While the redistricting wars are going on in the courts, the NC GOP continues to remind people that Roy Cooper was once the ‘redistricting king’, even though he now wants to put a nonpartisan redistricting commission in place. I’m not sure about the effectiveness of such an attack, but it does display how the issue of district-drawing only became an extremely serious one once the Republicans took power.
The attack does play a larger role in pegging Cooper as a flip-flopper who is a tool of the good ‘ol boy Democratic Party apparatus, or what’s left of it. And it could provide a contrast with McCrory, who wants to be known for “steppin’ on toes” of both the Right and the Left. Message: McCrory is an independent thinker who puts the interest of North Carolina over party politics, while Roy Cooper is a highly partisan Democrat who puts party over people.
That’s not a bad narrative but it needs a strong foundation – namely, a growing economy, or at least one showing promise. People have to be feeling good about their economic situation and above all about the direction of the state. If Cooper can make the case that the state has betrayed its progressive roots and is no longer investing in its people through good schools and a strong university system, voters will give his partisan allegiance a pass – while not caring much at all about his role in the redistricting process two decades ago.
John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.
As the old saying goes: “to the victor go the spoils”. North Carolina has a Republican Governor, and an all- Republican legislature for the first time in 100 years!
How can this be? Could it be because of conservative Damned Yankees like me, who have fled the People’s Republic of New York, and other north-eastern states that have gone over to the dark side? Or could it be collateral damage from Hussein Obama’s “fundamental transformation of America”? I dunno.
But it seems to me that the victors get to “gerrymander”.
Recent high school graduate: “Duh, what does “gerrymander” mean, Radagast?”
It means manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency so as to favor one party or class.
Recent high school graduate: “Duh, what does constituency mean?”
Fer Chrissakes, smoke another joint, and Twitter Miley Cyrus!
“Duh, OK, I’m cool now Dude. You mean the winners are getting down wid their turf, and the losers are whinin’ hoes that ain’t got no hood?”
BINGO!
Wow. You clearly are a prime reason why there shouldn’t be massive cuts in mental health funding in this nation.
Fair enough, but what is your reasoning, and where are your sources, Nona?
I’ll ignore your mocking and ridiculing for now, but try this test. Ask any recent high school graduate what “gerrymandering” means, or what “constituency” means, or even if they can find Africa on a map. Ask them who their two state senators in Congress are. Ask them to read a cereal box (or their high school diploma). Let me know how that works out.
It has been part of the political spectrum in America that the party in power gets to “re-district”, ergo the “gerrymander”: manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency so as to favor one party or class.
Y’know, after the Civil War, southern DEMOCRATS used the gerrymander to try and suppress black votes. The Ku Klux Klan (all Democrats – or more accurately: Dixiecrats) did their best to threaten, intimidate, (and sadly) lynch “uppity niggers” (their words, not mine) who tried to vote. Witness Democrat Senator Robert (KKK) Byrd of West Virginia.
How do you think Lyndon B. Johnson’s Civil Rights legislation passed?
Ummmm……because Republicans voted for it, Radagast?
“Ding, ding”, you win the teddy bear, and thank me very much!
So, please advise why I am a prime reason mental health funding should not be cut?
Amen!
Here’s a quick concession: very few North Carolina voters are going to decide who gets their vote for governor based on their stances on independent redistricting commissions. Lacking hard data, I would concur in John Wynne’s surmise that concern about this issue dims sharply in direct proportion to one’s distance from Jones Street.
What is surprising is that Pat McCrory is not out front asking Paul Stam et al. to dust off and refile their old independent redistricting commission bills from 2009 (see http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2009/Bills/House/PDF/H252v1.pdf).
He could make this a major issue to get out in front of, he would only win votes in the general election with such a common sense, anti-insider stance, and he would lose nothing, since he would be out of office for good before any such commission would convene. Would he step on toes by doing this? Well, yes, but does anyone think that Stam, Apodaca, and Berger could like him any less?
And he might point out to them what their own experience should have already demonstrated: no NCGA majority is forever, nobody really knows when the status quo might come crashing down, and they might like to have such a commission in place, now that they’ve taken the state Democrats to school on how to conduct a partisan redrawing beyond what anyone had previously thought possible.
Cooper had that 12 year fight in the court when he first run in 2000. He took him 12 years to close that lawsuit. Why do we want him as governor?
The courts’ bureaucratic delays and splitting of hairs have little to do with Cooper’s policies. Voters don’t care about things he said or did 15 years ago. Voters want to know that middle class wages have increased over the past 4 years; the opposite has happened. It’s time for a change.
It was very difficult for Democrats to gerrymander state legislative districts given that Democrats are concentrated in central cities and in the rural NE counties. GOP strength is geographically disbursed throughout most of North Carolina. Even so, Democrats did their best to maximize their advantage through redistricting.
Thanks for acknowledging that the narrative you describe comparing Cooper to McCrory regarding party loyalty vs. focus on NC citizens might need some foundational help. Cooper’s solid Democratic leanings are neither new, worthy of comment, or problematic. To indicate that McCrory is less invested in party politics, particularly as driven by NC R’s very powerful funding agents/owners, is folly. Just because he is not as outrageous as the jacklegs in the NC Senate does not mean he is firmly entrenched in bettering the plights of the bulk of North Carolinians; he is just betting that he can attract more moderate voters with his johnny-come-lately legislative signs of caring about the state’s population than he will lose of the right wing nut jobs that keep the gerrymandered districts that keep the NC GA members in their seats. It is not bad politics on his part, but does mitigate the bad economic growth inevitably arising from the bad policies he and his ilk have spent that last 2-1/2 years putting in place.
Here’s another difference. Let’s look at the make up of both houses after Democratic redistricting:
2002 Election
House D 60, R 60
Senate D 27, R 23
2004
House D 63 R 57
Senate D 29 R 21
2006
House D 68 R 52
Senate D 31 R 19
2008
House D 68 R 52
Senate D 30 R 20
2010
House D 52 R 68
Senate D 19 R 31
2012
House D 43 R 77
Senate D 17 R 33
2014
House D 45 R 74
Senate D 16 R 34
For the past two sessions Republicans have had a larger majority than Democrats have had in at least the previous five sessions. Republicans were even able to totally reverse the make up of both houses in 2010 under the districts drawn by Democrats.
Likewise, at their peak after the 2008 elections the NC delegation to the US House was 8 D and 5 R. Today that margin is 10 R and 3 D despite having a much, much closer margin between the overall popular both parties.
Republicans have been more aggressive in gerrymandering than Democrats were and for Republicans to call out Cooper in his support for nonpartisan redistricting is beyond hypocrisy since, until they got into power was something they called for as well.
The difference is that, when in the Democrats were in the majority, they represented liberals, the vast swath of moderates, and even some conservatives, of all races, whereas this Republican majority represents only hard-right white people, most of them rich.