Bipartisan Redistricting Commission; created. (HB1685)

Introduced By

Del. Shannon Valentine (D-Lynchburg)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

Bipartisan Redistricting Commission created. Establishes a seven-member temporary commission to prepare redistricting plans in 2011 and each tenth year thereafter for the House of Delegates, state Senate, and congressional districts. Appointments to the Commission shall be made one each by the four majority and minority party leaders of the House and Senate and by the state chairmen of the two major political parties. Those six appointees shall appoint the seventh member and chairman for the Commission. If they cannot agree, they shall submit the names of the two persons receiving the most votes to the Supreme Court for the Court to select the chairman. The Commission will prepare plans and submit them as bills to the General Assembly. The General Assembly shall then proceed to act on the bills in the usual manner. The bill provides for Commission comments on plans as they change in the legislative process. It also spells out the standards and process to be followed by the Commission in preparing plans, including limitations on the use of political data and opportunities for public comment on the plans. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Failed

History

DateAction
12/29/2008Committee
12/29/2008Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/14/09 095518760
12/29/2008Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections
01/07/2009Impact statement from DPB (HB1685)
01/15/2009Assigned P & E sub: Elections
01/19/2009Subcommittee recommends passing by indefinitely
02/10/2009Left in Privileges and Elections

Duplicate Bills

The following bills are identical to this one: SB926.

Comments

Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, tracking this bill in Photosynthesis, notes:

The Virginia Interfaith Center is monitoring this bill.

VirginiaInterfaithCenter writes:

This committee will meet Monday morning at 7am in 5 West of the GAB. You may be thinking that a sub-committee at 7am on a federal holiday, one day before the inauguration, is a really bad time to meet if you want public input.Enough said.

Alison Hymes writes:

Why does the Virginia General Assembly work on Martin Luther King's Birthday in the first place? It is so disrespectful in my humble opinion.

VirginiaInterfaithCenter writes:

Delegate Shannon Valentine does a GREAT job of laying out her bill for bi-partisan redistricting.