Protesting too much

by | Sep 2, 2016 | Editor's Blog, NC Politics, Redistricting | 15 comments

If you want to get a good laugh, go read the GOP response to the nonpartisan redistricting exercise that Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy and Common Cause put together. Quite clearly, Republicans are upset that somebody exposed how badly they rigged the system. To misquote Shakespeare, “Methinks thou doth protest too much.”

Duke and Common Cause brought together a bipartisan group of former judges to draw districts that do not take partisanship into consideration. They came up with a map that creates six likely Republican districts, four likely Democratic districts, and three swing districts. The districts are compact, split few counties, and appear to keep counties together that share economic and cultural interests.

The exercise so offended Sen. Bob Rucho and Rep. David Lewis, the architects of the current maps and the ones struck down by the courts, that they fired off a press release blasting the exercise as a “charade.” It’s not a charade but it showed the people of North Carolina what is possible with responsible government. The response by Rucho and Lewis says far more about what they’ve done than what the judges did. In their desire to impose their authoritarian will on the people of North Carolina, they’ve thrown our electoral system into chaos. They’re wrong and they know it.

The maps that Rucho and Lewis drew give Republicans a 10-3 majority in our Congressional delegation despite the Congressional vote across the state being evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. The GOP claims they are doing what Democrats did for years. That’s not true. Democratic maps left us with a relatively evenly divided Congressional delegation throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

Rucho and Lewis would have done better to keep their mouths shut. They’ve drawn more attention to the fact that the GOP is rigging the political system. They are debating an exercise of free speech that has no bearing on their jobs as legislators but clearly the nonpartisan maps have struck a nerve.

If Rucho and Lewis are looking for another fight, Tinky-Winky is still out there in reruns.

Photo credit Corey Lowenstein.

15 Comments

  1. Smarty'smom

    Democrats are pathetically inept at
    mastering spin
    rousing the rabble
    manipulating “this great country’s” political system
    summoning up the worst in people
    playing on people’s fears and anger
    Instead they try to persuade with facts and logic DOLT’S

  2. Ebrun

    D.g, you’re right. I should amend that statement to read “Obama and Democrats in the U.S. Senate.”

  3. Ebrun

    The government shutdown was as much Obama’s responsibility as it was one lone Congressman’s.

    There is no such thing as a “neutral committee” when it comes to controversial political disputes. Any committee influenced by “academics” will give an advantage to Democrats since it is clear that contemporary academia overwhelmingly sides with the liberal politicians.

    The results from the last three statewide elections in NC show that around 65 counties reliably vote Republican while around 27 counties reliably vote for the Democrats. Only a half dozen or so are truly swing counties.given this voting pattern, there is no way to create mostly competitive Congressional
    Districts without gerrymandering.
    I
    Democrat voters are mostly concentrated in large urban counties and a few minority-majority rural counties. Republican voters are much more broadly dispersed throughout the rest of the state. Since districts boundaries are geographical, competitive districts cannot be drawn to have a neutral impact.

  4. Rick High

    Ebrun,

    Asheville was in the 11th district not the 10th. Between the 1980 election and the 2010 election, the Republicans have held it for 10 terms and the Democrats for 6 terms. Gerrymandering is wrong regardless of the party doing the redistricting. That is why a committee as neutral as possible should be involved.

    No city or county should be divided if possible.

    Mr. Meadows’s government shutdown closed many national park services, the Pisgah Inn for one. Hotel occupancy in the area dropped significantly. The impact was so severe the Republican governor, Bill Haslam, of TN wanted NC and TN to pay to open the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

  5. Rick High

    Ebrun,

    There were two point to the post:
    1. The 11th district before the redistricting in 2010 was a competitive district in which it was impossible for a far left or far right candidate to be elected. Such districts are better for all people of the district.
    2. You use the social and economic argument as a reason for Asheville and Boone to not be together, but ignore it for Asheville and Gastonia. If you are correct, then the old 11th district should have been left as it was instead of placing parts of Asheville in the 10th. How can you support dividing a county and city into two different districts if the social and economic argument is valid?

    I have never supported the drawing of districts by political parties. While the proposal may have flaws, it is a beginning. It is certainly better that re-districting drawn in DC, not NC, by highly partisan groups.

    Over time I have responded to several of your posts and you have replied to mine. I have tried to be civil with you and until now, unlike your replies to others, you have been civil with me. From the tone of your last reply, I feel, on your part, this may changing. I will not.

    • Ebrun

      Asheville dominated the former 10th district allowing Democrats to .consistently win there. I have not defended the current district alignment. My point is that when Democrats were in control, they created districts that gave them an advantage. The GOP has done the same when they are in control. I’ii concede the Democrats were more subtle than Republicans with their gerrymander, but the partisan advantage is the same whoever is in control.

