“You had control over that when you were there,” said Del. S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk. “You could have done exactly what you wanted.”

Howell said: “There is no way in a political system that we could possibly have allowed the House to do a totally political redistricting and leave the Senate unilaterally disarmed. We’re not going to do that. That’s the argument for why we need it in the constitution.”

Republicans now hold majorities in the House and the Senate despite holding no executive offices. The GOP has not won a statewide election since 2009.

Jones asked Howell how Senate Democrats would have been unilaterally disarmed by “a fair process.”

“It was spoken that the House was going to do a totally political redistricting,” Howell said. “And you did.”

“That’s not true,” Jones replied. “We had bipartisan support.”

Several reform advocates and civic groups spoke in favor of the proposals, portraying them as good-government fixes that would refresh the democratic process at a time of rising citizen activism and flagging faith in politics.