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(Continued from page 1) Districts
of the other districts. AH nine members of the commission ere Democrats who generally are in sympathy with the dominant organizations.
Aside from putting the new Tenth in Northern Virginia— which had been expected—the majority's plan would involve these shifts by districts:
First District — Loses Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania to the Eighth. Gains Charles City, James City, New Kent and Williamsburg from the Third.
Second District—Shorn of Isle of Wight, Nansemond, Southampton and Suffolk, all transferred to the Fourth the new Second would include Norfolk, Portsmouth, South Norfolk, Princess Anne and Norfolk county.
Third District—Of the present district, Hanover and King William would go to the Eighth, and Charles City, James City, New Kent and Williamsburg, to the First. This leaves a Third composed of Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield and Colonial Heights.
Fourth District — Keeping all present localities except Powhatan county, which is shifted to the Eighth, the Fourth would gain Isle of Wight, Nansemond, Southampton and Suffolk from.the Second.
Eighth District — Retaining its present counties except for those making up the new Tenth, the Eighth would take Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania from the First, Hanover and King William from the Third, and Powhatan from the Fourth. Two 'Masts* Faced Planners
Two “musts” faced the redistricters in their planning. One was the necessity of apportioning the State into 10 congressional districts—one more than the present total—because Virginia’s population growth from 1940 to 1950 entitled it to another seat in the House of Representatives.
The other was the State Constitution’s requirement that congressional districts “be composed of contiguous and compact territory containing as nearly as practicable an equal number of inhabitants.”
It was over the constitutional question that the majority and minority reports differed.
Ideally, the commission noted, the population per district should be 331,668, or one-tenth of the State’s 3,318,660 population as re
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