UPDATE: From this afternoon's legislative session and a Washington Post article that you can read fully here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
“House Bill 259 has been modified to stray dramatically, in my opinion, from the original legislative proposal,” Howell said Wednesday afternoon.
This effectively kills the redistricting bill.
Here is a report from the Washington Post that Speaker William Howell (R-Stafford) will use a procedural move to kill the surprise redistricting bill passed by the State Senate. Great work to those that put the pressure on the GOP and the two Democratic State Reps that almost went along with them. Follow below the fold
Va. House speaker is expected to kill GOP Senate redistricting plan
By Laura Vozzella, Published: February 5
RICHMOND — House Speaker William J. Howell intends to use a procedural move to kill the GOP’s surprise Senate redistricting plan Wednesday, according to several people familiar with his plans.
Howell (R-Stafford) is expected to rule that the new Senate map radically altered the legislation to which it was attached, according to three legislators and a Capitol staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about private discussions involving the speaker.
UPDATE: My apologies for the use of the full article. Thanks for the heads up Its the Supreme Court Stupid.
My take is that the pressure to get a transportation bill done may have got the best of the GOP, plus the backing away of two African American Delegates who were thinking of supporting the bill to create a new Senate district that would have been in favor of an African American could have given the GOP some "bipartisan" cover. The transportation bill which had gained approval in the GOP controlled house, was killed in the evenly divided Senate. State Senator Charles Colgan (D-Prince William) who had broken ranks and supported the initial budget last year voted to kill the transportation bill. It should be noted that Colgan's district was one of the Senate districts that was rearranged to make it a blood red district, even though there is a good chance that when he retires, the district would go the GOP. The transport bill was part of a budget package that even the Lt. Governor can't vote on due to Senate rules.
The move for transportation may have gotten momentum with the release of the report that DC traffic is the worse in the nation. Transportation was going to be McDonnell's legacy and this redistricting bill was getting in the way.
Let's see what happens next year if they plan to do this again.
11:26 AM PT: UPDATE #2: In case anyone wants to know, Howell is using a procedure in the House that the allows for bills to be killed if they have parts that are not germane to an underlying bill. Unlike other legislative bodies where you can attach whatever you want to a bill, in Virginia, what you want to put in a bill must be related to what the bill is about.