Politics puts Sen. Stanley on the move

Thursday’s announcement that state Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, will move a few miles so that he can run against Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, a Henry County Democrat, has little to do with real estate — and everything to do with redistricting.

Stanley was elected to the state Senate in January to fill the seat left vacant by Robert Hurt’s election to Congress. At that time, the district included all of Danville, Pittsylvania County, Franklin County and part of Campbell County.

It was a compact political district, and nothing like the political disgrace that’s been foisted on the Dan River Region by this year’s redistricting process. Everyone who voted for the Senate redistricting plan should be ashamed of the way our community’s interests were sliced and diced in Richmond.

Both Danville and Pittsylvania County have been split, divided so that one district will likely create a safe seat for a Republican and the other, a safe seat for a Democrat. The people who draw those lines know where the Democratic and Republican voters live, but we have higher aspirations for our community than simply identifying the party members and then pandering to them.

While we entered the redistricting process knowing that the 19th District was going to change, we didn’t know Stanley’s district would be used to help guarantee the election of other state senators — or that our community’s best interests would be ignored.

Stanley’s move, both figuratively and literally, has guaranteed that the plans of the Richmond power brokers will be challenged at the ballot box in November.

"… I consistently opposed the hyper-partisan gerrymandered efforts of the Senate Democrats," Stanley said in a statement Thursday. "… only a small fraction of residents that lived in the 19th District when I was elected remain in the 19th District. Instead, the largest percentage of my district, nearly 40 percent of the old 19th, including much of the areas of Franklin and Pittsylvania Counties, as well as the city of Danville (are in the 20th District). … I want to stay on the job for the people of Danville, Franklin and Pittsylvania … ."

That will be up to the voters, of course. It’s one of the few choices we have left. Even though the General Assembly and the governor had access to redistricting plans that kept cities and counties together in compact political districts that united communities of interest, we now have a Senate plan that will ensure — or at least try — to help politicians keep their jobs, as opposed to communities being properly represented in the halls of power.

It never ceases to amaze how Democrats and Republicans, who claim to be so very different from one another, are willing to unite at the worst of times and act like a bunch of politicians. Because of that, Bill Stanley has to move to a new home and run in a district that was designed to help elect Democrats.

No matter who wins in November, we’ve already lost.