Va. Redistricting Commission votes to allow use of political data, reject university map-drawers

The most revealing moment of the Virginia Redistricting Commission’s meeting Tuesday may have come during a bathroom break.

With microphones still on and broadcasting to a live stream, Sen. George Barker, D-Fairfax, huddled with Democratic citizen commissioner Brandon Hutchins, who seemed concerned the commission was setting itself up for public blowback by not living up to its promise of a fairer redistricting process.

“They are going to bomb us for this,” Hutchins said.

“Actually, they won’t,” said Barker. “It’s actually a fairly small segment of the public that is working on this issue. … There’ll be some complaints here and there. There always are.”

Time will tell whose prediction is correct. But a series of decisions the commission made Tuesday offer the clearest picture yet of the role politics will continue to play in a process formerly handled entirely by legislators in the General Assembly who were effectively empowered to draw their own districts.

Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/08/17/va-redistricting-commission-votes-to-allow-use-of-political-data-reject-university-map-drawers/