Paradox13 put up a post about the redistricting over at Loudoun Progress. And I made a couple of comments there, which I'm going to expand on here.
Stevens disagrees with me on a lot of what I'm about to say, but this is my blog, my opinion, and here it goes.
I don't care one iota if there is one Western district or two. I think having an HOA or a town kept entirely in one district is a fine desire, but not something that ends up mattering a whole lot on election day. I do think that it matters if a district is contiguous. I do think it matters if you have to leave the district to reach another part of it, but ultimately, I think that there are many ways to split up Loudoun relatively equitably and Miller 5 (unamended) and HOA 4 were two of them.
I've said before that I am partisan only inasmuch as the Democratic party is the party that has, as part of its platform, a pledge (among other things) to protect the rights of women, minorities, LGBT, and people with disabilities.
In this county, we have an elected official whose day job it is to fight against the right of people who are gay.
There was one and only one partisan piece of redistricting that was included in both Miller 5 (unamended) and HOA 4. That piece was including MY precinct, Oak Grove, with Delgaudio's district.
And Sally Kurtz amended it into Andrea McGimsey's district.
Which is so phenomenally stupid that I am flabbergasted that Mike Turner is crowing about it.
Oak Grove has a net 100 reliable Democrats. Delgaudio won last time by 200 votes. Oak Grove was the keystone in the plan to get Delgaudio booted out this November. And the beauty of it was, it wasn't gerrymandering, because Oak Grove BELONGS in Sterling. It is otherwise isolated from the rest of the county. There was no way for Delgaudio to complain about it. It was natural to join it in. OF COURSE it should be joined in.
Now, instead of making the demise of Delgaudio's Board tenure a sure thing, Oak Grove is merely there to increase McGimsey's win margin, in an obvious bit of gerrymandering to pull us into her district.
I really like Andrea. I think she's been a good Supervisor. But if this bit of redistricting sends Delgaudio back to the Board next year (especially if he wins by less than 100 votes), I will never forget that it was she, and Mike Turner, and Sally Kurtz, and Kelly Burk, and Susan Buckley, and Jim Burton who made this happen.
And I will make sure that everyone, everywhere, who has ever heard of Delgaudio knows EXACTLY whose fault it is if he wins.
As far as setting up districts, every so many people should equal a district. The shape of the districts should be such that they represent a geographical area. This way issues will be addressed. If the shape is ideological then many citizens needs will be ignored.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans are no longer a serious party. I mean, yes they want to win, but they want it to be automatic and they want to address what they want to address if they want to. They can't function in a two-party system. Here in Pittsburgh the Dems are just as out of touch with reality.
Liz,
ReplyDeleteI could post this at my own blog, but I've reached the edge of what my limits are for material posted there when it comes to personal issues. But, since you've brought this up here, in a more individual context: YES! Putting 110 in with Andrea's precincts looks (only "looks," mind you; I wasn't in on any deals and only know that Andrea and Kelly kept running off to have discussions they didn't want me to hear whenever I was in the back to get a glass of water on Monday) like it was to buy her vote for the plan. Burton told me, weeks ago, in these exact words, "I don't care at all about the eastern precincts," so the fact that 110 is now part of a paint-splash-shaped district would be fine with him. Sally somehow came to terms with him over the western districts and Kelly was fine, since she got her one-Leesburg district out of it. The one I don't understand is Susan: she got everything she ever said to me that she wanted from both my original version of Miller 5 (not Burton/Kurtz's "Miller 5 Amended") and HOA 4 (and HOA 3, for that matter). But you heard her: "We have five votes." I think Loudoun finally saw an important aspect of her brand of "leadership" on this one.
Every single person who ever looked at the old map to discuss 110 with me has said it belongs with Sterling. Kids here go to Sterling schools. We are patrolled by Sterling deputies. You and I buy our Sunday breakfast at a Sterling cafe before we go to church at a Sterling congregation. The last-minute discarding of us and our 1,700 neighbors into a district a person who doesn't "care at all about the eastern precincts," would accept shows this fiasco for the colossal, to-Hell-with-the-people, horse-trade it really is.
Mike Turner's now-public e-mail, congratulating everyone who voted on it, looks like some kind of admission that he and a few LCDC leaders were behind this plan all along. Even that's not true. Mike knows that LCDC's advisory body suggested a plan to all LCDC members on the BOS. 110 was part of an otherwise all-southern district in that plan. I spent a long time, by myself, modifying that plan to put 110 where it belongs, in Sterling. After meeting with Lori, I modified it again to accommodate her wishes. (That's why it hurt so much when Lori said it ought to be called "The LCDC Plan." The original Miller 5 was not LCDC's plan, it was mine, modified at Lori's request.) For Mike to act now like I did not put the work into it that I did is an historical re-write of amazing proportions. His casual overlooking of the fact that no LCDC member, particularly no BOS democrat, ever formally suggested 110 be in with Andrea's north-central suburban district (until that's what it took to get her support, it appears) is the most disappointing detail in the denouement of this tragedy. That's because, as you say, 110 would have been a major step in dislodging a man with no place in elected service: Eugene Delgaudio. 110 belongs in his new district. We 110 residents have a right to vote in his election this November. The people you name just took away our rights and gave them, in effect, to a man who profits every day in the business of retail hate.
If he wins, it will be their fault.
Liz, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts about the redistricting issue. I'm disappointed in the outcome and specifically in Supervisor McGimsey voting to gerrymander herself a district. I'm curious if you would consider primarying her this year?
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