      The academics’ proposed district divides Boone and half of Watauga county into two different districts. How is that much different than how Asheville has been separated from Buncombe?

      You claimed that Rep Meadows cost his district $20 million. You shouldn’t be offended when such an outlandished remark is challenged.

    • Ebrun

      D.g,,someone once said that hypocrites are mostly likely to constantly use a soapbox. You sure prove the validity of that observation.

      • Ebrun

        Original or not, they sure seem to get you riled up. Throw you some bait and you’re as predictable as Pavlov’s dogs. What fun!

  6. Ebrun

    You must think the voters of 11th are really stupid to reelect a Congressman who caused his district to lose $20 million. What a disingenuous claim!

    The majority of Watauga County residents have much more social and economic interaction with their neighboring counties of Ashe, Wilkes, Avery and Caldwell than they do with places like Asheville, Murphy and Franklin.

  7. Ebrun

    Gerrymandering can be blatant or subtle. Democrats are good at the subtle approach, which they employed for years in NC. Voters finally got fed up with Democrat corruption in 2010. And I am sure you are aware that retired judges and academics have no authority to “rearrange voting districts.”

    The GOP still has a few more good years ahead to revitalize the economy and pursue reforms, especially with regard to public education. The state’s economy is experiencing sustained growth and people and businesses keep moving here to take advantage of these positive trends.

  8. Rick High

    Ebrun,

    Your use of the 11th district as an example for opposing the redistricting proposal is not based on the history of the district. The 11th has never been a liberal district and would not be even with the addition of Boone. Since 1980, the only Democrats elected were middle of the road Jamie Clark and Heath Shuler, another moderate who was opposed in the 2008 primary by liberal Cecil Bothwell. The district was a competitive district where a Republican or Democrat could not be too far from center to be elected. That was until the 2010 redistricting, which took the middle of Asheville with its Democratic votes out of the district. This allowed a far right Republican, Mark Meadows, to be elected in a district now so republican he was easily re-elected in 2014 even after engineering a government shut down in 2013 that cost the district an estimated 20 million dollars coming during the October peak tourist season.

    As to the statement that the proposed district “represents no real economic or social community of interest.” Are you referring to the type of common interest shared by the tourist economy of Asheville and the manufacturing economy of Gastonia in the current 10th district? The beautiful mountains of North Carolina share more than the current 10th district: a tourist economy created in part by the Blue Ridge Parkway which runs through the new district, a state university in both extremes of the district and one on the middle, and a competitive Congressional District requiring the successful candidate to represent all the people not just one party.

  9. Ebrun

    The proposed 11th district suggests a subtle attempt to favor liberal urban communities. Put Boone and Asheville in the same district to out vote the conservative more rural counties in-between and to the South. A district that would stretch from Boone to Murphy represents no real economic or social community of interest, only similar geography that has little bearing on political commonality.

    Academics and former judges have no monopoly on political wisdom and are unaccountable to the body politic. Best to resolve political issues through the political process. If the decisions of those in power flagrantly flout the public interest, they can be voted out. That’s what happened in NC in 2010 and 2012.

  10. TY Thompson

    I’m pretty confident the other Party would have poohed poohed the new map as well, because that’s just the nature of politics. Of course, the many decades of gerrymandering in this state only got attention after 2010, so neither side ought to be complaining because neither side can justify, no matter how much they think they can. Put it this way, Dems, if you don’t like the Reps’ line drawing, ya shouldn’t have taught them so well. And the Reps got a whole lot of learning from Brad Miller back in Oh-ought when he chaired the Redistricting committee. The congressional district Miller mapped out for himself looked like a fishing lure (the rural northern counties) with multiple hooks hanging down into selected urban areas to make sure he had a safe district to run in.

    Having said all that, these new lines actually don’t look all that bad but I’d still oppose them because if any county is going to be split, it needs to be urban counties. It’s not fair to split a rural county which has limited clout even when it’s not split.

  11. Maurice

    Splitting few counties shows more consideration for long established boundaries and local control, such as the importance of the public electing county commissioners. The group of judges included former Republican Justice Bob Orr and former Republican Court of Appeals Judge Sanford Steelman.

    Why did the Republican representative refer to the bipartisan group of judges’ work as a charade when it created six likely Republican districts and only 4 Democratic ones?

    • Nortley

      “Why did the Republican representative refer to the bipartisan group of judges’ work as a charade when it created six likely Republican districts and only 4 Democratic ones?”

      Because it created ONLY six likely Republican districts.

      As one of the Republicans involved was reported to have said they drew a 10-3 map because they could not draw a 13-0 map.

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