Arquitectura del crecimiento. Del caos a la estructura solida

Democrats have just pulled ahead in the redistricting race that President Trump kicked off in Republican-led states last year. It's a narrow lead across the country. Democrats have drawn 10 congressional seats in their favor. Republicans have drawn nine. Virginia voters handed Democrats their latest victory last night when they approved the plan to draw four more seats that lean heavily for their party. Elsewhere in the program we hear from Virginia's Democratic governor Abigail Spanberger. But now we're joined by Jack Culliel, the state politics reporter at Member Station VPM and Richmond High. Hi, thanks. Thanks for being here. So start by telling us more about the vote there yesterday. Yeah, so like you said voters decided to allow mid-decade redistricting to move ahead here. Right now, Virginia Democrats hold six of the 11 U.S. House seats in the state. And this new map makes it easier for Democrats to win 10 of the 11 seats. So this is a significant redraw. But the vote was close here last night. The vote to redistrict was three percentage points more than the vote to not redistrict. And so that means that there wasn't an overwhelming majority of people here who wanted to do this. What are you hearing from Democrats? Are they concerned that it was a narrow win? Generally no. They said that they had to counter-confusing messaging that the NOAA campaign put out. Some of that was targeted at Black for which is a key part of the Democrats base in Virginia. But when you compare this to when Governor Abigail Spanberger, one by 15 points last November, it does look like it was a very close election. This morning, Democrats took a victory lap and this is what the Speaker of the House, Don Scott, had to say about the vote. This is not about Jerry Mandry. We have a guy sending our men and women into war. We have a person that is stealing trillions of dollars from the American economy each day because of these gas prices, these grocery prices. So what Scott is doing here is what Democrats did throughout the campaign, which is to make the vote about Trump and the upcoming midterms. And part of that is pointing to the nationwide Jerry Mandry that's going on, not to the 10 to 1 Jerry Mandry here in Virginia. And how are Republicans in Virginia responding? So Republicans are actually pointing back to the results too. They're saying that the close vote shows that the state isn't a blue state. It's a purple state. And that's how it should be represented in Congress. Here's the House Minority Leader, Terry Kilgore, talking to the press about that this morning. Virginia is not a 10 to 1 state. We're still a 6 to 5 state. And that's what yesterday's results showed. They also say that the close result will help them in the courts because Republicans actually challenged the whole redistricting process. And there's a case in front of the Virginia Supreme Court about that. Republicans have also said that Virginia now could be the most Jerry Mandered state in the country. It's kind of hard to measure that, but there's kind of few ways you can do it. But one way to think about it is that Republicans are likely to have 11 percent of the congressional delegation, one about 45 to 50 percent of the votes in statewide elections. Go to Republicans. Okay, let's go back if we can to the national picture. Remind us of what has happened in the redistricting fight up until this point. Yeah, so back in July, so like a full nine months ago, President Trump asked leaders in Texas to redraw that state's house map and find five more seats for Republicans. Then California responded with five seats for Democrats. From their North Carolina, Missouri, and Ohio drew a combined four seats for Republicans. Utah drew one seat for Democrats in a court order. And now there's Virginia. And as you noted earlier, that sums up to 10 seats for Democrats and nine for Republicans. So it's really close. And it is very close, but I have to ask, is that the end of the story? So probably not. There's a few things that are hanging in the balance. There's that Supreme Court case that I was mentioning here in Virginia. Or arguments are scheduled for Monday. And also next week, Republicans in Florida could redraw that state's map to favor Republicans. And there's the elephant in the room, which is a case before the US Supreme Court challenging the Voting Rights Act. If the court weakens that law, it might prompt some Republican states to redistrict, but they're also running out of time to do that. That's Chad Colliel, State Politics Reporter at Member Station VPM. Thanks so much. Yeah, thanks for having me.