McEachin on Appointment of First African-American Female Judge in Henrico

From State Senator Donald McEachin:

Senator McEachin Commends General Assembly on Appointment of
First African-American Female Judge in Henrico County

Richmond – Senator A. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) today commended the 2011 Virginia General Assembly for appointing Ms. Mary Malveaux, the first female African-American judge to the Henrico County Bench. Senator McEachin said, “This is an important milestone for Henrico County. An important part of our justice system is that it looks like Virginia and, in this case, Henrico. In other words, it is important to have both male and female judges and judges from various ethnic backgrounds. As Henrico becomes more diverse, our judiciary should reflect that diversity. I want to take this opportunity to commend the General Assembly for recognizing this and appointing and extremely competent attorney, Mary Malveaux as a judge in Henrico.

"Mary Malveaux has an illustrious background as an attorney, having been both a criminal defense lawyer and a member of the Henrico Commonwealth’s attorney staff. Moreover, in her almost twenty years of practicing law, she has worked in a wide variety of fields from family law, and civil litigation to insurance issues. Ms. Malveaux grew up in Richmond and is a graduate of the University of Virginia and TC Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond, making her intimately familiar with issues in the Commonwealth and in the metro area.

"She has also chosen to be very involved with the community, volunteering in many activities including Voices for Virginia’s Children, the VCU Children’s Medical Center, Habitat for Humanity and the United Way.

"I am confident that Ms. Malveaux will bring a new and needed voice to Henrico and that her outstanding credentials will make her a judge of whom we can all be proud. I would once again like to commend the General Assembly for recognizing both the need and Ms. Malveaux’s qualifications to help meet that need."

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McEachin Endorses Locke Plan for Congressional Redistricting

From Donald McEachin:

Senator McEachin Endorses Locke Plan
for Congressional Redistricting

Richmond –Today, Senator A. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) endorsed Senator Mamie Locke’s (D-Hampton) amended plan for Congressional redistricting. Senator McEachin said, “This amended plan, to be introduced by Senator Locke today, is an excellent one and far superior to the politically motivated, incumbent protection plan introduced by Delegate Janis. By every objective measure, Senator Locke’s plan is a significant improvement.

“Her plan, overall, contains far more compact districts. As matter of fact, both commonly accepted scales used to measure compactness in redistricting, the Reock Scale and the Polsby-Popper Scale, find the Locke proposal to be significantly better. On the Reock Scale, Senator Locke’s plan is over 10% improvement (3.01 Janis vs. 3.44 Locke) and on Polsby-Popper scale, the improvement approaches 10% (1.75 Janis versus 1.88 Locke).

“The following districts are appreciably more compact under Senator Locke’s plan:

• The Third District which, in the Janis plan, goes from South Hampton Roads through the suburbs of Henrico will be totally contained in Hampton Roads in Senator Locke’s proposal.

• The Seventh District, in the Janis plan, goes from Culpeper in the west, but in the Locke proposal, is almost all contained in the Richmond metropolitan area.

• The Fifth district, under the Janis bill, goes from the North Carolina border to the northernmost point of Fauquier County. In the Locke legislation, the district ends approximately forty miles further south in the Town of Culpeper.

“Senator Locke’s plan reunites several communities of interest which had been egregiously divided in Delegate Janis’ incumbency protection proposal. Roanoke and Salem, which had been split, are reunited and contained within one district.
Alleghany County is reunited with Bath and Highland in the Sixth Congressional District.

“Both the Third and the Seventh are self-contained communities of interest under Senator Locke’s plan.

“Virginia voters do not want incumbency protection. They want competitive districts where their votes matter. In Senator Locke’s legislation, several of the districts are more competitive than under the Republican plan, including the Third, Fifth and Ninth.

“I recognize that the Locke plan creates another minority influence district and our minority population demonstrates that need. While it accomplishes that, it also meets these other important criteria.

“Senator Locke did not sit in a backroom with incumbent politicians to draw her plan. She met with voters, she has amended her plan at the suggestion of voters and she has created a plan that in many critical ways is significantly superior to the politically motivated incumbency protection plan put forth by Delegate Janis.”

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