Thursday, February 14, 2019

New Hope for an End to Gerrymandering in North Carolina


Yesterday in Raleigh, a bi-partisan coalition (two Republicans and two Democrats as primary sponsors, supported by others including Democrat Pricey Harrison) filed House Bill 69 to establish a nonpartisan redistricting commission in time for the 2020 Census.

"If it passes, the redistricting committee would be made up of 11 non-politicians appointed by legislative leaders of the state’s main two political parties. It would have four Democratic voters, four Republican voters and three other voters. Anyone who has been a politician, campaign staffer, lobbyist or state board member, or who is related to anyone in those positions, would be legally barred from being on the committee until five years after they leave politics." (NandO)

This is a step, and perhaps Berger/Moore might be a little motivated toward giving it a fair shot at passage following last fall's comeuppance at the polls, with another perhaps ground-shifting election approaching next year. Berger/Moore could lose it all in 2020 and then watch a newly empowered Democratic Party, with revenge in its eye, take out its own map-drawing software for the next round of partisan gerrymandering.

I'm ready for that back and forth to end and to end decisively and for eternity.

Yesterday in Raleigh, North Carolina legislators Rep. Jon Hardister, a Guilford County Republican, and Rep. Robert Reives, a Chatham County Democrat, and other lawmakers from both parties spoke to the press about HB69:

Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article226205125.html#storylink=cpy


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