Dear Friends
Yesterday Senate Democrats released their plan for redistricting. Under Federal law, Virginia’s districts must be “contiguous and compact” and maintain “communities of interest” while ensuring that proper representation is achieved. The 2010 redistricting of the 19th senatorial district will last until 2020. The principal of “one person, one vote” requires that new districts be drawn based on the updated census numbers.

Northern Virginia Senate Democrats have concocted a plan that goes far beyond shifting the district lines to coincide with census changes in different parts of the commonwealth. Their plan shows complete disrespect to the citizens of the 19th senate district and to all the people of Virginia. It fails to maintain contiguous and compact districts throughout the community and here it splits up the counties of Franklin, Pittsylvania and the City of Danville and even goes as far as to split up eight voting precincts in Franklin and twelve in Pittsylvania.

The “new 19th” district as proposed by the Senate Democrats will be the county of Floyd parts of Carroll, Franklin, Montgomery, Roanoke and Wythe counties and the city of Salem.

This proposal is nothing more than a move by the Senate Democrats to maintain political power at the cost of the citizens of the 19th district. We cannot let them take our conservative representation away and replace it with more Northern Virginia liberals. The people of the 19th senate District deserve better.

What can you do? Come voice your opinion at the public hearing:

Regional Center for Advance Technology and Training, 121 Slayton Avenue Danville, Saturday 7:00pm.

You can make a difference.