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Gov. Ralph Northam is promising to veto a last-ditch attempt by Republicans to find a legislative solution to racial gerrymandering of 11 political districts in the House of Delegates, choosing instead to let the federal courts redraw the electoral map.

Northam wielded the veto threat hours after House Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, announced plans to call delegates into session on Oct. 21 to act on a Republican redistricting plan that appeared to have some Democratic support before a House committee endorsed it in a party-line vote last week.

The governor embraced a judicial solution — Cox called it “judicial overreach” — under which an expert appointed by the judges would redraw the House electoral map as “the best course of action before us.”

The decision drew immediate support from the House Democrats and denunciations from House Republican leaders, including Appropriations Committee Chairman Chris Jones of Suffolk, who proposed an alternative redistricting plan last week that he had hoped would win some Democratic support.

“It is hard to overstate my disappointment in the governor, someone I’ve known personally and professionally for over a decade,” said Jones, who was a key legislative ally of Northam in the passage of Medicaid expansion this year.