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Virginia Senate, or how to turn a tie into a Republican majority in one easy step
Dehumanized
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I don't know enough Virginia local politics to really evaluate this thing, but it sure seems threadworthy. Let's get down to it.
BREAKING: While Dems Distracted by Inauguration, Virginia Senate GOP Stages a Coup
So, while the inauguration was going on, the Virginia GOP Senate quickly introduced and passed new districting without debate that does so much as completely eliminate a Democrat senate seat. Holy shit, right?
Welcome to 2013, it's gonna be a rough one.
BREAKING: While Dems Distracted by Inauguration, Virginia Senate GOP Stages a Coup
You don't get more slimy, sneaky, underhanded, etc. than this (great work by Ben Tribbett alerting us to what was going on in the following series of Facebook updates):
"Wow- Republicans in the Virginia Senate are now trying to redraw the maps and draw at least one Democratic Senator out of the Senate. Happening right now on the floor."
"COUP GOING ON IN VIRGINIA SENATE: Republicans have just brought all new Senate districts to the floor with Henry Marsh gone in DC, now 30 minutes of debate before they send them to the House of Delegates."
"COUP SUCCESSFUL- NEW DISTRICTS HEADED TO VIRGINIA HOUSE. AT LEAST ONE DEMOCRATIC SENATOR TO BE OUSTED."
"The Republican redistricting bill creates a 6th majority-minority seat."
After Ben's first Facebook notice, I went to the live feed of the Virginia State Senate and watched as Sen. Saslaw, Sen. McEachin ("This is sneaky, this is underhanded, and it's beneath the dignity of the Senate"), Sen. Marsden and Sen. Barker went ape**** on the Republicans for what they said was a totally underhanded, unconstitutional move that will utterly poison relations in the Virginia State Senate. The fact that Republicans pulled this underhanded maneuver while most people were focused on the inauguration and Democratic State Senator Marsh was out of town (for the inauguration) really says it all. Wow.
P.S. Bizarrely, right after the coup, Sen. Deeds inexplicably started rambling on about a Confederate general (Stonewell Jackson) and how he loved "peaches," "lemons," and "women." WTF?
P.P.S. I'm hoping to get video of this as soon as possible, as you've got to see it to believe it. Also, this should be a big, national story. Wow.
UPDATE: Sen. Ebbin tweets, "VA Senate GOP trying to redistrict w/ substitute bill with no notice in violation of our state Constitution" and "VA Senate GOP votes to redistrict in violation of state Constitution."
UPDATE #2: One of the sharpest Virginia political analysts I know, KentonNgo, tweets: "If VA Republicans were smart enough not to touch the already cleared VRA districts, the plan will likely stand. Dems are toast." Ugh.
UPDATE #3: Here are the votes as Senate Republicans rammed this one through on 20-19, party-line votes with longtime civil rights champion, Democratic State Senator Henry Marsh, at the inauguration in Washington, DC.
UPDATE #4 (5:10 pm): It will be interesting to see how long it takes the corporate media to get on top of this story. So far, I see the Richmond Times Dispatch has a story (posted at 4:37 pm), but that's about it. We were up with this story at 4:19 pm, after Ben Tribbett posted about it on Facebook and alerted us to it a few minutes before that. Actually, I just saw that Bob Lewis and Larry O'Dell of the AP are out with a story as of 4:57 pm. ThinkProgress is also on it as of 5:10 pm.
UPDATE #5: Not Larry Sabato has "some initial info on the new districts." ("Creigh Deeds, the current 25th Senator is put into the 24th Senate district with Emmett Hanger, a district that now includes all of Augusta,and Bath counties along with Charlottesville and other pieces.")
UPDATE #6: NLS has the new districts.
So, while the inauguration was going on, the Virginia GOP Senate quickly introduced and passed new districting without debate that does so much as completely eliminate a Democrat senate seat. Holy shit, right?
Welcome to 2013, it's gonna be a rough one.
