RICHMOND – As the Virginia General Assembly kicked off its special redistricting session Monday, advocates of nonpartisan redistricting toted rubber snakes — as well as a giant stuffed one — into the Capitol to demonstrate their displeasure with plans for redrawn state House and Senate district lines introduced by lawmakers last week.
“The General Assembly’s gerrymandered plans for a new political map twist local boundaries, divide communities of interest and defy common sense,” said Olga Hernandez, president of the League of Women Voters of Virginia.
In Northern Virginia, for example, the new district of retiring Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, would stretch from Arlington to Loudoun County under a plan introduced by Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax.
“This is not an adult situation,” said Anne Sterling, also with the League of Women Voters of Virginia.
Advocates circulated t-shirts with a giant Cobra on the front and the message “Virginians – don’t let the snake bite you – support bipartisan redistricting” on the back.
“We’re seeing donkeys and elephants [creating] dragons and snakes,” added Doug Smith, president and CEO of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
Virginia’s 11 congressional districts will also have to change due to explosive population growth in Northern Virginia over the past decade, though proposed maps have not yet been formally introduced.
