fos any i abc EDITORIAL ~ House errs on side of politics Passage of bill for single-member distticts for 2022 election looks to be delegates’ priotity ‘The House of Delegates didn’t even give us time to urge caution about House Bill 4002, Indeed, the House mopped the floor with discretion, Monday to establish 100 single districts following the U.S Census in 2020, The bill passed on a 75.22 vote, with about a dozen Democrats voting yea and three Republicans voting nay. Currently, there are 67 House districts, 20 of them with more than one delegate. The district with the most del- ‘gates is the Sst House District, which comprises nearly all of Monongalia County, where there are five. Whether this bill embodies partisan politics is un- certain, however it certainly has politics written all over it. tis telling that a bill as substantive as this one advanced to the House floor for a vote 10 days after being introduced. ‘Not to mention passing out of amajor committee within), days of it being on the table there. But what's truly extraordinary is that HB 4002 de- termines how many of these politicians will be elected in 2022. That's right, four years from now. So, when did that become the state House of Delegates’ top priority? Pardon us, but we thought our state had alot of bigier problems than single-menber House districts, iF that's even a problem. ‘Take the opioid epidemic, for example. The latest num- bers on the rate of fatal overdoses for every, 100,000 people in West Virginia increased from4L.5 im 2015 to 52 in 2016, OF course, we're still No. 1 in that statistic, which is more than twice the national a Then thete’s job creation, the continuing Toss of pop- ulation and those pesky roads. If thoy should tire of that then there's always poverty — 18 percent of our population lives below the poverty line — and appalling health indicators. But no, that would be putting people ahead of sclf- serving polities. Before this bill got the House's nod we were going to insist before whatever's done politics should not be among the reasons. Furthermore, it would be in the public's interest to see some models of how this redistricting might look before it happens in 2021. Perhaps also ensiire hefore redrawing these House districts that several’ public meetings be required on their new boundaries. That way the public, who this legislation is supposedly serving, might have somesnput. ‘There are other questions that come to mind, too, including the nnmber of citizens it would take to create a district and who draws the lines, ; For the record, we have mixed thoughts about this, Jegislation on single member districts. ‘However, it looks as if the House of Delegates decided to