By Nolan D. McCaskill
WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - Republicans and Democrats vehemently disagree over whether Virginia should adopt a new congressional map for the November midterms, but they're leaning on the same person to sway voters to their side: former U.S. President Barack Obama.
Ahead of Virginia's statewide special election on Tuesday, Obama has become an omnipresent voice of an expensive, high-stakes campaign that could be critical in determining which party controls the House of Representatives
after November's elections.
The former president - once an opponent of gerrymandering - has endorsed efforts by Virginia's Democratic Party to allow the state's legislature to create new congressional districts that could give Democrats four additional seats in Congress, offsetting similar Republican efforts undertaken at President Donald Trump's behest in Texas and several other states.
His position shows how far Democrats have shifted on the issue in the wake of unprecedented Republican-led mid-decade efforts to redraw state congressional maps to help their party maintain control of Congress. But Republicans are hoping Virginia's voters are more swayed by what Obama has said in the past.
Television and radio ads sponsored by two Republican groups use 2017 footage of Obama that blames gerrymandering for political polarization that's made it "harder and harder to find common ground." They urge Virginians to vote no.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said the Obama-centric messaging from Republicans shows their desperation.
"They wouldn't be lying about Obama's position if they weren't desperate and worried," Kaine said.
Recent surveys of likely voters show the yes campaign narrowly leading. More than 1 million people have voted early, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.
Should the amendment pass, the new congressional districts would remain in place until after the 2030 census.
ALL OBAMA, ALL THE TIME
Obama has appeared in mailers, radio spots and TV ads for both sides of the issue, potentially confusing voters with mixed messaging led by groups with anodyne names.
But Obama endorsed the referendum, appearing in a TV ad where he says: "Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years, but you can stop them by voting yes by April 21."
Meanwhile, Virginians for Fair Maps, a Republican-led committee that has raised nearly $20 million, and Justice for Democracy PAC, a group funded by nearly $9 million from the conservative nonprofit Per Aspera Policy Incorporated, have led the opposition with Obama ads.
Both groups' ads resurface Obama's April 2017 comments made at the University of Chicago.
"Our president, Barack Obama, knows that partisan gerrymandering is wrong for our democracy. Listen to his words," a woman says in a Justice for Democracy radio ad.
Republican Representative Jen Kiggans of Virginia said the strategy to leverage Democrats' past comments is one the Democratic Party would use if the tables were turned.
"When you put those words in the public sphere, as a politician, they still exist," she said. "They don't go away just because you've changed your viewpoint."
REDISTRICTING WARS
Currently, six Democrats and five Republicans compose Virginia's congressional delegation. A new map would give Democrats a 10-1 advantage in a Democratic-leaning state at the federal level.
The additional four seats in Virginia would be enough to hand Democrats control of the House for the final two years of President Donald Trump's administration, following a flurry of moves by other states.
The redistricting wars started last year in Texas, when - at Trump's direction - Republicans drew new maps designed to give their party as many as five additional congressional seats. California responded with a similar referendum that could garner Democrats a similar number of seats in that state.
Ohio, Missouri and North Carolina also changed their maps to further favor Republicans, with Florida poised to take up a new map as soon as next week.
"If this does not pass, Republicans could gerrymander in all the red states and hang on to the majority and continue to rubber-stamp President Trump," said Virginia Democratic Representative Suhas Subramanyam.
REPUBLICANS CRITICIZE DEMOCRATS' EFFORTS
Virginia Republicans have criticized the map as an unfair redraw that would deprive half the state of fair representation and harm constituents’ access to services that help them resolve issues with federal agencies. Democrats have made similar arguments in states that have been redistricted to favor Republicans.
Republican Representative Ben Cline of Virginia did not address Republicans' use of Obama in advertising but said Democrats' nationalization of the statewide election would hurt their cause.
"Enlisting national Democrats to try and push this egregious political hackery through next Tuesday is going to backfire," Cline said. "Republicans and independents and moderate Democrats are voting no, and we're going to defeat it on Tuesday."
An Obama spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, but Obama has emphasized his position through Democratic advertising.
"We can't afford two more years of unchecked power and zero accountability in Washington," Obama says in a Virginians for Fair Elections radio ad. "Help us chart a better path forward, Virginia."
(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan. Editing by Michael Learmonth and David Gaffen)
