Their choice is made more difficult by the temptation for many in each party to believe that they will own majorities when the 2020 Census data spurs redistricting early in 2021.

A group of citizens has begun the task of drafting a constitutional amendment to bring about the demise of the gerrymander used harshly by both parties over many decades.

For Greg Lucyk, the question is: “Will the people of Virginia prevail?” Lucyk, a retired top state redistricting attorney, is working as part of the group of 10 citizens drawing up an amendment to the Virginia Constitution to end the partisan gerrymandering that deters competition and preserves partisan self-interest.

Lucyk said this group of former legislators and attorneys is proposing language for an amendment to create an independent commission to ensure fair, non-partisan redistricting.

“We want to do some groundwork and get the public behind this proposal,” said Lucyk, former senior assistant attorney general and chief staff attorney for the Supreme Court of Virginia.

He said the group created by OneVirginia2021 hopes to have language to create an independent redistricting commission by mid-October.

The Citizens Constitutional Amendment Drafting Committee, as they call themselves, includes what he terms a good geographic, political and racial balance among members he considers “very savvy and smart about the process.”

Lucyk said they hope to persuade this winter’s General Assembly to adopt a constitutional amendment for the 2020 ballot. He said creating an independent commission is critically needed “to take the self-interest out of the process.”

Paul Harris, one of several Republicans in the group and a former member of the House of Delegates from Albemarle County, agrees.

“Unfortunately, the redistricting process in Virginia has devolved into such a disgraceful exercise of legislative authority that polls show that a majority of citizens sees a strong need for a significant course correction,” Harris said. “It’s hard to defend. It preserves all of the worst instincts of political self-preservation at the expense of citizen trust.”

Harris, currently Senior Vice President at Hampton University, said he believes the best course is to establish an independent redistricting commission through the constitutional amendment process.

Harris and Lucyk are optimistic that enough bipartisan support exists to adopt such an amendment. But, Harris said, “I would add a healthy dose of caution, however, because I know from experience that the General Assembly jealously guards its legislative powers.”

In addition to Harris and Lucyk, other citizen committee members include Wyatt Durrette, a former GOP nominee for governor and former member of the House of Delegates; Ward Armstrong, a former Democratic minority leader in the House; Ken Cuccinelli, a former GOP nominee for governor who also served as Virginia Attorney General and state senator; Rebecca Green, a William & Mary law professor and co-director of the Election Law Program of the law school; A.E. Dick Howard, a UVA law professor and executive director of the commission that drafted the current (1971) Virginia Constitution; Jackie Stone, partner and former chair of the diversity & inclusion committee at McGuireWoods; Bobby Vassar, former senior counsel and legislative director for Congressman Bobby Scott; and John Watkins, a retired Republican member of the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate.

“We all agree that the legislature should not draw the lines,” Harris said.

Some of the issues the committee is dealing with include how to propose the drawing of lines to avoid excessive splitting of political subdivision boundaries and how to fairly define a “community of interest” for purposes of keeping the local boundaries intact as much as possible, he said.

Lucyk said that, for instance, Fredericksburg does not have to be divided two ways. The way district lines are currently drawn confuses many voters and has hundreds inadvertently assigned to the wrong precincts in localities around the state.

How to get as much partisan politics out of the redistricting process as practicable won’t be easy. This involves working to ensure that legislators do not retain too much partisan influence on the process in ways that an independent commission’s nature is defined and members are selected. “Politicians are nimble,” Harris said. “If you leave an opening, they will find their way in.”

Republicans hold the narrowest of majorities in the General Assembly’s two chambers today, but all 140 seats are up for grabs in November of 2019 and Virginia is trending blue. Republicans have killed recent redistricting reform efforts in the House of Delegates but reformers worry that Democrats, who found it easy to embrace reform when they were a much smaller minority, now may be sorely tempted to preserve the majority’s power to carve new districts.

That temptation to hold tightly the power to carve districts could also remain true for Republicans who believe they will keep majority status. Giving up the political power to draw their own districts and try to preserve years of partisan advantage is not easy for lawmakers who listen to, and raise money from, the hard-core partisans of the left or the right.

The process of amending Virginia’s Constitution requires approval in two separate sessions of the General Assembly with an election in between, followed by approval by the voters in a statewide referendum. All of Virginia’s 100 House districts, 40 state Senate districts and 11 Congressional districts will be redrawn in 2021, following the 2020 Census. With that clock in mind, the citizens committee wants to ensure fair elections by sponsoring the constitutional amendment in time to take effect for the 2021 redistricting. To meet that clock, it must be presented to, and initially approved by, the General Assembly session that convenes Jan. 9.

Gerrymandering was bad when Democrats did it, and bad when Republicans did it. Who knows which party will hold a majority in three years?

Neither should be allowed to gerrymander, and now is the time Virginians have their best opportunity to end it.

Gibson is co-chair with former GOP Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling of the advisory committee for OneVirginia2021: Virginians for Fair Redistricting.