By JOHN GOOLRICK

By JOHN GOOLRICK Rappahannock Ncwi Special Writer The major political events in Virginia of 1991 will be legislative redistricting and elections for all 100 seats in the House of Delegates and 40 in the State Senate. ^ Redistricting, a process that will * begin with a two-week General Assembly special session in April, will £ast a long shadow over the state’s ‘ political landscape for the rest of this decade. ■« * It gives Democrats, who control both the legislative and executive v branches, a chance to protect incum*bent Democrats, to shaft incumbent ^Republicans and to draw congressional and legislative lines that will work in their favor. Democrats will obviously be in "the catbird’s seat even though changing population patterns and the increasing suburbanazation of Virginia ^should work to Republican advan"*3tage. Control of the reapportion* ment process though, means Democrats can minimize the impact of demographics upon their ranks „.and gerrymander to assure a House yyf Delegates majority for the foreseeable future. i That’s important since Republir*can numbers in the House of Dele. gates are higher than they’ve ever ^ been and continued gains of seats *■ -over a few more elections could give !" them a majority and a chance to ^dominate committees, put their im" print on the budget, appoint judges * and wield power even if the executive branch remained in DemoS^feratic hands. The Virginia GOP, red-faced because it fielded no opponents against *jany of five Democratic congressional ^Encumbents this year, is vowing to .attempt to run challengers against * all Democratic House incumbents next year. While that goal probably isn’t attainable, a large contingent of Republican challengers with a unified theme of blaming Democrats for the state’s deep fiscal problems might make further inroads despite redistricting. It will be easier to draw State Senate lines to keep that chamber safely in Democratic hands, particularly since Democrats now outnumber Republicans 3-1. The most convoluted and complicated redistricting process will come when the Assembly gets around to drawing new congressional bounda-ries. Virginia now has 10 seats in the _ House of Representatives and will pick up an additional one. The wild card is the desire among black legislators, backed by the . NAACP and ACLU, to draw a black majority district to practically guarantee the election of a black member of Congress. The only way to do that would be to cut in a serpentine fashion through black sections of Norfolk, Newport News and other Tidewater cities and throw in a few Southside counties with large black popi’1-*