A Second Blue Wave in the Suburbs?

An exodus of suburban voters from the GOP fueled Democrat wins in 2018 and handed control of the U.S. House of Representatives to Democrats.  As things currently stand, Trump is even more disliked than in 2018 and his botched handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the battered economy may underscore that dislike.  A piece in Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball looks at possible problems for the congressional Republicans in suburban districts if Trump loses or barely edges out wins far smaller than in 2016.  In deed, Trump may have negative coattails even in states like Texas where the rural/suburban divide is growing rapidly.  In heavy military areas like Hampton Roads, Virginia, the Russian bounties for dead Americans and Trump's claim it is all a hoax could harm Trump and those in the GOP pandering to him even further.  Here are article highlights:

Well-educated suburban districts, particularly ones that also were diverse, were a major part of the Democrats’ victory in the House in 2018. Democrats captured many formerly Republican districts where Donald Trump performed significantly worse in 2016 than Mitt Romney had in 2012. Democratic victories in and around places like Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, the Twin Cities, Atlanta, Orange County, CA, parts of New Jersey, and elsewhere came in seats that meet this broad definition.

And then there’s Texas. Democrats picked up two districts there, one in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex (TX-32) and another in suburban Houston (TX-7). But Democrats put scares into several other Republican incumbents, and the closeness of presidential polling in Texas could lead to unexpected opportunities for Democrats there this November.

Tellingly, of 18 Texas polls in the RealClearPolitics database matching Biden against Trump dating back to early last year, Trump has never led by more than seven points — in a state he won by nine in 2016. It seems reasonable to assume that Trump is going to do worse in Texas than four years ago, particularly if his currently gloomy numbers in national surveys and state-level polls elsewhere do not improve.

In an average of the most recent polls, Trump leads by two points in Texas. In 2018, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) won reelection over then-Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D, TX-16) by 2.6 points. If Trump were to win Texas by a similar margin this November, the congressional district-level results probably would look a lot like the Cruz-O’Rourke race.

Cruz won the remaining districts, but several of them were close: TX-2, TX-3, TX-6, TX-21, TX-22, TX-25, and TX-31 all voted for Cruz by margins ranging from 0.1 points (TX-21) to 5.1 (TX-25). These districts all have at least average and often significantly higher-than-average levels of four-year college attainment, and they all are racially diverse.

In other words, these districts share some characteristics of those that have moved toward the Democrats recently, even though they remain right of center.

This is all a long preamble to an alarming possibility for Republicans: If Biden were to actually carry Texas, he might carry many or even all of these districts in the process. In a time when ticket-splitting is less common than in previous eras of American politics (though hardly extinct), that could exert some real pressure on Republicans in these districts.

Trump’s Texas sag in 2016 didn’t immediately imperil any Texas Republican U.S. House members, except for retiring Rep. Will Hurd (R) in the perpetually swingy TX-23; it took the 2018 midterm, when Trump’s unpopularity led to big House losses for Republicans, to make many of these districts much more competitive. So it’s possible that Biden could do really well, but not have strong-enough coattails in these and other similar kinds of districts. We also still like Trump’s chances in Texas, despite the close polls.

However, if that changes — and if Biden wins the state without much ticket-splitting — there could be some unpleasant surprises down the ballot for Republicans in Texas. That could also include control of the Texas state House of Representatives, which might be in play if things get bad enough for Republicans this November.

Redistricting looms for 2021 — at the very least, Republicans who currently control state government in Texas may have to dramatically re-draw the map to shore up incumbents whose safe seats have eroded over the course of the decade while also accommodating a few new House seats because of Texas’ explosive growth. For Republicans, their gerrymander after the last census (albeit blunted a little by judicial intervention) made practical political sense, but demographic changes and coalition shifts pushed 20 of the 36 districts to vote more Democratic than the state in the 2018 Senate race. And if Democrats somehow win the state House, they will have a formal seat at the table in the redistricting process next year.

Overall, our ratings now show 227 House seats at least leaning to the Democrats, 194 at least leaning to the Republicans, and 14 Toss-ups. Splitting the Toss-ups down the middle would mean a 234-201 House, a one-seat GOP improvement on 2018.

