters on the House floor Just let it be known that we do think that this was a plan to take us out of having any motions of personal privilege I just want to know from our side because we re not privy to all this are we going to have a redistricting constitutional amendment coming to the floor House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore R-Scott speaks with reporters on the House floor Monday Photo by Markus Schmidt Virginia Mercury Del Israel O Quinn R-Washington accused Democrats of hiding the ball You know a bill is a bad idea when a member mumbles through their description of it and refuses to take questions and sits back down O Quinn mentioned They don t want morning hour speeches so you re getting to see a really bad idea play out in real time Republicans also questioned whether Democrats had already missed the legal window to advance a constitutional amendment this year Del Bobby Orrock R-Spotsylvania cited Virginia Code - which requires proposed constitutional amendments to be posted publicly at least three months before the next House of Delegates electoral process That deadline has already passed Orrock commented on the House floor arguing that any amendment passed this week could not legally appear before voters in November Del Lee Ware R-Powhatan warned that Democrats were defying centuries of precedent Here we are eight days before Polling Day near the conclusion of our -day polling season in Richmond Ware mentioned The purpose of this unprecedented special session during an electoral contest is to hitch Virginia belatedly to the pell-mell bandwagon to redistrict or to speak more honestly to gerrymander the commonwealth s electoral districts Democrats Amendment only creates an option Price and other Democrats maintained that the move does not dismantle Virginia s independent redistricting commission approved by voters in but merely creates an additional safeguard should courts or federal actions reshape national political boundaries Del Rodney Willett D-Henrico who will carry the proposed constitutional amendment stated the plan is going to give us options Maybe the the majority fundamental point to make here is what the resolution is not going to do which is to abolish the commission that was created through the earlier constitutional amendment Willett mentioned This is to create again not a mandate but an option in the interim in between those decennial redistrictings to do something when there s an extraordinary circumstance He added that the move was necessary because our hand s been forced here This is not our choice to be here but with this kind of attack we ve got to respond Democratic House Speaker Don Scott D-Portsmouth who last week called lawmakers back to Richmond declined to outline his full plan publicly But particular Democratic leaders informed Virginia Scope last week that the goal is to prevent Virginia s representation in Congress from being weakened if neighboring states redraw their maps to favor Republicans Earle-Sears GOP candidates seize on the optics Before the session opened Lt Gov Winsome Earle-Sears who presided over the state Senate Monday and is also the Republican nominee for governor staged a campaign-style news conference on the Capitol strategies accusing Democrats of abusing their majority for partisan gain This day Democrats in our General Assembly are calling this special session not to serve the people but to serve ourselves Earle-Sears declared They want to dismantle the very independent redistricting commission that Virginia was voting for in a bipartisan majority Earle-Sears called the commission born out of a prayer a rare moment of unity when Democrats and Republicans alike agreed that voters should choose their own representatives and not the other way around Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears speaks at the state capitol Monday to rally against a special session called by Democratic leadership in the legislature to consider redistricting just over a week before Electoral contest Day Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods Virginia Mercury She linked the move directly to her Democratic opponent Abigail Spanberger saying This pressure is coming from Washington insiders and Abigail Spanberger What we are seeing in current times is the worst kind of political backtracking an attempt to grab power by erasing the voter s voice Her remarks came as national attention turned to a donation each from Holder s National Democratic Redistricting Committee to Spanberger s campaign and to Virginia House Democrats Gov Glenn Youngkin seized on that timing Monday accusing Spanberger of hypocrisy This was Abigail Spanberger s position just a sparse short years ago Youngkin wrote on X citing her praise of a U S Supreme Court ruling striking down racially gerrymandered districts All it took was from the Democrat Redistricting Committee to change her position fully Youngkin wrote Spanberger has not commented publicly on the current effort In an August interview with WJLA she explained she opposed mid-decade redistricting and warned against politicians trying to tilt the playing field in their favor aligning herself with Maryland Gov Wes Moore s call for fair-maps decree Republican lieutenant governor nominee John Reid on Monday echoed Earle-Sears criticism saying Democrats were not respecting the will of the people They made it very clear just five years ago they don t want petty partisanship Reid noted They don t want politicians drawing their own lines this is not respectful to the people in Virginia GOP congressional delegation joins chorus Earlier in the day Virginia s five Republican members of Congress U S Reps Morgan Griffith Jen Kiggans Rob Wittman Ben Cline and John McGuire held a joint news conference at the Capitol condemning the Democratic move Griffith a former House majority leader in the state legislature commented he had firsthand experience with partisan line-drawing I was a part of partisan redistricting but the voters of Virginia spoke in that they didn t like that happening he mentioned Griffith argued that a special session after early voting had already begun deprives those who have voted early of the chance to weigh the issue U S Rep Jen Kiggans left and U S Rep Morgan Griffith right join their fellow Republican members of Virginia s congressional delegation at the state capitol Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods Virginia Mercury Kiggans who represents a competitive swing district in Hampton Roads called the proposal a cynical replay of Washington dysfunction It s a competitive district and inevitably will be she disclosed likening the Democratic plan to partisan games in Washington that have now trickled down here to Richmond Legal doubts and political fallout Republican Party of Virginia Chair Mark Peake a state senator from Lynchburg recounted The Mercury in an interview Monday that the Democratic proposal was unconstitutional There is no intervening voting Peake declared Nine-hundred thousand people have already voted They re supposed to post it in courthouses for three months before the referendum They don t have a bill they don t have a constitutional amendment It s not going through As I disclosed it s a ruse Peake predicted this will percent end up in court He dismissed comparisons to Trump s mid-decade redistricting push in Texas Where we are different is we have a constitutional amendment in place that says how we do redistricting Not mid-decade it s every decade And it s bipartisan Broader stakes A national redistricting arms race The New York Times published last week that Virginia Democrats rush to act stems from a fear that Republican-controlled states could redraw congressional boundaries before potentially costing Democrats several seats Trump s community calls for GOP legislatures to redistrict mid-decade have prompted a flurry of legal and legislative action in Texas Missouri and North Carolina The U S Supreme Court is also now weighing a major redistricting circumstance from Louisiana In that context Democrats in Virginia one of only a scant southern states with divided political control in contemporary years see a constitutional amendment as both a defensive measure and a announcement of principle But even chosen Democrats privately concede that the optics of returning to Richmond just days before an polling could prove risky particularly as Republicans work to cast the move as proof of overreach Next actions and uncertain path ahead Price whose committee oversees polling law explained the Privileges and Elections Committee would meet Wednesday morning to review the amendment text followed by a likely vote in the full House later this week She emphasized that the amendment would require approval again in the next legislative session and voter ratification in a statewide referendum before taking effect I ve been here for years Price noted We ve had several proposed constitutional amendments and when the Republicans were in charge they weren t worried about what they were bringing up We are fully within our right to be here Still the legal and political obstacles are formidable Virginia law requires constitutional amendments to be approved by two separately elected General Assemblies meaning even if Democrats pass it this week it would need to survive another vote after the new legislature convenes in January and then win approval at the ballot box in Republicans appear determined to challenge the process in court before it gets that far They re wasting our time Peake the RPV chair noted flatly It s going to be overturned as soon as it gets to court As night fell on the Capitol lawmakers filtered out of the chamber with limited clear answers and even fewer signs of bipartisan consensus Price standing outside the chamber doors explained Democrats would proceed precisely but deliberately It s essential that we have all of our options on the table she announced again This is about protecting democracy in Virginia Reporters Nathaniel Cline and Charlotte Rene Woods contributed to this story Source