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By JOHN GOOLRICK ■ Rappahannock News Special Writer
While munching shrimp at a recent lavish social event in Richmond, two powerful members of the Virginia House of Delegates lamentedthe state’s changing political nature.
“The cit^ boys are trying to take over down here,” said Earl Dickinson of Louisa, who represents a rural district. “They want all the money.”
His close friend, Bob Ball of Henrico, added, “And we’re getting more people with liberal notions all the time. Lord knows what’ll happen when we’re gone.”
With conservative Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Hunter B. Andrews, Speaker A". L. Philpott, Dickinson, Ball and others still in control, the General Assembly’s basic conservatism has been preserved. , Yet this year’s gubernatorial election is one whose outcome may help determine the philosophical ground on which state government (reads in a new decade leading to a new century.
Redistricting isn’t a subject such as taxes or Crime that stirs up the electorate. But for insiders, it will be the overriding issue of the coming fall campaign.
In 1991, following next year’s national census, the legislature must alter boundaries of congressional and legislative districts to reflect population trends. That high-stakes political chess game will have much riding on its outcome. ; One thing is certain. Rural areas of the state, dominant most of this century, will continue to lose clout to the rapidly-growing urban and suburban regions along “The Golden Crescent” from Northern Virginia to Tidewater, and in some other burgeoning areas.
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