Congressional Shift in Virginia

As the results of the 2010 census lead to redistricting in Virgina, we'll find that congressional power will start to teeter towards the northern Virginia.

RACE, VOTING AND REDISTRICTING

• Will Voters Vote for Another Bad Black President? (Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Huffington Post) The 2006 Yale study also found that white Republicans were 25 percentage points more likely to cross over and vote for a Democratic senatorial candidate against a black Republican foe. The study also found that in the near twenty year stretch from 1982 to 2000, when the GOP candidate was black, the greater majority of white independent voters backed the white candidate. This appeared to change in the November 2010 mid-term elections. Black GOP congressional candidates Allen West in Florida and Tim Scott in South Carolina got a majority of white votes and easily beat their Democratic opponents. But West and Scott won in lockdown GOP districts, and against weak, underfunded, Democratic opponents. Their wins were regional wins with absolutely no national implications.

• Redistricting likely to shift congressional power to Northern Virginia (By Ben Pershing, Washington Post) Racial demographics are also a factor in mapmaking. Rep. Robert C. Scott’s (D) 3rd District, which snakes from Richmond down to Norfolk, is drawn as a “majority-minority” seat. While the district needs to add 64,000 people, it is also required by the Voting Rights Act to retain an African American majority if current demographics permit.