Farewell, NC-12.
Yes, we’re still going to have a twelfth congressional district. But it won’t be the same. It’s likely that the snake-like, I-85 shaped district we’ve all come to know and love is on its way out, probably for good.
This is of course the result of the federal court’s ruling two weeks ago that the twelfth district was an illegal racial gerrymander. In the opinion, the district was described as “serpentine.” According to a criterion set forth by the redistricting committee this morning, efforts will be made to reshape the twelfth district, which will no doubt have a huge effect on the other districts.
It’s possible the legislature doesn’t have to radically alter the Twelfth in order to conform with the federal court’s ruling. The problem is, nobody is quite sure what the court wants the legislature to do. So they’re doing this out of an abundance of caution.
There were several other goings-on in the committee worthy of report, among them being the criterion that a new map continues to yield a 10-3 Republican delegation. That’s going to be a little harder to do, with the I-85 snake presumably being altered in shape (possibly going into rural Democratic counties now part of the 8th district). Several districts will likely be a little more competitive under a new map, but not by much.
Next, it looks like according to the criteria, there’s not going to be anymore “point contiguity.” Point contiguity (in which districts are connected only by an imaginary point in space) is illegal for legislative redistricting, but NC has been using it for at least two decades for congressional redistricting. In the current map, there’s point contiguity in one place: in the 4th congressional district between the Chatham and Harnett County lines. So, it’s looking like there will be at least a very minor change in the 4th district as well.
Also included: criteria to make districts as compact as possible and to minimize county splits, and to keep incumbents in their own districts. The first two criteria should be seen as guidelines only.
There was also one testy exchange where Sen. Blue made vague hints that the federal courts would be drawing the maps because of Rep. Lewis’s contention that race shouldn’t be used as a criteria, which is precisely what got the legislature in trouble in the first place. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Of course, this is all moot if the Supreme Court issues a stay. In that case, the Twelfth shall live on – at least for another election cycle.
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.
NC has been in a state of constant turmoil sense the Republicans have had the majority. It has negatively affected all aspects of the lives of all of our citizens from education, environmental protection, voter rights, social issues including women’s rights, sensible gun control, religious rights and separation of church and state, failing infrastructure…………………………………. And now the chaos created by illegal gerrymandering.
Is it not finally time for us to admit: THESE PEOPLE CANNOT GOVERN
I dono about that, David. I’ve lived in this state for many years and haven’t been affected by any “turmoil,. And I certainly haven’t been “negatively affected” since the Republicans took control of the state. I have several family members who live here and they are all doing quite well. The only folks that seem to me to be upset and “negatively affected “are those Democrats who have been voted out of power and their partisan liberal supporters who seem extremely distraught with the progress the state is enjoying under GOP control.
Hey, I am all for redrawing the12th District. It was a racial gerrymander from the get-go, approved by the U.S. DOJ in 1992, 2002 and 2011. Now that the pre clearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act is no longer operational and the federal courts are looking askance at the requirements for majority minority legislative districts, maybe we can put to bed the idea that minorities must have their own gerrymandered districts to avoid discrimination against their voters.
Yes it will help Democrats in NC at the margins, but probably not enough to gain them any new Congressional seats here. In other states, loosening the requirement for minority majority districts could help the GOP.
The real problem with the current court decision is timing. If Congressional primaries are put off to another election day instead of on the day of the Presidential primaries, voter turnout turnout will be very low, probably helping candidates on the far right and far left.
Thanks, dG. I appreciate your insight on this. In my view, those arguing that, somehow, it was the DOJ —and not the NCGOP—that essentially acted as the 12th’s “gerrymanderer”, are not thinking clearly or objectively. Also, those believing that the GOP could not have greatly changed the shape of the 12th in 2011 because of…well….because of how it was configured 9-10 years earlier in 2001/02 either don’t understand the law or are blinded by other factors.
Finally, I sense that some do not grasp that the socio-economic-ethnic composition of voters within a district can (and very often does) change over a decade’s time, via in- and out-migration, changing economic and job conditions, population growth or decline, etc. IMO, those doing the redistricting with the help of today’s exacting databases/GPS software and on a mission to include or exclude certain areas/neighborhoods can re-shape any and all districts in their electoral favor. And that’s what the GOP did, but in an egregious, unfair and overly partisan way, in 2011.
The racial gerrymander in NC 12 was initially in response to a 1986 Supreme Court decision, Thornburg vs Gingles. After that decision, which BTW was a NC case, the NC General Assembly, with the support of the U.S. Justice Department, in 1992 drew minority majority districts to avoid lawsuits claiming dilution of the vote of African Americans in violation of the Title 2 of the Voting rights Act as amended in 1982.
You should Google Thornburg vs Gingles and read the available legal summaries. It will bring you up to speed on how racial gerrymandering to create majority minority districts came to be.
