Audio: Ben “Not Larry Sabato” Tribbett Calls Redistricting Amendment a “Trash Amendment,” “Awful,” a “Disaster”

With two weeks to go in the 2020 Virginia General Assembly session, the question of how redistricting will be done in 2021 is still up in the air. Here at Blue Virginia, we’ve made it clear that we prefer strong, anti-gerrymandering, fair-redistricting *legislation* (namely, Del. Cia Price’s HB1256) to govern 2021, with the proposed amendment being seriously flawed for a number of reasons (see here, here, here, and here for more as to why that’s the case). This morning, Ben “Not Larry Sabato” Tribbett weighed in with his take, which I thought was worth passing along, as I totally agree.

• “This amendment that was done last year…was awful. I think I was the first person to raise red flags about it when it was moving through very quickly last year. It’s an awful, awful amendment – because of the way that it handles ties and in the way that it allows ties to be created.”
• “I’ve seen redistricting all over the country. This is not the way to do it. We do need non-partisan redistricting. You could do non-partisan redistricting, by the way, with a bill, not a constitutional amendment, it just would only apply for 2021 and we would need to get a constitutional amendment in place for the future. But in terms of this amendment, it’s a trash amendment, and you shouldn’t be putting something in the constitution that’s a trash amendment.”
• “I’ve challenged [1VA2021 head] Brian Cannon on a number of issues on this online. And you know, when he gets called out on this, frankly…he disappears and doesn’t want to discuss the actual details of what’s in there. And that’s unfortunate. And I think that he needs to be honest with people about what’s in this amendment. Because it would really be a disaster for ten years of this passing and was what was used in 2021.”