Imagine if in the middle of a heated political contest one of the candidates is forced off the campaign trail. That would be big news right? And also very strange. But do you know what would be even stranger? If the country's primary outlet for reporting political news declines to explain the reason for such a candidate even needing to leaving the campaign trail or even the fact that she was being forced to cease campaigning.
You really don't need much of an imagination to dream up such a seemingly implausible scenario because that is exactly what Politico is currently doing. They're failing to point out that Virginia's Lt. Governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, would be forced to cease campaigning for governor against her Democrat opponent, Abigail Spanberger, due to the Democrats' legally dubious plan to call the state legislature into special session during the closing weeks of the campaign in order to attempt steps towards redistricting Virginia's congressional seats for next year.
You can read Politico's descent into what appears to be journalistic malpractice in their Thursday story by Brakkton Booker, Andrew Howard, and Liz Crampton, "Virginia Democrats are the next surprising entrant into the redistricting battle."
Virginia Democrats are poised to enter the nationwide redistricting battle, according to three Democrats familiar with the plans, taking on an effort to redraw the state’s congressional lines just days before closely watched elections in the state.
...The surprise effort would need to come together quickly, and it could face procedural and political hurdles. Virginia has a constitutionally mandated process that hands redistricting over to a bipartisan commission, and the decision to circumnavigate or eliminate that commission must ultimately go in front of voters.
To do so, both chambers of Virginia’s Legislature must pass the proposed amendment in sessions bookending an election. Democratic leaders in the state are relying on a special session called by GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin in May 2024 that was left open to push through the measure for the first time, ahead of the state’s elections in less than two weeks. The Legislature would then need to pass the proposal again in a new session after the November elections.
Of course, since the current election started happening already with early voting that began in September, it can't be bookended since votes have already been cast. But no matter, Politico is on a roll and, of course, won't mention the real result of this last minute maneuver, namely to take the Republican candidate off the campaign trail.
The last-minute move risks upending the election for governor in November, along with legislative contests. Democrat Abigail Spanberger is considered a favorite over Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears for the state’s open governorship; all 100 of the state House seats are on the ballot in November as well, with Democrats currently holding 51 of those seats.
Spanberger, a former member of Congress, said in August that she had “no plans” to draw new lines in Virginia. Virginia’s redistricting process does not require buy-in from the governor.
A spokesperson for Spanberger did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Earle-Sears’ campaign sought to paint the redistricting fight as a “cheap political stunt.”
“This is what panic looks like,” Earle-Sears spokesperson Peyton Vogel said in a statement. “It’s pathetic. Voters see through it.”
Politico mentioned "upending the election" but, astonishingly, did not even make reference to how that would happen, namely by forcing Earle-Sears off the campaign trail.
To find out how that would happen, you need to turn to Fox News which informs the readers right away in the title WHY the campaign would be upended in this Thursday article by Charles Creitz, "Winsome Sears blasts Virginia Dems’ surprise redistricting session as a ‘stunt’ to pull her off the trail."
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears lambasted Virginia Democrats after they signaled a plan to suddenly call the legislature back in a last-minute special session to address potential redistricting before the election.
Virginia’s state redistricting commission is statutorily charged with crafting new congressional maps after every decennial census, but state Democrats appear poised to try to do an end-round around that process, potentially via the constitutional amendment process.
"In a desperate political stunt, Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly are calling for a special session to drag Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears off the campaign trail," the Earle-Sears campaign said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
As lieutenant governor, Earle-Sears is the presiding officer over the otherwise Democratic-majority state Senate.
So now we know exactly WHY this redistricting attempt by the Democrats in Virginia would cause the "upending" of the gubernatorial election that Politico merely referred to with no explanation . Because it would require that Earle-Sears in her role as presiding officer of the state senate would be required to sit in the special session due to a last minute political redistricting ploy by the Democrats. Something clearly pointed out in the Fox News report but which three (count 'em, THREE) Politico reporters were somehow unable to report. Could it be that reporting on the obvious would have lent credence to Earle-Sears' claim of this being a "cheap political stunt?"
