Sauce for the Goose: NC Dems Utilize 'Dark Money' Too

Important piece of sleuthing by Travis Fain for WRAL News: Former NC Democratic Senator Linda Garrou (Dist. 32, Forsyth) is leading a 501(c)(4) effort called Education Now. She's raising anonymous money to target six NC Senate Republican incumbents for defeat, which (all things remaining equal otherwise) would give Democrats control of the Senate and send Phil Berger to the bleachers.

In other words, tit for tat. (A Republican dark money group, Citizens for a Better NC House, is targeting Democrats including Rep. Ray Russell of the 93rd. It was described a few days ago here.) Republican dark money, at least in the case of Citizens for a Better NC House, waxes crude and insulting. They want everyone to see Democrats -- at least Rep. Russell -- as comic book villains.

The Republican targets that Linda Garrou will be attacking -- make no mistake -- also provide rich material, especially for satire, though we trust that Linda Garrou will have better taste.

I don't like dark money in politics. I want the law changed. My dilemma consists of also applauding Democrats for having the balls, for taking a gun to a gunfight.

Who's Linda Garrou?

Sen. Garrou spent some 14 years in the Senate and rose to chair the Appropriations Committee and then became Minority Leader after the Tea Party wave of 2010. But by 2012, Berger and the Boys had redrawn Garrou's district to suit themselves. Garrou announced her retirement. How strongly Democratic had been her old district? She won reelection in the Tea Party Wave with 65 percent of the vote.

If you recall, the redistricting of the General Assembly following the election of 2010 included a concerted effort on Berger's part to get rid of incumbent women. There were only six women in the Senate going into 2012, and Berger's redistricted map double-bunked three of them, including Garrou. (The scene was even worse in Tim Moore's House. Some 22 Democratic women reps were either double-bunked or drawn into districts with incumbent Republicans. All of this redistricting in both Senate and House was eventually ruled unconstitutional by the courts.)

So, what can we say about Garrou's waiting two presidential cycles after her targeted elimination to take such action with such a leadership role -- except, by Gawd, revenge really does taste sweeter when it's cold.

The Republican incumbents Garrou is gunning for:

The Democrat challengers on that list have all been touted multiple times by several prognosticators as good prospects for flipping a red district. Garrou's dark money can help perhaps. It might improve Dem performance, no? Or depress Republican turnout, which is really the metier of the 501(c)(4), isn't it?

Raleigh Republicans Targeting Women

The Republicans in the new majority in the NC General Assembly are planning the elimination of strong women in the NC House. That is to say, Democratic strong women.

Laura Leslie has some preliminary analysis at WRAL, and there's a clear pattern. Among the women marked for extinction are Forsyth's Linda Garrou, Wake's Deborah Ross, Guilford's Pricey Harrison, Buncombe's Patsy Keever.

Minority Leader Joe Hackney has been drawn out of his District 54 and into the 56th with Democrat Verla Insko, another strong female legislator.

Meanwhile, Art Pope's yes-man Jonathan Jordan's 93rd House Dist. is left unchanged ... Watauga and Ashe.

Race Has Many Uses

Because North Carolina redistricting is covered by federal statute for past racial discrimination (which is obviously still quite alive and active in the Old North State), the new Republican majority in the NC General Assembly are required to first release their plan for "minority" districts under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ("VRA districts").

Those maps started rolling out yesterday, and it became abundantly clear that under cover of creating more black voting districts, the Republican majority was actually "packing" those districts with as many gerrymandered Democrats as possible in order to weaken other Democrats and strengthen the reelection prospects of their own sainted crew.

Duh.

At least three of the Democrats thus targeted are all strong women. Linda Garrou (D-Forsyth) has been drawn completely out of her NC Senate district. Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guildford) and Rep. Maggie Jeffus (D-Guildford) have been put into the same district. (Laura Leslie's coverage for WRAL.)

On the bright side, two of the Five Goobers from Demsville, Rep. William Brisson and Rep. Dewey Hill, have apparently had their political bases jerked away from them via the same VRA districts. That's what pal-ing around with Republicans will get you. (Fayetteville Observer has that story and also delves into the whole issue of "packing" minority districts to the detriment of adjoining districts.)