That said, as we scan the Leans Republican and Leans Democratic columns, there may be more GOP seats than Democratic ones that are closer to drifting into the Toss-up column. Second-quarter fundraising reports, which will be trickling out over the next couple of weeks, may provide some additional clues as to the state of these competitive races.

All in all, the Democrats’ grip on the House majority remains strong.

The Democrat Blitz in Virginia

In 2017 blog readers from around the country followed the Virginia elections, many seeking a ray of hope in an otherwise demoralized political world disgusted by the foul and corrupt individual in the White House.  Fortunately, Democrats created a political earthquake, won the governorship and both other state wide offices and came within a name drawing from taking control of the House of Delegates.  Next Tuesday, Democrats hope to finish the work left from 2017 and take control of both the Virginia Senate and Virginia House of Delegates.  Should this happen, not only would decades of Republican obstructionism and efforts at voter disenfranchisement fall away, but the Democrats would also control the 2020 redistricting maps. In addition, for LGBT Virginians we might at last see state law non-discrimination protections and see a statutory ban on voodoo like "conversion therapy" which should more properly be called a form of torture.  A piece in Politico looks at the Democrat effort in Virginia which many hope can be a precursor to a 2020 rout for self-prostituting Trump boot lickers.   Here are article excerpts:

National Democratic groups are spending unprecedented sums in the race for control of Virginia’s state legislature — the first test in a yearlong campaign to maximize the party’s influence in the states before the next round of redistricting begins in 2021.

After winning the governor's mansion in 2017, Democrats are shooting for total control in Richmond. And they see next week's elections as an early chance at redemption after a 2010 drubbing that left them boxed out of the map-making process in nearly every key state.

“I was in New York yesterday for a pitch to national donors — everybody wants to play in Virginia. They understand the significance,” former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a long-time national party power-broker, said last week. “Virginia’s future for the next decade is going to be determined this November.”

Cash-flush Democratic power players have flooded the commonwealth with upwards of $10 million, according to an analysis of outside spending. Among the top spenders: Everytown for Gun Safety, a Michael Bloomberg-aligned group, with $2.5 million; the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the party's state-level campaign arm, with $1.3 million; the League of Conservation Voters with $1.5 million; and EMILY’s List with $2.1 million, its single largest investment ever in a state’s legislative races.

Virginia’s unique campaign-finance laws allow these groups, and major liberal donors like George Soros, to contribute unlimited amounts directly to individual campaigns, giving Democrats a formidable financial advantage.

Democratic candidates raised a collective $31.8 million by the end of last month, according to the analysis of financial filings by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. That's more than twice as much as they raised in 2015, the last time both chambers of the legislature were on the ballot.

In comparison, Republican candidates have raised a collective $21 million so far this cycle, trailing their Democratic counterparts by over $10 million.

Over the next 12 months, Democrats are seeking to make major inroads in state legislatures, which have the power to affect policy at the state level, in addition to election rules like district lines and ballot access. Republicans control the legislatures of 30 states, . . . 

In Virginia, Democrats have not had majorities in either chamber since before 2012, when Republicans took control of the map-drawing process — but they have a strong chance next week to flip both, particularly the state Senate. In 2017, control of the state House memorably came down to one race in Newport News when the Republican incumbent kept his seat after a tiebreaker in which his name was drawn from a bowl. The impact of the Democratic cash influx is abundantly clear in a northern Virginia state delegate district where Democrat Hala Ayala, a cybersecurity specialist who is one of the first two Hispanic women elected to the state’s lower chamber, faces a rematch with Rich Anderson, the Republican she beat in 2017.

Anderson pulled in over $280,000 by late October. Ayala, buoyed by a six-figure donation from EMILY’s List, has raised over $1.2 million so far. That investment has allowed her to spread her message wide.

Her ads have become so prominent on cable and digital platforms that Ayala said neighborhood children have referred to her as "that lady on my Twitter." Some approach her to recite the script of her spot that details her time working at a gas station while on Medicaid. "I'm ready to be a meme," she joked.

"Never before have Democrats had this kind of money," Ayala said. "Republicans have been well-funded, mostly by the NRA and all of these special interest groups that never served us any positive benefit."

Democratic presidential candidates have also shown interest in the Virginia elections. . . . And there's some indication that the grass-roots have also taken an increased interest in Virgina. ActBlue reported that donors in the third quarter of 2019 doubled their contributions compared to the third quarter of 2017.

