Spanberger’s Spectacular Gerrymandering Faceplant

 She and her fellow Virginia Democrats allowed their lust for power to fuel a brazen political power grab.

The evening of April 21 there were a lot of smiles to be seen on the faces of Virginia Democrats. The voters of the Old Dominion had gone to the polls and approved an amendment to the Commonwealth’s constitution allowing a radically redistricted congressional map. No one was happier than Virginia’s new Democrat Governor, Abigail Spanberger, who had reversed her position on partisan gerrymandering to dramatically increase her party’s power in Congress. Like her Democrat accomplices in the General Assembly she assumed that the challenges to the amendment under consideration by Virginia’s Supreme Court (SCOVA) would immediately collapse once “the people had spoken.”

“Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the Democratic establishment … tossed aside any pretense of principle in a raw political gambit.”

Spanberger was wrong, of course, as she discovered last Friday when SCOVA nullified the referendum. Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote in the majority opinion, “We hold that the legislative process employed to advance this proposal violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia. This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy.” To paraphrase an expression that many readers may have heard from their mothers, that wiped the smile right off Spanberger’s face. The elaborate strategy pursued by the governor and her fellow Democrats in the General Assembly to trick the voters as well as SCOVA was too clever by half. As former Governor Glenn Youngkin summed it up:

Abigail Spanberger, Don Scott, Louise Lucas and all their friends knowingly violated the Virginia Constitution … They strongly argued for the VA Supreme Court to “wait” until after the referendum so their flood of money from national democrats could fund their brazen dishonesty and trick voters to “restore fairness”, and then claim “the will of the people” when the VA Supreme Court would undoubtedly strike down their unconstitutional attempt to disenfranchise millions of Virginians.

Their most egregious offense was treating the voters like morons. They jettisoned a balanced congressional map with a partisan split of 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans. Then, in the name of “fairness,” they replaced it with a monstrosity whose partisan split was 10 Democrats and 1 Republican. Finally, they asked the voters to answer “Yes” or “No” to this deceptive ballot question in the April 21 referendum: “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?” “Yes,” skirted by at 51.7 to 48.3 percent.

Gov. Spanberger and her accomplices obviously hoped this narrow win would settle the matter. Nonetheless, the day after the referendum was held, Tazewell County Circuit Judge Jack Hurley issued a permanent injunction blocking its certification. The Old Dominion’s controversial Attorney General, Jay Jones, appealed Judge Hurley’s injunction but SCOVA denied his appeal on April 28th. This denial was an ill omen for their gerrymandered map and last Friday’s ruling confirmed the worst fears of the Democrats. In an act of sheer desperation, they now intend to appeal SCOVA’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli discussed the likely results of this appeal in an opinion piece for Fox News:

Virginia voters narrowly approved a referendum to let the Democrat-controlled General Assembly redraw the state’s congressional map, replacing districts drawn by the bipartisan commission … But the vote, dramatic as it was, is not the final chapter. Three lawsuits, raising four distinct (state) constitutional challenges, are already in courts. And the institution that will ultimately decide whether this referendum stands is not the United States Supreme Court. It is the Supreme Court of Virginia.

This opinion is shared by Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute. Upon reading that Virginia Democrats were actively preparing to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Shapiro offered this succinct response: “Nothing to appeal — it’s an issue of state law.” SCOTUS rarely intervenes in matters that rest on adequate and independent state grounds. According to a report in the Washington Examiner, “Chief Justice John Roberts, an appointee of former President George W. Bush who oversees emergency petitions stemming from Virginia, will handle the request when it is filed and decide whether to refer the matter to the full court for consideration.” Roberts will not be inclined to wade into this mess.

Probably the best description from a constitutional scholar on this failed Democrat gerrymandering scheme was offered by Jonathan Turley who wrote, “Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the Democratic establishment … tossed aside any pretense of principle in a raw political gambit. The resulting faceplant is nothing short of legendary: Spanberger’s Democrats have succeeded in alienating half of the state.” So, returning to all those smiles we saw on Democrat faces after the April 21 referendum, they have now been replaced by sanguinary scowls and outrage about the collapse of democracy. It would be easy to write off these Democrats as clowns, but their limitless lust for power is actually quite dangerous. Remember that next November.

https://spectator.org/spanbergers-spectacular-gerrymandering-faceplant/