RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — Virginia’s new congressional and legislative district maps have been approved by the state Supreme Court, drawing mixed reviews from elected officials and those involved in the process.
“The final redistricting maps prepared by the special masters are fully compliant with constitutional and statutory law applied, as the court directed, in an apolitical and nonpartisan manner,” Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Lemons wrote in an order late Tuesday approving the constitutionally required decennial district redraws.
The Virginia General Assembly and U.S. House of Representatives district maps were created by court-appointed special masters following the failure of a bipartisan committee to complete the process.
The map drawers, Republican appointee Sean Trende and Democratic pick Bernard Grofman, said they shifted districts to better reflect the state’s broader shift to the left. Using voter data from recent elections, the state’s House of Delegates now includes an estimated 50 safe Democratic seats with 48 safe Republican seats and two toss-ups. The state Senate looks to be about 22-15-3 and congressional seats are split 6-4 between Democrats and Republicans with one toss-up district.
Liz White, executive director for One Virginia 2021, a nonprofit group that helped push a constitutional amendment which led to the court-approved maps, praised the final results.
"Earlier fears that the court would create a Republican gerrymander have proved to be unfounded," she said, noting the GOP-leaning Virginia Supreme Court voted unanimously to approve them. "The court has done an exemplary job of being transparent, efficient, and nonpartisan."
The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, a nonpartisan group which ranks redistricting maps, said in a statement Wednesday morning that little changed from its first assessment of the draft maps released three weeks ago. The data trackers gave both the congressional and House of Delegates an A rating for partisan fairness while the state Senate lines earned a B.
Though the final maps appear to paint a rosy picture for Democrats with slight advantages across the board, not everyone was happy.
Democratic state Senator Scott Surovell is one of those critics. He took to Twitter Wednesday morning to argue the special masters failed to adhere to at least part of the state's recently enacted redistricting criteria, suggesting Democrats should have had a stronger advantage.
"The law says that 'A map of districts shall not, when considered on a statewide basis, unduly favor or disfavor any political party' - D's have won every statewide election since 2009 except the last which didn't by 40-80K votes of 3.2M cast," he said. "This does not merit for toss up maps."
Fairfax County Delegate Marcus Simon, a Democrat, also expressed some dismay at the maps' approval.
“I think the big winners are Republicans who convinced people to vote for this,” said Simon of the mapmaking process approved by voter referendum in 2020 with about 65% of the vote. He claims the new maps give the Virginia GOP a “huge advantage,” especially in the wake of their statewide office sweep during the 2021 elections.
He also argued the final maps continue another trend: little concern for incumbency. By his early estimate, the maps pit dozens of current legislators from both parties against one another.
A 63-page memo released by the mapmaking team acknowledges the incumbency complaints they received, calling the previous lines “convoluted” as a result of a Republican gerrymander in 2010. The new maps addressed the issues the previous maps created, they argued.
“Any redistricting map featuring this degree of geographic consolidation will almost certainly pair incumbents together; if those incumbents live in a narrowly defined geographic area the chances of being paired together are increased,” the mapmakers wrote.
But Simon said the irony of the new districts, which were aimed at creating more fairness, is that they actually created more one-party majority districts. In his eyes, there are 20% more safe Democrat districts, which reduces competition.
“You’ve got 40 seats where Democrats don’t have to worry about what their Republican constituents think at all. Why would they? Their votes don't count,” he said. “People thought they’d get more competition, uplifting middle-of-the-road voters and not extremes, and I don’t think that’s going to be the result.”
As for competing incumbents, Simon said party members on both sides will have to work out details. The new district lines might give a leg up to those who can fundraise better or afford to rent or buy a house in their newly created district to meet residency requirements.
Simon doesn’t think it’ll be too hard for some delegates to relocate if needed, especially in compact Democratic districts where regional connections may already exist.
“If I have to run in Vienna, I can talk about the bike store where I bought my first bike,” he said of his own district, which was shifted to the east, forcing him to make a tough choice in the coming months.
Finding a local link will be important for incumbent Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger. The Democrat was part of the Trump-era Blue Wave, scoring an upset win in 2018 in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, which was drawn as safe Republican in 2010. But the new map puts her house in the 1st District, a seat currently held by longtime incumbent Republican Rob Wittman.
In an early morning statement to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Spanberger said she’d seek the 7th District seat despite the redraw.
“Nearly 200,000 Virginians in the new Seventh District have already been my constituents under the current district lines,” she said. “I look forward to continuing my service representing them as well as my future constituents."
The statement did not say whether Spanberger plans to move her family, including her three school-aged children, into the new district, though there is no residency requirement for congressional seats.
Attempts to reach leadership for both Virginia Democrats and Republicans for additional comment were not returned by press time.
While these new maps will take effect in 2022 for the congressional midterms, they might also come into play for the state’s House of Delegates before the regular 2023 election.
A lawsuit over the state’s failure to create new maps in time for the 2021 races was filed by Democratic Party activist Paul Goldman in June and is working its way through the federal courts. The complaint alleges the use of old maps this year violated the state and federal constitution and, if successful, could force delegates to run again in 2022 alongside their congressional counterparts.
The last time the courts stepped into the issue was in the early 1980s when the Republican legislators failed to make Civil Rights Act-compliant maps and were ordered to run three years in a row.
A dispute over Goldman’s standing to sue is currently awaiting a hearing at the Richmond-based Fourth Circuit.
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