RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrats in Virginia’s Senate are asking the state Supreme Court to disqualify three candidates Republicans nominated to help redraw congressional and legislative maps, accusing them of having conflicts of interest.

Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw wrote to the clerk of the high court on Monday, urging the court to reject the nominees and direct minority leaders to resubmit new “unbiased” nominees, news outlets reported. The nominations undermine public confidence in the process, he wrote.

After the bipartisan Virginia Redistricting Commission’s effort to redraw districts ended in a partisan deadlock, the job has become Supreme Court’s. Democratic and Republican leadership in the General Assembly can each offer nominees for the court to hire as special masters to help and the court will pick one nominated by each party.

Saslaw’s letter contends that the Democrats’ nominees have academic backgrounds and experience as redistricting special masters in Virginia and elsewhere unlike the Republican nominees. But Republican Senate Caucus spokesman Jeff Ryer responded that the Democrats’ nominees are “all extreme-left academics” with records of considering only what will benefit Democrats most.