04/09/15: U.S. courts miss real problem with elections

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

LATE LAST month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in an Alabama redistricting case which will have repercussions for two similar cases in Virginia.

The court sent the case back to the district court for a rehearing, suggesting that some districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered.

In light of the Alabama ruling, the court ordered the federal court in Richmond to revisit its ruling regarding Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District. Also pending is a case challenging 12 House of Delegates districts.

At issue in all of these cases is race. Packing minority voters into districts is a no-no. The court, however, failed to address the elephant in the room: partisan gerrymandering. Packing voters of one party into districts has never been ruled unconstitutional.

That’s where Virginia — and other states — find themselves today.

Despite the fact that all 140 seats in the Virginia legislature will be on the ballot in November, in many cases, the real election will take place on or before June 9.

Most of Virginia’s election districts are drawn to heavily favor one party over the other. Because of that, winning the dominant party’s nomination — June 9 for primaries, prior to June 9 for nonprimaries — often is tantamount to winning November’s election.

There are but 10 nominating contests each in the House of Delegates and Senate. Five of the House contests and four of the Senate contests are due to open seats — not that it matters. Among the 20 contests, just two are in districts where the opposite party won a majority of the vote in the 2013 gubernatorial election.

The marquee intraparty contest is in House District 28, the seat currently occupied by Speaker Bill Howell.

That district, anchored in Stafford County, is a majority Republican one; November’s Democratic candidate will have a difficult time overcoming the partisan advantage.

In the three-way race for governor in 2013, the Republican candidate took 49 percent of the vote. The 2014 Senate race also featured three candidates, but the Republican took 53 percent of the vote.

In Hampton Roads we have two nominating contests.

In the 14th Senate district, incumbent Republican John Cosgrove faces William R. Haley.

The winner will face no opposition in November for the privilege to represent the voters living in this Chesapeake-based district. That’s not a surprise — the Republican candidate took 55 percent of the vote in the 2013 gubernatorial race and 58 percent in 2014 Senate campaign.

In the 79th House of Delegates district, incumbent Democrat Johnny Joannou faces former Portsmouth council member Steve Heretick. Again, the winner will have no opposition in November. The district, mostly in Portsmouth, provided Democratic candidates wins of 59 percent and 61 percent in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

This is what partisan gerrymandering gives us: a few contests in the summer — when few are paying attention — and even fewer contested, let alone competitive, races in the fall. As long as the legislators get to draw the lines, they will do so to their own advantage, not ours.

As much as I abhor racial gerrymandering, it is partisan gerrymandering that is a threat to our democracy. I sure wish the Supreme Court would tackle that issue.