By Bob Gibson
Charlottesville political blogger
Jeff E. Schapiro, ever colorful and never shy to express a point with personal panache, has pronounced Gov. Tim Kaine an increasingly lame duck, thanks to the state’s, and not Kaine’s, constitution.
While implying quacks in quotes ascribed to Kaine, Schapiro points to a more real reason that reaching a transportation compromise is harder than selling gas-tax increases to voters: the state’s current redistricting system and its fruit can make GOP legislators more afraid of a little electorate in June than a bigger one in November.
As Schapiro put it, “Republicans created, in effect, minority districts wherein narrow bands of the electorate, often anti-tax conservatives, have disproportionate influence. The key to winning and holding such House seats: sucking up to the right. It’s not always a pretty sight, but survival compels it.
And it’s not just accommodating the grass roots to prevent nomination challenges. Republicans must kowtow to the House leadership, lest they risk such punishment as losing prized committee seats. Senate Republicans, many of them recovering tax-aholics, have become similarly sheepish.“
I guess my question for people who might prefer a change becomes, “If you want November to count more than June as a way to promote the ability to compromise, what changes to redistricting are truly both positive and possible before 2011?“
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