Spanberger tells rural Virginia to drop dead

[my2¢]

Virginia deserves better. Our country would be far better off without the 'monkey see, monkey do' attitude that is played in politics to justify throwing aside common sense.

 

[hadit]

If Texas and other Republican states hadn’t decided to more aggressively gerrymander, do you think California, Virginia and other democratic states would have done so this year?

Probably. They've already shown themselves perfectly willing to be what they were wailing about just a few months ago, so I have absolutely no problem believing they would have done it anyway. They have no restraint when it comes to power.

 

[hadit]

Its a response to Texans doing the same in another purple state that is slightly conservative.

IOW, they are perfectly willing to be exactly what they wailed about just a few months ago.

 

[Mac-7]

Probably. They've already shown themselves perfectly willing to be what they were wailing about just a few months ago, so I have absolutely no problem believing they would have done it anyway. They have no restraint when it comes to power.

Blue states are already heavily gerrymandered with republican voters unrepresented

 

[Marener]

Probably. They've already shown themselves perfectly willing to be what they were wailing about just a few months ago, so I have absolutely no problem believing they would have done it anyway. They have no restraint when it comes to power.

Why did these states institute nonpartisan redistricting panels in recent years?

You’re only fooling yourself.

 

[JimH52]

MSN

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has pursued a maximalist partisan agenda since being sworn into office. She is making housing, healthcare, and energy all more expensive. But nothing she has done so far is as insulting as the language her party attached to its ballot referendum to disenfranchise millions of rural Republican voters this April.

Six years ago, Virginia voters overwhelmingly passed a Constitutional Amendment creating a bipartisan Virginia Redistricting Commission. That commission drew a congressional map that was objectively fair. In 2024, when Vice President Kamala Harris won 52% of the vote to President Donald Trump’s 46%, the resulting congressional delegation was 55% Democratic (six seats) and 45% Republican (five seats).

It could not be fairer than that.

Now Spanberger and her Democratic Party majorities in the Virginia House and Senate intend to change the commonwealth’s congressional map radically in a distinctly unrepresentative manner. By cramming as many rural Republican voters as possible into one western congressional district, and extending the reach of overwhelmingly Democratic suburban Washington, D.C. voters far into rural Virginia, Democrats have changed a fair and representative 6-5 congressional map into a lopsided and undemocratic 10-1 Democratic advantage.

Voters in deep blue Arlington County, across the river from DC, would select congressmen for voters in deep red Augusta County on the West Virginia border. Voters in deep blue Fairfax County would be in the same district as voters in the Shenandoah Valley. There is no logical or policy reason for these changes. The voters in the new districts share no media markets and live hours apart. These changes would only be made for purely partisan reasons.

To add insult to injury, Spanberger and her Democratic allies have written the language that appears on the ballot in the most dishonest and partisan way possible. Instead of admitting that they want to throw out bipartisan maps and use partisan ones, the description on the ballot asks, “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”

Fairness? There is nothing “fair” or honest about taking a map that matches the partisan outcome of the last presidential election and replacing it with a map that favors Democrats by a 10-1 margin.

Virginia Democrats claim, like children, that since Trump “started it” by calling on Texas to change their maps, Democrats should retaliate by changing their maps, too. But this argument ignores two facts. First, before Texas moved to change its map, the states with the most gerrymandered maps were all Democratic. Despite only 55% of voters choosing Democrats in 2024, 82% of Illinois House seats went to Democrats. In California, 83% of House seats were under Democratic control while Democrats only got 59% of the vote statewide. In New Jersey, 75% of House seats belong to Democrats, while the party secured only 52% of the seats statewide.

Second, the Census Bureau has admitted it bungled the 2020 Census, overcounting people in Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island (all Democratic states), while undercounting in Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas (all Republican states), costing Republicans six House seats. None of these facts made their way onto the ballot wording of Spanberger’s proposed Virginia constitutional amendment.

Democrats nationally, not just in Virginia, have been asking themselves how they lost rural America and what they can do to get it back. Perhaps the party ought to consider that disenfranchising millions of rural voters with blatantly partisan congressional maps is a step in the wrong direction.

Early voting has started for the proposed change and I'm not seeing any Vote Yes signs in my AO, only Vote No signs.