Dehumanized on
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This shouldn't be shocking, what with the whole "Capital of the Confederacy" thing.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/va-republicans-push-through-rewrite-of-senate-districts/article_1e6faf38-e5db-5b37-b3ae-63f544108f03.html
Thanks, Sammy.
But how is it not too late to redraw the districts?
pleasepaypreacher.net
There aren't any state senate elections until 2015, though.
It's a shitty thing to do, but it's not like it was illegal.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Well then maybe the dude shouldn't have gone to the inauguration. It's not like it was a new situation.
Or, how legislative bodies work.
It is a douche move, but not a coup.
Did Virginia not have state legislature races last November? I feel like the time for redistricting should've passed long ago. To be fair, I don't know shit about Virginia state government.
pleasepaypreacher.net
There's a reason why most voting bodies have quorum rules. Did this seriously take the senate from tied to +R? Where does it say that?
I wish something could actually be done about this shit, it's disgusting.
Yes, it did.
You should know as well as anyone that nothing political is functioning as intended these days.
The vote was 20-19 along party lines with a D only one not present, while attending inauguration.
That's a little... hrmm...
That's pretty dumb
Virginia has elections every year. The Commonwealth's statewide offices are selected during the November following a Presidential election. State Senators are elected during the November preceding a Presidential election. State Delegates serve two year terms and stand for election on both Novembers. No state offices are elected during even years (during Federal elections) except in cases of special elections to fill vacant offices.
Oh I see.
And the *shrug* shit happens attitude is not helping. Its a bullshit move to do, especially post election as a way to get a majority they did not earn with the public. It seems the GOP just likes to say "Fuck you democracy this is the way we do it."
pleasepaypreacher.net
Interesting. So this year would be the first year of elections since the redistricting (assuming 2011 was too quick after the census to count)?
They had 95% of all Senators there. One Senator missed work today to go to the inauguration.
Guess which one Senator had his district redrawn to include another Democratic State Senator?
Believe it or not, no, they finished redrawing their state leg districts in just a few months, so the 2011 elections used new boundaries.
You probably didn't hear about them because both sides are really, really good at drawing boring districts that will never change hands in a million years, and turnout is always ludicrously low.
Uh huh.
Well good on them for efficiency, Florida finished ours like a month before the primary.
But that would say to me that the time for redistricting is past, no?
Everybody chill.
The Lieutentant governor of Virginia, Bill Bolling, is a Republican. He would have likely cast the tie-breaking vote for the GOP anyway.
Craven? Yes. Illegal? Possibly. But this is something that would have happened regardless.
Carry on.[/fun.]
As a Virginian: fuck off, thinking you know how our Commonwealth works.
Let's pick an issue at random that is coming up in the next few years. How about the moratorium on uranium mining? It's a hot button issue that currently is divided more on geography than partisanship: the water used for processing the ore flows down the Roanoke river valley and ends up in Lake Gaston, where Hampton Roads (the second most populous part of the state) gets their water. Bolling had pledged that he would vote no on lifting the moratorium if the vote came to a tie. A lot of folks in the center of the state who don't have to worry about the run-off just see it as jobs, jobs, jobs.
My understanding is that they passed it as an amendment to a bill that was fixing a couple technical issues to the districts that were already in place.
I see.
Sure, Bolling could have voted against the measure.
Given his status in leadership in a party of craven asshats, I find myself suspicious of that actually coming to pass.
Bolling has gotten dicked over twice now. He first ran and won for LG in 2005, defeating Leslie Byrne and serving as Democratic Governor Kaine's LG and the highest ranking Republican in the state. Bob McDonnell won the AG contest against Creigh Deeds in that same year. In 2009, Bolling agreed to step aside to allow McDonnell to run for Governor on the condition that he would be the nominee in 2013. He ran for reelection as LG and won handily. Ken Cuccinelli also won the AG spot that year. In the last few months, the Republicans rigged the nominating process so that the more-conservative Cuccinelli would be assured of defeating Bolling despite earlier assurances. He's a pretty fucking pissed off guy right now. Enough so that he has not yet ruled out running as an independent.
Seriously, this is a topic about which you know nothing.