The scourge of Elbridge Gerry

Two weeks ago, I headed over to Richmond's historic Byrd Theatre to see the latest Arnold Schwarzenegger film.

The villain was a lot scarier than the usual cyborgs and jungle-dwelling alien predators in past action flicks. This time the bad guy was gerrymandering.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, gerrymandering is what happens when politicians draw their own congressional and state legislative districts to give themselves safe seats and to terminate their enemies.

For those who think you already know what I'm talking about, the documentary "Gerrymandering" still carries plenty of surprises. First off, it's supposed to be pronounced with a hard G. Gary, not Jerry. The word was inspired by former Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry, who drew his political opponents into a salamander-shaped district in 1812.

But Massachusetts was a come-lately to this game. Patrick Henry carved fellow Virginia patriot James Madison into a hostile congressional district back in 1788 in a failed attempt to block his election. (Later, when Madison was president, his vice president was good old Elbridge Gerry.)

Gerrymandering may not sound like a very creepy bad guy. It doesn't decapitate its victims or skin them alive, but it does reduce the value of your vote to that of a Confederate dollar bill. Sophisticated computer programs allow politicians to piece together friendly districts precinct by precinct, or even block by block, using demographic data and voting results from past elections. They control the outcome of elections before the voters ever arrive at the polls.

That didn't sit well with Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California who was having trouble getting cooperation from his Democratically controlled legislature. So he helped Common Cause and the League of Women Voters pass an initiative in 2008 that gave a 14-member bipartisan commission authority to draw state legislative districts.

The documentary chronicles the campaign to pass that reform. Moviegoers knew the outcome, of course. It passed by a narrow 50.9 percent. But there was still a sense of suspense in the theater. That's because the commission's existence was under attack in this fall's elections.

Good government groups were back on the California ballot last Tuesday with a proposal to give the commission charge over congressional districts. But opponents launched a counterattack, proposing a ballot question that would abolish the commission. Backers of the latter initiative included U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and billionaire Democratic donors George Soros and Haim Saban.

Reform advocates viewed the second ballot question as an attempt to confuse voters into supporting the wrong initiative or rejecting both. It didn't work. Sixty percent of Californians said they wanted to keep the commission and give it more power.

But while Californians are celebrating this happy Hollywood ending, Virginians are still trapped in the clutches of the gerrymander ghoul.

Olga Hernandez, president of the League of Women Voters of Virginia, once lived in California and recognizes that citizen ballot initiatives have wreaked havoc on the state budget, but it's hard not to be a little wistful over Californians' ability to take reform ideas straight to the voters. In Virginia, she and other advocates must ask state legislators to give up their redistricting power voluntarily. It's not been a successful strategy.

"You have to have a prominent person who can get the attention of the public," she said.

Like a movie star or a governor, for instance. Gov. Bob McDonnell promised as a candidate to create an independent redistricting commission but so far that hasn't happened. He did not support bills in the General Assembly this year to set up a commission, even bills sponsored by fellow Republicans. He has one more chance to keep his promise next year before the new legislative districts are drawn in the spring. Hernandez and other advocates met with him in August, but they're still waiting for a response.

"It stands at a standstill right now," she said.

This could be McDonnell's chance to star in his own movie: the sequel to "Gerrymandering." All he has to do is look those gerrymandering legislators in the eye and say, "Hasta la vista, baby."

Christina Nuckols is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot. E-mail her at christina.nuckols@ pilotonline.com.