Virginia is the only state with competitive off-year state legislative elections. Democratic strategists will have to likely work harder to keep a focus on down-ballot races in 2020, when the party will attempt to take the White House and Senate while defending its House majority.

In the past few years, some of the biggest names in Democratic politics have waged a nationwide campaign to prevent a 2010 redux.

Ahead of the post-2020 redistricting, Democrats are eager to break GOP trifectas in Florida, Texas, Ohio and Georgia. Another top target this cycle is North Carolina — where Republicans control both chambers, and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper would have no veto power over the map if he wins reelection next year.

Democrats Poised to Dominate Next Round of Redistricting

Terry McAuliffe who is working to win Democrat control
of the Virginia General Assembly.

One can be hopefully optimistic that Democrats have finally awakened to the reality that state level elections matter just as much as presidential elections.  It is maddening that Democrat voter turnout soars in presidential election years yet historically stayed home and given away the farm the the Republican Party fueled by extremists and zealots. A piece in Politico looks at how Democrats may be poised to do unto Republicans what the GOP did in 2010.  Ultimately, it is STATE elections that determine congressional district maps, so every state house seat matters.  Now, with its off year elections, Virginia is garnering lots of attention and money to push the Democrat effort to take control of the Virginia General Assembly to not only control redistricting but to also pass common sense, progressive legislation that has been killed by Republicans, particularly in the House of Delegates.  Here are highlights from Politico:

Democrats were caught napping in the 2010 election ahead of the last round of redistricting — and it cost them control of Congress for nearly a decade.

Now Republicans are warning the same thing could happen to them.

Senior Republicans concede they’re at risk of losing dozens of state-level elections that will determine who wields power over the post-2020 congressional map — and potentially which party controls the chamber for the following 10 years. While Republicans are establishing a massive national infrastructure devoted to reelecting President Donald Trump and winning congressional majorities, party officials say the state legislative races are being overlooked. The trepidation comes as an array of well-funded Democratic groups — including one with the backing of former President Barack Obama and ex-Attorney General Eric Holder — are flooding cash into Virginia, a key redistricting battleground that's holding state legislative elections this fall.

The GOP's redistricting troubles represent a complete turnabout for the party. In the run-up to the 2010 election, Chambers’ group outspent its Democratic counterpart nearly 3-to-1, helping Republicans net nearly 700 seats and flip control of 20 legislative bodies. The party that year benefited from a broad backlash against Obama's first years in office, particularly his health care overhaul.

Republicans used their control of line-drawing to solidify and protect their newly won House majority, which remained intact through 2018.

This time around, it’s Democrats who are playing big. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee outraised the RSLC during the first half of 2019. And unlike a decade ago, Democrats are getting help from a galaxy of outside groups and allies, especially Obama.

Others warn that overlooking statehouse elections could have long-lasting implications for the party, which was wiped out in 2018 legislative elections.

The Democratic deluge is being felt most immediately in Virginia, where Republicans are trying to defend one-seat majorities in both legislative chambers. Democrats out-raised Republicans during the second fundraising quarter, and a handful of outside liberal groups, including the Michael Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and the Tom Steyer-funded NextGen America, have pledged to spend more than $5.5 million combined ahead of the November contests.

Other Democratic heavyweights are getting involved, too. Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a former national party chairman and a fundraising powerhouse, has steered $400,000 to Virginia candidates through his political action committee.

Some Democrats say the attention to down-ballot races reflects lessons the party learned after two devastating losses: In 2016, when it became clear it isn’t enough to just play in presidential elections, and in 2010, when they were devastated in state-level races.

Personally, I hope it is the GOP that suffers devastating losses both in November, 2019, and in November, 2020. 

Virginia GOP Hit With Major Blow in Gerrymandering Case

One of the ways in which the Virginia Republican Party has managed to retain control of the Virginia House of Delegates is through deliberate gerrymandering of districts.  Now, in a case that has been pending for a few years, the courts appear poised to order the redrawing of up to 26 districts due to their illegal, racially motivated design.  With the entire General Assembly up for reelection in November, 2019, the outcome of the case could be devastating to Virginia Republicans if 26 gerrymandered districts are redrawn.  Rather than push policies that win a majority of voters' support, the Virginia GOP has increasingly tried to suppress minority votes and when all else fails, gerrymander districts to maintain control  As a piece in Think Progress notes, that game plan may be about to totally unravel.  Here are article highlights:

Virginia’s House of Delegates is one of the most gerrymandered bodies in the country. In 2017, Democrats won the statewide popular vote in Virginia’s legislative races by over nine percentage points. Nevertheless, Republicans still held a 51-49 majority in the House of Delegates, thanks to gerrymandering.

