Currently, the Congressional delegation from North Carolina is split evenly -- 7 Republicans, 7 Democrats -- because in terms of registered voters, the state is also split evenly, 50-50. But the new Congressional maps (two different ones) that the Republican super-majority in Raleigh unveiled yesterday -- given the blessing of Chief Justice Paul Newby and the promise that the Court will not stand in the way -- presents another stunning power-grab for a state that is not in fact that red. These guys in Raleigh are doing precisely what most of the people in three public hearings begged them not to do.
Best representation of how they've gerrymandered the 14 Congressional districts is the partisan realignment chart on one of the two maps (S 757) published by Dr. Michael Bitzer:
Democrats who've retained "safe" districts in this map: Rep. Alma Adams (CD12), Valerie Foushee (CD4), and Deborah Ross (CD2). Democrat Donald Davis's CD1 will be a toss-up. The rest look pretty safely Republican, which means Kathy Manning (CD6), Wiley Nickel (CD13), and Jeff Jackson (CD14) were targeted for elimination.
The people doing this have also made themselves as safely insulated as possible in the maps they've drawn for their own NC House and Senate districts. They intend to do their worst under the sanction of their own sanctified ambition.
This is the map (S 757) that Bitzer analyzed above:
5 comments:
They are going local as well.
https://webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewBillDocument/2023/7450/0/DRS15392-ST-67
They are not doing anything that the democrats wouldn't do if they were in this position.
The democrats were in that position and didn't do it.
That was then, and this is now.
The Democrats didn't need to do anything. By having county wide elections for district representatives, the large population of Boone pretty much guaranteed Democrats would control the County Commissioners.
A conspiracy theorist might suggest that a desired side effect of expanding the student population at ASU was to create such a large bloc of leftist voters as to control the entire county's politics.
The blogger seems to be OK with people at large electing the commissioner for districts altogether, but that means the candidate has to appeal to the entire county, and can even ignore the interests of his district, or just pander to the largest voting bloc in the county, Boone.
Hardly representative government.
Will this new map guarantee a Republican majority on the board?
I don't know. But being able to vote with my immediate neighbors in my district for a candidate that represents our district's interests, not Boone's, is to be hoped for.
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