THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1991

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1991

Boundaries

The purpose of drawing legislative districts isn’t to isolate communities and give them an identity and political power they haven’t come by honestly. To set out to divide Virginia’s General Assembly — having already set a quota of how many minority districts you want — is unconscionable.

Gov. Wilder’s widely reported goal of five minority senate districts can only keep the Democrats from attaining what should be their goal: redrawing lines so that the most Virginians get the best representation possible in Richmond.

Setting a quota puts the governor on the side of gerrymandering by forcing communities together even though they have very little (except geographic proximity) to unite them.

When Gov. Wilder rejects the senate’s redistricting, which he has said he will be doing this week, he should specify which lines need to be moved and map out the reasons why. To tell the legislators that the bottom line doesn’t “add up” is an insult to them and a denegration of the redistricting process.

Supporting equality and desegregation and being in favor of quotas are two completely different things. If you want to see gerrymandering, just try to divide this state into electoral units that will provide the legislature with a number of minority members in the same percentage as blacks in the population. The misshapen districts that you’d have to draw would make Mississippi’s famous “shoestring district” look conventional.

Another consideration that the governor should make is that national Democrats, when they come looking for national candidates, are not going to like his tendency to hold the state party hostage to settle vendettas or impose inequitable quotas.

Gov. Wilder, it’s your call. Having made it clear that the senate’s plan is not acceptable, you have to make your case. Simply telling voters that you want more minority legislators is not enough. You have to come up with an alternative plan that would accomplish (at least some) of your objectives while still providing the most Virginians with the best-possible form of representation.