But Virginia Democrats may actually get to compete in something approximating free and fair elections next year, thanks to a pair of documents handed down by a federal court on Friday.

Both documents arise from a case entitled Bethune-Hill v. Virginia State Board of Elections. This case, which was originally filed in 2014, alleges that 12 of the state’s House of Delegates districts are unlawful racial gerrymanders. . . . two members of a three-judge panel eventually concluded that 11 of the state’s districts are, indeed, illegal gerrymanders.

The case is currently pending before the Supreme Court, but the Court appears mostly interested in a tangential question regarding whether the Republican-controlled House of Delegates is allowed to appeal the case. Notably, the Supreme Court did not stay lower court proceedings that will redraw Virginia’s gerrymandered maps.

In the first of the two documents handed down on Friday, the three-judge panel considering Virginia’s gerrymander also refused to stay its map-drawing proceedings.

The second document is a report by Bernard Grofman, a University of California, Irvine political scientist that the court charged with devising plans to redraw Virginia’s maps. Grofman’s report is 131-pages long, goes into considerable detail about the state’s districts, and offers a few alternative plans. The punchline, however, is that Grofman anticipates that the court will need to redraw between 21 and 26 of the state’s House of Delegates districts.

So it appears likely that a significant chunk of Virginia’s maps will look quite different in 2019 than it did in 2017. That’s likely to be good news for Democrats. While it remains to be seen what the final maps will look like, the current maps are so egregiously gerrymandered than any alterations are likely to benefit the Democratic Party.

And that, in turn, raises the possibility that the increasingly blue state of Virginia could become a haven for progressive ideas. Virginia has a Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, but Northam has thus far been hobbled by a Republican legislature. If Democrats perform as well in 2019 as they did in 2017, but with slightly less gerrymandered maps, Northam could soon find up himself with a much friendlier state legislature.

A Third Redistricting Lawsuit Targets Virginia's Gerrymandered Districts

Neither major political party is innocent when it comes to utilizing gerrymandered districts to retain power.  However, during the last redistricting round, the Virginia GOP took the rigging of districts to a new level, in no small part because it is the only way to hold power when the party's agenda is so increasingly out of step with the views and desires of more and more Virginians.  Two lawsuits are pending challenging the ridiculous districts the Republicans force through in 2011.  Now a third lawsuit has been filed.  The GOP will vigorously fight any changes because compact, contiguous districts could spell the end of GOP domination of the Virginia General Assembly, especially the House of Delegates.  The Washington Post looks at the latest lawsuit.  Here are highlights:

A group of Virginia residents sued state elections officials Monday over 11 legislative districts — including some in Northern Virginia — charging that they violated the state Constitution by enforcing election maps that too easily protect incumbents.

The plaintiffs argue that during the last round of redistricting, in 2011, the General Assembly drew the districts to give incumbents the best chance at holding on to their seats at the expense of geographical compactness, which the Constitution requires. If successful, the suit, which is the third recent court challenge to the state’s elections maps, could scrap the maps and send vulnerable lawmakers scrambling to compete in newly drawn districts.

The House and Senate districts in question are spread all over Virginia and include parts of Prince William County, Manassas, Manassas Park, Fairfax County and Arlington County.

“Our goal is to influence the courts to require the legislature to honor the Constitution when it draws political districts and not subjugate the Constitution to blatant political gerrymandering,” he told reporters outside the courthouse.

The lawsuit targets five House districts and six Senate districts. In the overwhelmingly Republican House, bills intended to reduce the influence of politics on redistricting have quietly disappeared in subcommittees without going to a floor vote. . . .  the Senate, where Republicans have a one-vote edge, passed three nonpartisan redistricting bills in this year’s session only to see them die in the House.

Two previous lawsuits argued that lawmakers illegally packed African American voters into both state and federal districts, diluting their influence elsewhere. One of the suits challenging a single congressional district was successful, and a federal court is sorting out a new map; in the second, judges are still deliberating challenges to a dozen House districts.

