
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991                   TAG: 9103280416
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: THOMAS BOYER/ LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

GOP OFFERS DISTRICTING ALTERNATIVE

Republican state legislators on Wednesday proposed redrawing state Senate districts to create two new majority black districts and perhaps knock off four Democratic incumbents.

GOP leaders acknowledged their plan would have little chance of winning approval in the Democrat-dominated General Assembly. But they contended it is more true to the federal Voting Rights Act than the Democrats' plan, which creates no new black districts.

Among the highlights:

Democratic incumbents would be pitted against each other in newly drawn districts to represent Virginia Beach, Portsmouth/Suffolk/Chesapeake and the Roanoke suburbs. Sens. Dudley Emick, D-Fincastle, and Granger Macfarlane, D-Roanoke, would be in the same district, either setting up a confrontation or forcing one to retire or move.

A new majority black district would be created from parts of Hampton, Newport News and four precincts in Norfolk. It would include the current residences of Sens. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, and Robert Scott, D-Newport News.

A second black district would be created from portions of Suffolk and Emporia, along with Sussex, Surry, Greensville, Southampton and Isle of Wight counties.

Existing black districts would be retained, with some modifications, in Norfolk and Richmond.

"I have no illusions of the Democrats embracing this right away," said Sen. Kevin Miller, R-Harrisonburg, who helped compile the plan as an alternative to the Democrats' proposal - which merges his district with that of another Republican.

Both the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union have been critical of the Democratic plan because it creates no additional black-majority districts, even though the percentage of black voters has grown in many localities over the last decade.

Sen. Joseph Benedetti, R-Richmond, argued that the federal Voting Rights Act requires that black majority districts be drawn if possible. He said the GOP plan would be submitted to the Justice Department as evidence that the Democrats' plan violates the law.

"If nothing better than this develops, this will be the plan that we take to court," Benedetti said.

Keywords:
POLITICS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

by CNB