The comment deadline on proposed Virginia redistrictingends at 1:00 pm Monday, and the State Supreme Court must now decide whether to make any changes to the draft version, but whatever happens, southwest Virginia will have less representation in Richmond than before. Virginia Tech Professor and WFIR Political Analyst Bob Denton says the draft version’s proposed lines are not likely to change much when the final version is released, and with the state’s population growing the most around Washington DC, Richmond and Hampton Roads, southwest Virginia will lose some degree of representation in the House of Delegates and State Senate. General Assembly and Congressional districts must be redrawn every ten years in efforts to make sure all have roughly equal numbers to reflect any population shifts that occur in each decade. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