The lawsuit argues that all of the 11 targeted districts were intentionally drawn in serpentine shapes to include enough partisan households to ensure the reelection of incumbents. One district was described as a “jagged, U-shaped district surrounding and interlocking,” with another district “like a piece of a poorly designed puzzle.”

In recent years, redistricting in Virginia has helped attract candidates who appeal to the most conservative and liberal extremes, which advocates for nonpartisan redistricting blame for bringing Washington’s gridlock and polarization to Richmond.

Could McAuliffe Save Bob McDonnell's Sorry Ass?

The circus of Giftgate - and the possible criminal prosecution of outgoing governor, Bob McDonnell - continues.  Personally, having known McDonnell for almost 20 years, I continue to believe that Maureen McDonnell is the one that started this train wreck hurling down the tracks.  Bob McDonnell's fault was not controlling his wife and doing too little too late to fix the damage.  With Terry McAuliffe taking over as Governor of Virginia next month, a column in the Richmond Times Dispatch suggests that McAuliffe could come to McDonnell's aid in a display of bi-partisanship that might win good will from Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly.  Personally, I think the imagined GOP good will is a fantasy.  The Virginia GOP is too subservient to the Christofascists and Tea Party Neanderthals to ever stray for the far right's extremist marching orders.  Here are column excerpts - make your own judgment call:

Terry McAuliffe has enough to worry about without the distraction of his predecessor possibly being led off in leg irons.

In year one of the McAuliffe governorship, Bob McDonnell’s continuing nightmare — the Giftgate ethics scandal — could play out on two fronts: a possible public corruption trial in federal court, and a misdemeanor case in state court over alleged omissions in his compulsory conflict-of-interest statement.

And, of course, he may not be charged at all.

Republican McDonnell’s problems may be an opportunity for Democrat McAuliffe, a chance to be seen as the bipartisan he claims to be.

It would require McAuliffe to intervene on McDonnell’s behalf, employing the transactional politics that lifted him to fame and fortune in Washington and which his critics in both parties say render him unfit for the highest office in Virginia. 

For that reason, McAuliffe might hesitate.

[T]he sooner McDonnell’s problems are solved — and that includes a legal bill that has cost taxpayers more than $500,000 — the more manageable McAuliffe’s problems become.

McAuliffe is enough of a carnival barker. He does not need the sideshow of a high-profile trial to divert the public’s and the politicians’ attention from Virginia’s serious problems.

In McAuliffe’s first legislative session, beginning in January, these include a new state budget, patching holes in the mental health safety net, modernizing the election machinery, and tightening the ethics laws that Giftgate has shown to be uncomfortably porous.

By helping McDonnell — whether it’s lobbying President Barack Obama for a pardon or for Justice Department prosecutors to back off, or issuing a gubernatorial pardon for McDonnell on a state conviction — McAuliffe could help himself.

It would be a rare expression of statesmanship, easing the toxic partisanship at the state Capitol to which McDonnell contributed by consenting in 2011 to legislative districts that are barely compact, somewhat contiguous and anything but competitive.

Because of this redistricting, McAuliffe faces a Republican-dominated General Assembly instinctively and structurally disinclined to cooperate with him.

Virginia GOP Coup Attempt Defeated

Since it started last month, the 2013 session of the Virginia General Assembly has seen repeated attempts by the Republican Party of Virginia to utilize gerrymandering and a proposed change in the way Virginia's Electoral College votes are distributed to steal elections and subvert the will of a majority of Virginia voters.  The first effort to fall was the attempt to change the Electoral College votes in a manner that would allow a Republican presidential candidate who failed to win a majority of the statewide vote to nonetheless  carry Virginia for Electoral College purposes.  Thankfully, today the second effort - which sought to u utilize a surprise effort to amend the state senatorial districts to insure a GOP majority in the Virginia Senate for years  to come likewise failed.  Frighteningly, both measures failed solely because a few honest Republican legislators (a truly dying breed) refused to participate in the virtual coup d'etat effort.  The Virginian Pilot has details on today's events. Here are highlights:

A controversial plan to tilt state Senate districts in Republicans' favor died at the other end of the Capitol on Wednesday, thanks to a procedural move by Republican House Speaker William Howell that could restore a spirit of cooperation to a sometimes fractious General Assembly.

