In light of Pat McCrory’s accusations of voter fraud and voting irregularities, Democrats started to suspect that the governor was trying to cast enough doubt about the legitimacy of the election that the legislature would determine the outcome. Republicans scoffed at the idea and denied that was ever in the cards. Still, enough sober-minded journalists and political leaders considered that option to highlight the distrust that so many North Carolinians have toward the legislature.
For the past six years, Republicans in the General Assembly have consistently overreached and shown little respect for the will of the people. Their redistricting produced the most gerrymandered districts in America. Their voter suppression law went far beyond just voter ID to narrowly target groups of people who would likely vote Democratic. Their meddling in local politics and affairs underscored an authoritarian streak that strips power away from the government closest to the people. They’ve lost the trust of at least half the people they govern.
The election of Roy Cooper to governor of the state should serve as a wakeup call. Pat McCrory allowed himself to become the face of much of the GOP’s hubris. As a result, he lost an election that included a surge of Republican voters that should have given him a second term. Clearly, Cooper won with a significant number of people who also supported Donald Trump. Those voters are unhappy with the status quo.
Starting now, the GOP legislature has no cover from Pat McCrory. They face an election this year under districts that will be more favorable to Democrats than the ones they currently hold. They can expect to be held accountable for their actions, especially with a governor who uses his bully pulpit to call them out.
As governor, Cooper can offer a vision for the future of the state the differs dramatically from the one promoted by the legislature over the past six years. While the legislature might be able to override his veto, he can persuasively argue that his constituency is larger than those of legislators in gerrymandered districts. Republicans would be wise to temper their worst instincts and start to try to regain the trust of a larger segment of the population. If they don’t, their politics of overreach and division will start to catch up with them.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
I hope they follow Wisconsin’s lead and use a formula that measures wasted votes. This is a good explanation for the formula:
https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legal-work/How_the_Efficiency_Gap_Standard_Works.pdf
Ah smoking dope as always Mills! Seems to me Cooper is a Chief Unicorn, with very few practical powers. Yes, you like the other Raleigh Regulars cheer on what are meaningless victories, the poison planted in 2010-2014 still rules, including rules on redistricting. About all Cooper gets is a futile shot at repeated vetoes and ability to name some few positions, including Board of Election chairs statewide. That and $1 will not help you in Starbucks. Seems Democrats cannot seem to sit down and look at the future without the idiotic cheerleaders in their fru fru skirts and pom poms show up and cloud all reason–including you.
William have you ever had anything positive to say in your life?
Yes Matt: If the DNC and NCDP got themselves organized right, they could take elections, repeatedly. But with folks like you who refuse to deal with realities in charge, we have no chance. Oh, have you not seen the Pollyannas who are deployed with regularity to make all you children feel warm and comfortable whilst dangling over a cliff of grave political danger. Take hope, Art Pope loves you for all the gifts you have given him this past decade as a parade of tired pols has cast water on the very few lights we have had in the Democrats.
I keep careful track and NC Dems spend more time quarreling and eating their young than ever addressing the enemy – the right wing Republican machine bought by Pope. BTW, your charge is an old and tired one. You and Mills schedule a meeting and we can discuss all this crap face to face. You belong to the Hunt crowd, as does he and you are all reactionaries – check your record. Now off for more merry making and fru fru and pom poms, like a good lad. Patsy will just wuv you.
William, I want to hear you out as to the specifics of what you propose that will turn the State around in a positive direction led by Democrats.
Thank you.
“They face an election this year under districts that will be more favorable to Democrats than the ones they currently hold.”
What is the basis for this assertion?
Ohhh! I know this one! Couple of reasons:
1. The court of appeals has said they have to redraw districts to make them more fair, so while these districts may not be safe Dem seats they almost have to be more favorable to Democrats than they currently are.
2. Also you may have noticed that Democrats are kind of fired up right now and hyper aware of the consequences of not voting.
They certainly can’t be less favorable!
Thought is that the recent ruling in Wisconsin that established parameters for measuring partisan gerrymandering, a standard that previously did not exist, will come into play in redrawing NC’s districts and that if the redrawn districts don’t meet those standards as regards not just racial put political bias, they too will be thrown out.
Exactly right, Albert. Horn and Peck are disregarding the impact of (a) previous federal court rulings wrt the 2011 NC re-districting maps (as illegal gerrymanders), and (b) the Wisconsin case ruling.
Even when it is appealed to the SCOTUS, there’s a good chance that Justice Kennedy (as the swing vote) will see that partisan gerrymandering did indeed happen in WS and agree with the appeals court. A previous SCOTUS judgment said that, beyond racial gerrymandering, partisan gerrymandering could indeed happen and be found unconstitutional. The SC justices said they just needed a good measure for it. And the WS case ruling was based on the plaintiffs’ simple, clear, and statistically-based method of computing levels of partisanship in district mapping.
To your point, this recent article from the Washington Post indicates that NC is one of 15 Republican-dominated states that exhibit a voting “efficiency gap” that results in the systematic “waste” of Democratic votes:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/23/wisconsins-gerrymander-being-struck-down-should-scare-republicans-nationwide/?utm_term=.5eb31e90ccd3
As you note, this line of argument was persuasive in the Wisconsin case and provides a clear standard for evaluating the mandated revision of legislative districts in NC due in March.
I think the rationale is, they are already “surgically precise” stacked towards Republicans, so ANY change will by definition be more equitable for Democrats?
Unfortunately, we all know how abysmal turnout is in off years, especially ODD-numbered off-years, so I don’t have a lot of hopes up for next time.
I don’t see any reason to think that the new state legislature districts will be more favorable to the Democrats than the current ones. When the US House districts were redrawn this year, they produced the same outcome – 10-3 for the Republicans.