The solution they came up with, in concert with Republicans in the statehouse, was literally a once-in-a-decade opportunity, enacted last year before legislative elections that could have delivered control of either or both houses of the General Assembly to Democrats or Republicans. Fearing defeat and minority status, each party wanted protection against gerrymandering by the other, and devised it in the form of an amendment to the state constitution.

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The amendment would establish a bipartisan commission of legislators and citizens charged with drawing up electoral maps for both state legislative and congressional seats. The ultimate arbiter, in the event of deadlocks, would be Virginia’s Supreme Court. The idea was to elevate the process above the self-interested reach of elected politicians. And while the system would be imperfect, it marked a clear improvement on the status quo.

Then Democrats swept last November’s legislative elections, gaining majorities in both houses of the General Assembly for the first time in a generation. Whereupon some of them balked, including several African American members of the House of Delegates, who, distrustful of the conservative judges who dominate the state’s high court, preferred that the legislature, now under Democratic control, retain the last word on a map devised by the bipartisan commission.

The fact is, there are no redistricting procedures that are flawlessly fair and free from political influence. The plan laid out in the constitutional amendment is as good or better than those of a dozen other states that have reformed their map-drawing systems. For that constitutional amendment to move forward, the legislature must enact it again this year and put it before Virginia voters in a referendum this fall.

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Mr. Northam, a Democrat, hasn’t wavered in his support for the measure, even as some lawmakers in his party have. (They included the new speaker of the House of Delegates, Eileen Filler-Corn, who unhelpfully remained neutral.) After Mr. Northam threatened to intercede last week, the amendment was passed by a key legislative committee with bipartisan support — albeit with eight of 13 Democrats on the panel voting against.

Redistricting reform is hard but not impossible. Virginia Democrats, now in control, can show the state they are prepared for real leadership — and that their demands over the past decade for a bipartisan approach to redistricting will not fall victim to political opportunism now that they are in the driver’s seat.

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