By Bob Gibson
Competition in politics, as in business and journalism, is a good thing.

Competitive elections in November sharpen the candidates and the issues.

Real races give voters, who are the consumers of all that discussion and advertising known as campaigning, choices they desire and deserve.

But in Virginia, genuine competition in November elections is going the way of the dodo bird and the $1 cup of coffee, at least for most voters.

Partisan warming has pushed the competition into the June to August summer months. That is when political parties nominate candidates with far smaller turnouts and far more ideologically and rigidly partisan litmus tests.

As long as political parties draw legislative districts to give one party or the other overwhelming advantages, the climate change in politics will mean fewer hot races in November and more seats that only change hands when parties nominate candidates.

Although partisan warming is definitely and entirely man-made, there is no scientific consensus yet formed as to exactly how destructive it will be to the environment of democracy.

The push of hot races from November to the summer freezes seats into partisan place in the fall.

The nomination season in Virginia this August will occur as Republicans and Democrats court the relatively few true believers on the right and the left.

Those candidates who pass partisan muster when the few vote in August stand to inherit safer seats in the fall.

Competition is failing most places in the fall.

Democrats in the Virginia Senate hold 22 of the chamber’s 40 seats and so far are not even contesting 15 seats held by Republicans.

Using their narrow 22-18 majority, Democrats this spring stuffed Republican voters into as many of those 15 GOP districts as they could to maximize Democratic potential in adjacent districts.

That leaves only something like seven or eight tough and ridiculously expensive truly competitive Novembers Senate elections.

Almost 30 of the 40 senators could sleep-walk to victory.

Five Senate Democrats are still unchallenged by Republicans. Twenty of the state’s 40 districts—half of the entire state—have no races.

So much for competition. If one district typically has more than 60 percent of its vote going to the other party, parties figure why bother with a November election?

The House of Delegates, which political observers agree is nearly certain to remain solidly Republican, is hardly a bastion of competition, either.

In the House, 40 Republican-held seats are unchallenged by Democrats and 25 seats held by Democrats are not contested by Republicans thus far.

When 65 of 100 seats have no two-party competition, the voters in two-thirds of Virginia are cheated out of a choice.

Blame partisan redistricting as a root cause of this dearth of democratic choice as districts are party-packed for easier partisan control.

Congressional redistricting in Virginia is no better. Eleven congressmen consented this spring to a House of Delegates plan that packs Republican voters into eight GOP districts and more Democrats into three Democratic-held districts, giving incumbents incredible advantages. That plan has not passed.

The House and Senate in Virginia’s General Assembly cannot agree on a plan, so the courts may have to step in and draw lines.

Perhaps judges can add competition back into the November elections.

Until redistricting is made less partisan, it will be the rare district indeed that will offer competitive two-party choice in November.