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Redistricting Referendum · Newsradio WGAN

• 0:00
  Lots of news to get to today. I don't think I can really avoid
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  starting with what happened on Friday with the state of
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  Virginia and the redistricting decision that was made just a
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  couple weeks ago by voters in Virginia on a very narrow vote.
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  Never mind because it's gone. My friends, I'm sure you saw the
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  news, but we should talk about it once again, proving that
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  right again. I always love it when I'm
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  proving right about things. You thought the court would
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  overturn it? I did.
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  And I also thought that this was a really gigantic mistake for
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  the Democrats to make because they are just, they're playing a
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  numbers game they don't have the numbers for.
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  Yeah, that's playing out right now, especially after, well, the
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  two big whammies this past week. That and of course the Supreme
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  Court hand down also of the gutting pretty much the Voting
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  Rights Act, the 2nd chapter or whatever of the Voting Rights
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  Act. I think gutting would be a
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  strong word, but yeah, I get what you're saying.
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  Yeah, no, exactly. But even without that, honestly,
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  even without both of those, it was still not really a good
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  numbers game for them to pick. But anyway, if you don't know
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  what happened, I'll quickly update you here.
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  The Virginia Supreme Court threw out the state Democrats
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  redistricting referendum on Friday, ruling in a four to
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  three ruling. By the way, nice little narrow
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  decision that it did not follow the proper procedures and
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  handing a huge political blow to the party in the process.
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  The decision casts aside the state's new congressional map
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  that would have given Democrats a 10 to 1 tilt in Virginia.
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  Under the ruling, the six to five map is going to be staying
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  in place. Quote.
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  This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the
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  resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void.
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  Justice Arthur Kelsey wrote for the majority.
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  The decision could have large ramifications this fall in the
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  battle for the House, where Democrats hope to win back the
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  majority and put a curb on President Donald Trump during
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  the second-half of his second term.
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  Republicans can only lose a few seats and still hold the House
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  majority. The political winds have been
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  moving in the direction of the Democrats given President
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  Trump's low approval rating in the president's party, usually
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  losing seats in the midterms. But Republicans are doing
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  everything they can to bolster Trump by redrawing congressional
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  lines in the states that they control.
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  This is the Hills take, by the way.
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  It's like this is a story about Democrats redrawing the lines,
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  but somehow it's the Republicans fault.
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  But whatever. Democrats have fought back, most
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  notably in California, but the Virginia decision would damage
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  their chances by giving the candidates a more favorable map
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  in that state. Virginia voters last month had
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  narrowly approved a state constitutional amendment that
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  allowed the Legislature to temporarily draw new lines mid
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  decade, a move that was pitched by Democrats as a response to
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  the redistricting in red states that was backed by President
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  Trump. The map was set to give
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  Democrats four more pickup opportunities this fall as the
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  party fights to flip the House, but legal challenges contended
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  the push violated procedural requirements backed baked excuse
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  me into the Virginia Constitution.
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  To pass an amendment, lawmakers must vote for it in two separate
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  legislative sessions, with an intervening election in between.
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  Virginia Democrats took the first vote on October 31st of
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  last year, arguing that they could still act because Election
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  Day was not until the the next week.
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  But the state's High Court ruled that it was too late,
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  emphasizing early voting was open at that point, with 40% of
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  ballots already cast. While the Commonwealth is free
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  by its by its lights to do the right thing for the right
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  reason, the rule of law requires that it be done in the right
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  way, Kelsey wrote. In A Descent, Chief Justice Cleo
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  Powell said that the majority was broadening the definition of
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  election. The majority's definition
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  creates an infinite voting loop that appears to have no
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  established beginning, only a definitive end Election Day,
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  Powell wrote. The decision caps months of
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  litigation over Virginia Democrats redistricting efforts.
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  The Republican National Committee and other groups had
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  fought the push across several different cases.
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  By the way. That's worth noting too, by the
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  way, that there was other challenges for other reasons,
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  other cases that in my estimation actually had just as
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  much, if not frankly, better chances of succeeding.
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  So this one did it. So that stuff's kind of
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  irrelevant at this point. But there were other things that
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  were in the pipeline that were challenging this.
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  And I must say this too, before I take a quick break, come back,
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  take your calls, I must say this too, I don't particularly love
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  their, their logic about the election date thing.
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  I think that they blew a better opportunity in the, in the
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  evaluation of what the legislature did wrong here.
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  Because, and this comes a little bit back to our experience here
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  in Maine. I I've had about all I can take
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  of gamesmanship of the legislative calendar and the
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  definitions of what is and is not a session and what's regular
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  session. It was a special session and all
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  this other stuff so that the Legislature can circumvent the
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  rules to do things they want to do.
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  I'm a little tired of that. And the reason I'm tired of it
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  is because it happens in Maine all the time.
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  And there was a lawsuit here just last year which ultimately
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  challenged the Legislature doing exactly that, basically
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  adjourning early when they had no intention of adjourning.
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  They had plenty of business left.
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  There was an unbelievable stash of stuff left on the legislative
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  calendar, left on the table. They were just sitting there
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  waiting to do stuff. But they technically adjourned,
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  and I'm air quoting here, they adjourned so that they could
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  then immediately call a special session so that they can define
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  it as a different actual session of the legislature so that they
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  may do things in a way that they wanted to.
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  And that's just, that is far beyond the scope of what we
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  design these systems to do. The whole reason we even have
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  these definitions is to kind of avoid this kind of this
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  nonsense. And the Virginia Democrats did
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  the same thing in the legislature.
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  It wasn't just about that election in the date and the
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  start of the early voting and all that.
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  It was also about their behavior trying to create 2 artificial
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  sessions in in much the same way.
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  So there was a lot of reasons to throw this out, but it's thrown
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  out and they're appealing it. But where are you going to go?