It must not look too good for the dems because I'm already hearing that they are going to try to use the courts to nullify a poor result if the voters shoot it down.

Spanberger making things more expensive? Do you buy groceries or gas in Virginia? The felon seems to like seeing people suffer from his inflation. He is started a second Vietnam. But you are a Magat....so you don't care.

 

[Marener]

Blue states are already heavily gerrymandered with republican voters unrepresented

Some are. Most aren’t. There had been a movement among the left to move towards nonpartisan redistricting, but Republicans wouldn’t join in the effort.

 

[hadit]

Why did these states institute nonpartisan redistricting panels in recent years?

You’re only fooling yourself.

When we see proper districts drawn to represent nothing more than population numbers, you can make that claim. Until then, not so much.

 

[hadit]

Some are. Most aren’t. There had been a movement among the left to move towards nonpartisan redistricting, but Republicans wouldn’t join in the effort.

Be sure to let us know when such a "movement" generates legislation and votes.

 

[Marener]

When we see proper districts drawn to represent nothing more than population numbers, you can make that claim. Until then, not so much.

Virginia’s map in 2022 looks quite fair to me and was well regarded by the gerrymandering project at Princeton.

 

[Marener]

Be sure to let us know when such a "movement" generates legislation and votes.

It has. Virginia for example.

 

[Mac-7]

Some are. Most aren’t. There had been a movement among the left to move towards nonpartisan redistricting, but Republicans wouldn’t join in the effort.

But some blue states are gerrymandered where repubs are underrepresented

 

[Marener]

Be sure to let us know when such a "movement" generates legislation and votes.

But some blue states are gerrymandered where repubs are underrepresented

Some are. Oregon and Illinois are quite gerrymandered.

However, this pales in comparison to the number of red states that are heavily gerrymandered. Almost the entire south is heavily gerrymandered. Wisconsin is a disaster and has been for well over a decade now.

 

[WorldWatcher]

The Supreme Court needs to show some balls and put an end to this nonsense.
But they are too partisan

I disagree. It's something Congress should do, not the SCOTUS.

Establish, per their Constitutional authority (below), that each state must use non-partisian bodies to draw federal district maps that confirm with population density, established political boundaries (villiage, city, county), and natural barriers (rivers, mountains, etc.) to draw logical population centered districts - not districts based on race and/or political affiliation.

Then let that shake out as it may going forward.

WW

Article I, Section 4, Clause 1:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

 

[Woodznutz]

Stop your g.d. whining, you ******* baby.
Here's a map that shows what a shit party you're in.
Cities. That's it. Cities.

People who live in cities, they're the worst.

 

[task0778]

This is a preview of what the democrats will do when they gain control of both Congress and the WH. They'll change our presidential elections to be total pop, which essentially means people living out in the sticks won't really matter. The big cities will determine who the next president will be, and that means a lot more spending on social safety net programs. It also means a faster trip to a debt catastrophe.

 

[hadit]

Virginia’s map in 2022 looks quite fair to me and was well regarded by the gerrymandering project at Princeton.

Like I've said, Virginia has typically been a well-run state with representation that wasn't far off the leanings of the population. What the democrats are doing, however, is not that. They are seeking rank political advantage right before an election.

 

[Marener]

Like I've said, Virginia has typically been a well-run state with representation that wasn't far off the leanings of the population. What the democrats are doing, however, is not that. They are seeking rank political advantage right before an election.

They wouldn’t have done it if it hadn’t been for Republicans in Texas and elsewhere.

You expect them to ignore what Republicans are doing?

 

[westwall]

You guys started the Gerrymandering BS, don't complain now that it's biting you in the ass.

Bullshit. The democrat party has gerrymandered the shit out of every state they could.

The repubs are merely trying to fight back.

 

[hadit]

They wouldn’t have done it if it hadn’t been for Republicans in Texas and elsewhere.

You expect them to ignore what Republicans are doing?

If they were statesmen, they would be able to win without rigging the playing field. Tell me, are you cheering them becoming what you and they so soundly excoriated as the worst evil to befall the world mere months ago? You do realize that this action totally neuters any complaints about Texas, right?