Del. Marcia “Cia” Price, D-Newport News, reaffirmed her belief that several House of Delegates districts, including her own, needed to be redrawn to undo the packing in of black voters, a practice she said has diminished their voices.
Speaking at a town hall Sunday in Newport News, she also implored people to start thinking about the 2020 census and subsequent congressional redistricting and how they could get involved in that process.
The town hall, which about three dozen people attended, covered some laws and processes behind drawing district lines and some history and examples of gerrymandering. Price also provided insight on the court-ordered redistricting of six majority African-American districts in Hampton Roads, which could bring major changes in the makeup of the House of Delegates.
The 95th District, represented by Price, covers much of south Newport News, goes up a little into Hampton, then along the eastern edge of the city to Patrick Henry and Denbigh. Her district is 63 percent African-American — the neighboring 94th is 68 percent white and represented by Del. David Yancey, a Republican.
Price called this a packing in of black voters to diminish their influence to one district. Because of the wide-reaching impact, Price called redistricting the issue that impacts all other issues.
She said the goal is not necessarily to get to some magic ratio of voters, but to a more even balance where the two districts have similar percentages of black and white voters.
Price did not expect the predominantly Republican House of Delegates to come up with a map that Gov. Ralph Northam would approve, eventually leaving the courts to appoint an independent group to redraw the lines.
Quentin Kidd, director of the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University, said redistricting “fundamentally changes” the makeup of the General Assembly. He said it could shift up to seven districts to Democrats, giving them control of the House.
At the congressional level, Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, D-Newport News, said he led a majority African-American district for his many years of his service and advocated starting in 1992 to unpack black voters. Redistricting has caused some shakeups, like opening the door for Rep. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico County, to be elected to Congress, Scott said.
Anthony Fairfax, CEO of mapping consulting firm CensusChannel, advised people to draw their own maps and think about what they want to see in their districts. The tools to draw the maps are readily available online, he said, so people have the opportunity to be highly specific when they provide public comments.
The tools are in place to make this a citizen-driven process, Kidd said.
Kidd also advised people to attend the public meetings during the congressional redistricting process. He advised the Independent Bipartisan Advisory Commission on Redistricting in 2011 and said he once underestimated the impact of public comments. During that process, he saw several commissioners refer to comments people made and really take them into consideration.
