DPVA to vote on Congressional Redistricting, 2012 Senate Primary

The Democratic Party of Virginia Steering and Central Committee meetings tonight and tomorrow will consider a couple of important political issues.

First, DPVA will vote on a resolution, unanimously endorsed by the Resolutions Committee, supporting the State Senate plan for congressional redistricting which will provide for fair and competitive districts and establish two minority opportunity districts.  In contrast, the McDonald/GOP House Plan would lock in an 8-3 GOP majority, create a 5th CD that snakes from the NC border to the Loudon County border, and preserve one majority minority district.  The DPVA should support the Democratic Plan.

Second, the Central Committee will determine the Senate nomination process for 2012.  I will offer a motion to have a primary.  If Tim Kaine is the only candidate who qualifies (like President Obama), he will be declared nominated and the primary can be cancelled.   If there is a contested race, the primary provides the simplest, fairest, most open, and Democratic way of choosing a nominee.   In 2012, the GOP will choose its Senate nominee by a primary, and I can’t imagine that Republicans would vote at their regular polling place, while we would subject our voters to the caucus/convention process.   Nearly a million Democrats voted in the 2008 presidential primary – a senate election won’t have those numbers, but it is hard to see going back to a process where the nomination process is limited to a few thousand people.

For more information on the meetings, the text of the resolutions, and a statement of support for the redistricting resolution from Sen. Mamie Locke, see http:\DemRulz.org