Virginia Democrat who helped lead state's redistricting push also played part in killing it

By Fox News · Fox News

A top Virginia Democrat’s support for his state's redistricting referendum ironically backfired after a judge he previously appointed helped torpedo his party’s bid to redraw the state’s congressional districts. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who endorsed the referendum and appeared at pro-referendum events, gave $100,000 to the campaign behind Virginia Democrats’ redistricting effort, which voters approved in April . On Friday, a judge Warner appointed when he was governor in 2002, D. Arthur Kelsey, was among the four justices who voted to strike the referendum down on constitutional grounds. In fact, Judge Kelsey authored the 4-3 prevailing opinion. The voter-approved ballot measure was poised to give Democrats a major advantage heading into November's midterm elections, and they vastly outspent Republicans in their bid to get it passed. However, Kelsey wrote in the prevailing opinion that the sequencing in which Democrats held the referendum vote violated the state's Constitution, which requires an intervening election between the state legislature's mandatory first and second passage of the proposed constitutional amendment. 'JUSTICE': CELEBRATION, MOCKERY ERUPT AFTER SPANBERGER 'GERRYMANDER' IS BLOWN UP IN BLOCKBUSTER DECISION Warner, who was the Governor of Virginia from 2002 until 2006, previously appointed Kelsey, then a Circuit Court judge, to the Virginia Court of Appeals. Kelsey served two terms before a GOP state legislature elevated him to the state's Supreme Court , where Kelsey has been serving since 2015. When Warner appointed Kelsey to the Virginia Court of Appeals in 2002, he praised the then-Suffolk circuit judge as having shown "a keen intellect, a strong work ethic and a commitment to equal justice," according to a report from Virginia Lawyers Weekly at the time. "Although I had not met Judge Kelsey before this process began, I have spoken to him at length, reviewed his numerous opinions and consulted with those who know him well," Warner added in 20…