Wake County Commissioner Caroline Sullivan is getting screwed. She’s a casualty of GOP mismanagement of our state. Sullivan did nothing wrong and yet she’s paying a price for legislative overreach and abuse of power. That’s wrong
It’s a twisted tale. In 2011, the GOP controlled the Wake County Board of Commissioners. They controlled the biennial redistricting process and drew maps that they thought would be favorable to them. However, in the 2014 elections, Democrats swept the Wake Commission, taking complete control of the Board.
That was too much for the legislators in Raleigh. They decided to redraw the districts because they could. They drew two at-large super districts, one of which almost certainly would have elected a Republican. Sullivan filed for the other one.
On July 1, the courts threw out the districts drawn by the legislature and ordered the Wake County hold elections based on the old districts. However, they didn’t open up filing again. Sullivan’s at-large district no longer exists and she can’t file for re-election to the district she represents now.
Sullivan’s appeal to the Wake County and State Boards of Elections to re-open filing was rejected. Now, she’s appealing to the federal courts to force a refiling. Given the timing, it may require a new election. If she doesn’t get to run, she will have been unseated by the legislature, not the voters. That’s not democratic.
Sullivan’s dilemma exemplifies the problems with the legislative overreach practiced by the Republicans in the General Assembly. They have little respect for local government or local control. They have less respect for elected officials and the voters themselves. They are clearly more interested in wielding power than governing. They’ve sown uncertainty in our political system that has left elections from school board to Congress in flux.
Caroline Sullivan isn’t the only person getting screwed. We all are.
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 am sorry but I disagree. I have witnessed almost every Republican law overturned by Democrat politjudges at the Federal level. One being the ex law partner of a Democrat Congressman. So as long as they legislating from the bench here’s to hoping they learn the ropes and write better laws. They screwed Ms. Sullivan whom I think was a fine Commissioner. And yes I also agree we have seen the Republican state judges support what ya’ll think are bad laws. So I guess the rule of law now comes down to perspective, and who has the bigger robes. Shame on us all.
Caroline is a wonderful person and a very caring government official. Wake County will lose a strong voice for their citizens if this injustice is not corrected. I have worked with her on a couple of NC Association of County Commissioner’s committees, and she is always caring and concerned about the citizens of both Wake County and North Carolina. God help us with our crooked politics.
Johnnie Farmer, County Commissioner, Hertford County
“They decided to redraw the districts because they could.”
This is deliciously funny because it’s exactly what a guy named Brad Miller said in 2002 when another guy named Hugh Webster asked him why he drew the lines the way he did.
Equally funny is how some people cheer the court’s action on the one hand, then blame the legislature for the court’s action on the other hand.
I understand your point, but were Brad Miller et al redrawing county commissioner districts and school board districts?
No, they did not, though I don’t doubt someone of Miller’s character would have done so if he’d had reason to do so.. But I don’t disagree that the Reps were both politically stupid and overbearing when they chose to redistrict in the aftermath of an election.
This shafting of Caroline Sullivan by the GOP Legislature has got to take the top spot on the long list of horrible actions by the GOP that have hurt so many people.
“They have little respect for local government or local control.”
Understatement. They have NO respect for local government or local control which they hold in compete contempt. All this from a party that insisted it was for “home rule” until they got power. They are nothing but morally bankrupt hypocrites.
As democrats, it is incumbent on those in power, seeking election, and supporting democratic ideology to ensure that we, do not, provide an atmosphere conducive to another Republican takeover. We don’t do that by drawing districts favoring our ideology. We don’t do it by promising things we can’t deliver for the sake of a vote. We don’t say one thing and do the complete opposite once we regain the Legislature and the Governor’s Mansion. We do it by being fair. We won’t be able to please everyone all of the time, but if we are fair and just, then we should be able to appeal to the majority of people in this State.
It’s time that the State legislature tend to State affairs. Its past time that local governments, even as political sub-divisions of the State, be given back their control over their own affairs and governance. It’s time that provision for Government be done fairly, where all pay to their ability; not by how they can get the rules skewed in their favor. It’s time we removed corporate governance and privatization from the public sector so that government can go about its business and private enterprise can go about theirs without co-mingling and overlap.
That is my hope and aspiration for this fall. That is how I plan to vote and I tell anyone who cares to listen.
The party that claims to be for local control has governed as if its a giant planning board or worse yet a dysfuntional HOA.