THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 23, 1996 TAG: 9609200020
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By JOHN GOOLRICK
LENGTH: 66 lines
Take it from one who was there. There were no state officials in 1991 who did not believe that black-majority congressional and legislative districts had to be created to satisfy the U.S. Department of Justice.
In 1990, while working for then-Rep. D. French Slaughter Jr., I was asked to represent him at a series of meetings on redistricting sponsored by the Republican Party of Virginia.
Though many of those attending were philosophically opposed to using racial considerations in redistricting, they nevertheless believed there was no other option and set out to make the best of it.
The idea was how to maximize Republican opportunities in elections for Congress and General Assembly while satisfying what the Justice Department believed to be a Supreme Court edict requiring districts guaranteeing adequate minority representation.
Thus the emergency of the 62 percent black 3rd Congressional District that was being called the ``Bobby Scott'' district even before Scott, then a state senator, had tossed his hat in the ring.
On the first go around, the General Assembly passed a redistricting plan that Governor Wilder refused to sign. Wilder offered a substitute plan which made substantial revisions to the original and was finally accepted. It looked as if the state's 11 congressional districts were settled until the year 2001 even though some of the boundaries of districts looked like corkscrews.
But then the Supreme Court began to turn the world upside down by ruling in several cases that race as a predominant factor in redistricting could be justified only by a nearly overwhelming need to correct past discrimination. The court ordered changes in congressional districts in several states where black majority districts had been drawn.
Sensing an opportunity to radically change the ``Bobby Scott'' district, several Virginia Republican activists, encouraged by a national interest group, challenged the district in federal court. Last week a three-judge panel spent two days in Roanoke hearing arguments pro and con. The jurists announced they would make no decision unit after this year's election.
At least two of the judges appeared skeptical about 3rd District boundaries which are in some places as narrow as interstate exit ramps. Yet any decision to order major changes in the 3rd can have domino effects on other state congressional districts, including the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 7th.
Whatever the court's decision, the losing side will likely appeal immediately to the Supreme Court. In that event, a decision would be unlikely to come in time for the regular session of the Virginia General Assembly in 1997 and a decision adverse to Scott and the state could prompt a special legislative redistricting session next spring and possibly new congressional elections next year.
One matter that has been overlooked is that if the 3rd District is ruled unconstitutional, it would open the door to court suits against several state Senate and House of Delegates districts that were drawn to be majority black. If the GOP activists win this one, then new action of that kind is not likely to be far behind.
With a Republican governor in place and a 20-20 party split in the state Senate, Democrats would not be able to write their own redistricting ticket as they have in the past.
And since the governor is George Allen, who was a victim of Democratic redistricting while he was a sitting member of the House of Representatives, his memory is apt to be long and unforgiving. In fact, if courts order Virginia to go back to the redistricting drawing board, the process could be a highly partisan and combative one. MEMO: John Goolrick, a former political reporter, is now an aide to 1st
District Rep. Herbert H. Bateman. Opinions expressed are his own. by CNB