The far-reaching redrawing of Senate district lines was sprung on unsuspecting Democrats last month when the absence of Sen. Henry Marsh, a Richmond civil rights attorney away from the Capitol Jan. 21 for the presidential inauguration, gave the GOP the edge it needed to ram through the plan.
That move heightened partisan rancor in the legislature's upper chamber, which is split evenly between the two parties.

The Senate redistricting plan was grafted onto legislation (HB259) that made technical adjustments to House district boundaries adopted in 2011.

Howell ruled that such a sweeping change was not germane to the original bill and therefore an invalid addition to it.

During a roughly six-minute speech, Howell explained his thinking that the Senate modifications strayed "dramatically, in my opinion, from the legislation's original purpose of addressing relatively technical, minor, administrative adjustments to certain districts."

"This vast rewrite of Senate districts goes well beyond the usual legislative electoral precinct tweaks that are customary in each redistricting cycle and goes well beyond the original purpose of House Bill 259," he added.

Howell's decision was praised by Democrats. Senate Democratic Leader Richard Saslaw said Howell demonstrated "a lot of political courage" and suggested the speaker's decision could pave the way for compromise on key policy initiatives, such as transportation funding, in the nearly three weeks remaining in this General Assembly session.

House Democratic Leader David Toscano of Charlottesville said the speaker "was clearly choosing an atmosphere of Virginia over an atmosphere of Washington, D.C." 

Democrats denounced it as an unconstitutional sneak attack that put 46 percent of Virginians in new Senate districts and packed blacks into a handful of territories to reduce their overall voting strength.  They threatened to retaliate by withholding support of Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell's legislative initiatives, notably his signature transportation funding package.

Howell's move on Wednesday may not be enough on its own to save McDonnell's transportation initiative, which was rejected by the Senate on Tuesday, but it seems like a step toward restoring cooperation at the Capitol.

Kudos to Speaker Howell for doing the right and honorable thing.  Sadly, Howell is a rapidly vanishing breed in today's Virginia GOP where honesty, integrity and common decency have retreated  in the face of dictates from the Christofascist and Tea Party elements of the GOP base.  Democrats and the public at large need to understand that the GOP - both at the state and national level - have nothing but contempt for most Americans and continue to seek to overthrow democracy and place an oligarchy in its place.

GOP Redistricting Push in Virginia Aims at Hurting Blacks

The twin pillars of GOP policy: racism and religious based bigotry

Proving yet again that it is a modern day incarnation of the Klux Klux Klan, the Virginia GOP's effort to radically alter state legislative districts to favor GOP candidates - gerrymander the districts is perhaps too kind of a description - would further dilute the already weak voting strength of black Virginians.  It goes hand in glove with GOP voter ID efforts aimed at removing as many blacks and non-white minorities from voter lists as possible and is symptomatic of the GOP agenda to keep both Virginia and America as a whole "white and Christian" - or at least keep political control and privilege in the hands of white conservatives.   A piece in the New York Times looks at this racist and anti-democratic effort.. 

On Monday, one of Virginia’s state senators attended the inauguration: Henry L. Marsh III, a longtime civil rights lawyer, who played hooky to witness a milestone for an African-American president. 

The same day, Republicans back in the state capital, Richmond, took advantage of his absence to win a party-line vote, 20 to 19, to redraw electoral maps in a way that Democrats say dilute African-Americans’ voting strength. 

The move not only has Democrats howling about a power grab, it has also been criticized by Virginia’s Republican governor and lieutenant governor. 

Democrats are furious that the map also dilutes the party’s power by removing blacks from as many as a dozen districts; and under the guise of bowing to the Voting Rights Act, they say, it would pack blacks in fewer districts over all.  “This was nothing more than what I call plantation politics,” said Senator Donald McEachin, the chairman of the Democratic caucus. 

One displeased official is Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, who needs Democratic support as he seeks to enact ambitious proposals on transportation and education in his last year in office. “This is not an issue that I advocated,” Mr. McDonnell told reporters on Tuesday. “I certainly don’t think that’s a good way to do business.” 

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling also opposed his party’s move. “He is concerned that it could create a hyperpartisan atmosphere,” said Mr. Bolling’s spokeswoman, Ibbie Hedrick.

