Another decade's sad redistricting

The new congressional districts rushed through the General Assembly this session weren't intended to provide voters with compact districts. They weren't designed to foster competition.

They were supposed to protect the politicians already in office.

They're an unequivocal success on that score. Republicans should have little trouble maintaining their 11 to 3 advantage in the state's congressional delegation.

That the bill passed was no surprise; it had been widely expected because Republicans control both the House of Delegates and the Senate this year. And it sailed through both chambers within the first two weeks of the General Assembly's session.

But it provided the fourth, and final, example of why a bipartisan commission should take charge of the decennial task of crafting boundaries that serve voters first and politicians second.

Last year, Democrats in the Senate and Republicans in the House were unable to agree on new congressional lines. Democrats tried to draw borders that would've given minority voters more influence in U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes' district; Republicans packed more minority voters into Rep. Bobby Scott's district.

That wasn't the only politics being played in redistricting. It wasn't even the most egregious example.

On the General Assembly level, Republicans drew new House lines that enabled them to consolidate their control. Democrats drew such partisan boundaries for the Senate that the governor rejected the proposal. A less blatant effort won approval and helped Democrats maintain some power in the Senate after a drubbing on Election Day.

Meanwhile, the governor's bipartisan redistricting commission drew districts for seats in both state chambers and in Congress. Those boundaries were promptly ignored by everyone. Including the governor.

Last week, Senate lawmakers approved a bill mandating the creation of a seven-member bipartisan redistricting commission in every year ending in one. It would do exactly what its predecessor did last year, and its recommendations would be submitted as bills to the General Assembly.

"The General Assembly," the bill's summary reads, "shall then proceed to act on the bills in the usual manner."

In other words, the bills will be sent to a committee and ignored, while members of both parties advance their own plans to protect themselves.

But that still isn't good enough for some members of a House subcommittee, including Suffolk Republican Del. Chris Jones. He led the effort last week to reject a similar bill to create a redistricting commission.

That guarantees the debacle that played out last year - and stretched into the current session - will simply repeat itself every decade until voters demand real change.