Senator Richard L. Saslaw, the Democratic minority leader, used an expletive to describe Republican concerns for black voters. He said Republicans blocked efforts in 2011 to create a new Congressional district with a high percentage of blacks. 

Democrats say the extensive changes passed by Republicans, which are now before the legislature’s lower chamber, the House of Delegates, where Republicans hold a supermajority, violate the state’s Constitution. They foresee a lengthy court fight if the map is adopted. Before then, however, it must get past the governor, not a sure bet at all. 

As for Mr. Marsh, who missed the vote, he rejected any notion that Republicans were acting in African-Americans’ interests. He called the plan “shameful.” 

As a former GOP city committee member myself some years ago, I now wonder when city and county GOP committees will begin handing out white robes and hoods prior to starting their meetings.  The GOP has truly become something disgusting and openly racist.

Virginia Republicans’ Putsch and Bald-Faced Power Grab

In a move that some say is unconstitutional, the Virginia GOP has attempted to redraw the Commonwealth's legislative districts to insure themselves a majority much in the way Republicans used gerrymandering to insure that they would retain a majority in the House of Representatives even though they received more than 1 million fewer votes than Democrats in the most recent federal election.  It is yet another attempt to subvert democracy and further proof that rather than change their policies and programs with the times to remain electable, today's Republicans prefer to cheat and play underhanded games that show open contempt for voters and democratic principles.  Perhaps such behavior should come as little surprise from a party now dominated by theocrats and white supremacists and those who would prefer an oligarchy over democracy.  The Washington Post blasts the underhanded conduct.  Here are excerpts:

IN A SNEAK ATTACK notable more for its deviousness than its strategic acuity, Virginia Republicans engineered a bald-faced power grab Monday that would radically redraw the state’s electoral map without so much as a “yea,” “nay” or “maybe” from anything so trivial as a voter.

Taking advantage of the absence of a single Democratic state senator, GOP lawmakers in Richmond rammed through a radically gerrymandered map designed to hand them control of the 40-member state Senate, which is now split evenly between the two parties.

They were able to do so, on a vote of 20 to 19, because one Democratic senator was in Washington to attend President Obama’s inauguration. Touche, Republicans! Count that as a new low for hyper-partisanship, dirty tricks and the unaccountable arrogance of power.

The Republican move was executed in the style of a putsch, arising from a conspiracy and with no warning, public input or debate. Pressing their momentary numerical superiority, GOP lawmakers amended a routine House bill by tacking on a new map, devised in secret. Although this is one of the most partisan redistricting plans in Virginia’s history, the Republicans then cut off debate after 30 minutes.

Mr. McDonnell should immediately announce his intention to veto the map. If the redistricting is allowed to stand, it would radically reshape politics in Richmond. Unlike the GOP-dominated House of Delegates, the Senate has been in Democratic hands or closely divided since 2007. The Republican gerrymander, which could deliver several seats to the GOP, would change that at a stroke.

That this change would take place at mid-decade, rather than immediately following the decennial census as is customary, is of no concern to the Republicans, whose eyes are fixed only on the 2015 legislative elections. In embracing the radical option, they discounted all consequences, including the hypocrisy of their chosen fig leaf.

State Sen. John C. Watkins (Chesterfield), the mastermind of the ruse, defended it on the grounds that it would likely yield one additional black state senator. That rationale was rich, given that Republicans have steadfastly blocked Democratic attempts to redraw the electoral map for Congress to create additional minority districts. (Although minorities constitute more than a third of Virginia’s population, just one of Virginia’s 11 House members is a minority.)

Democrats are dead set on retaliating, and who can blame them? They could, for example, blow up everything by using their votes in the Senate to block Mr. McDonnell’s proposals to reform public education and transportation funding. They could also block passage of the budget.

That’s why Mr. McDonnell, who professes not to have known about his fellow Republicans’ subterfuge until it was carried out, should immediately announce his intent to veto the map. Failing to do so will only invite legislative paralysis, subvert his own proposals and inalterably stain his legacy. The sooner he acts, the better.

I will not be holding my breath expecting McDonald to do what is right.   Like conservative Christianity the Republican Party needs to die.  It increasingly poses a threat to good government and common decency and fair play.  No doubt the hate merchants at The Family Foundation are cheering the putsch.  If one is looking for morality and ethics, the last place to look is among "godly Christians" and Republicans.