D’g, you absolutely don’t know what your talking about. Ever since the 12th district was created in 1992, the state’s redistricting has had to be pre cleared by the U.S. DOJ pursuant to Title V of the Voting Rights Act. Otherwise, the redistricting could not take effect.
The Supreme Court effectively repealed the pre clearance requirement of Title V in 2013, long after the GOP’s 2011 redistricting. The current problems for District 12 stem from 1992 as the result of federal courts’ requirement that NC and other states with large minority populations create minority majority districts to ensue representation of minorities in Congress and state legislatures. In effect, the federal courts and the U.S. DOJ have effectively required that some Congressional districts be racially gerrymandered to meet the requirements of the Voting Rights Act.
This latest district court decision may well change that approach, especially now that the Supreme Court has effectively ended the pre clearance requirement of Title V.
The districts are redrawn on a decadal basis, in the first year after the census. In that regard, to say or suggest that the 12th district was “initially” racially gerrymandered by Dems is nonsense. It ignores the fact that the current congressional districts were redrawn by the GOP, the majority party in both NCGA houses, in 2011.
In that year, the GOP could have drawn up each district to its liking, and indeed did so. In the case of the 1st and 12th, however, the GOP elected to draw those up as racial gerrymanders. Which means that the GOP –and not the Dems— created this present mess.
If I am wrong, I am open to be corrected on this—-but not by any apologist for the 2011 GOP gerrymanderers.
Well, you are wrong on some key points. First, the12th District was initially created in 1992 when Democrats and Republicans each controlled one chamber of the NCGA. The district was slightly redrawn in 2002, again under split control of the two parties. In 2011, the 12th district was essentially left the same except for minor changes to meet one-man one-vote criteria.
In all of these cases, the new district boundaries had to be approved through pre clearence by the U.S. Department of Justice pursuant to Title V of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. So you are totally incorrect when you claim that the GOP could have drawn the district’s boundaries to its liking. Any change had to be pre cleared by the DOJ. So any major change reducing the minority majority composition of the district would no doubt not have not been approved. The DOJ approved the GOP’s latest redistricting on December 8, 2011.
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively repealed the pre clearance requirement of Title V of the Voting Rights Act. So any new changes in NC’s Congressional districts no longer have to be pre cleared by the DOJ.
In summary, the 12th district configuration has been about the same since it was first created in 1992 to meet federal courts’ requirement for minority majority districts. In every instance, the U.S. Department of Justice approved the District’s boundaries which allowed the state’s redistricting to take effect.
Title V of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 required “pre clearance” (i.e., approval) by the U.S. Justice Department of certain actions affecting voting by states that had a history of voter discrimination based on race. The courts and the DOJ interpreted this as a requirement for minority majority districts. ( BTW, the pre clearance requirement was overturned by the Roberts Court just a few years ago amid much criticism from liberals and Democrats.)
At the time that the 12 District was initially designed, the Justice Dept had to approve any new lines for reapportioned districts in NC before they could take effect. While you are technically right that the Justice Department did not legally draw the lines, they let it be known to our Democrat-controlled General Assembly what they would approve and what they would reject. So that’s how the 12th district racial gerrymander was initially created.
Hope this helps you get up-to-speed.
The reason is is relevant that the U.S. Justice Department mandated the racial gerrymandering of NC 12 is because the NC GOP has been accused by liberals of racial gerrymandering. While the GOP obviously sought to gain advantage from the requirement for minority majority districts, it wasn’t NC Republicans who initially designed the racially drawn 12th district. It was done by a Democrat-controlled NCGA at the behest of the U.S. Department of Justice.
If the recent lower court ruling makes it possible to draw compact legislative districts without taking race into account, that will be a victory for good government. If the Courts mandate that race must be taken into account, racial gerrymandering will continue.
For God’s sake, gentlemen, can we skip the ad hominem bickering and address the ISSUES instead of wasting time with juvenility. If we don’t have something constructive to say and can’t make your point civilly, please cease and desist. Thanks!
I agree with you, David. Apparently D.g. just couldn’t resist indulging in another litany of over-the-top personal insults. Oh well, it probably won’t be the last time either.
Wasn’t it the U.S. Department of Justice that initially insisted on the serpentine shape of the 12th District to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act?
I am not positive, so It is a question. But if that’s right, then it is a statement. What relationship does it have to the issue at hand? Don’t act so dense.
Mills’ essay and liberal commenters on this thread accuse the GOP of racial gerrymandering. But the creation of the 12th NC Congressional District represents the ultimate in racial gerrymandering. It was created to comply with the Voting Rights Act and, I believe, was approved by the U.S. Justice Department using the pre clearance provisions under Section 5. In other words, it wasn’t the GOP that created the12th district racial gerrymander. And it was initially done long before the GOP came to power in NC.
But if the district is to be redrawn, it will confirm the wisdom of the Supreme Courts’s decision to strike down the pre clearance provisions of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which allowed the federal justice Department the power to require racial gerrymandering in order to create minority majority districts.
Wow! Another glib and profound observation to contemplate. What an intellect!
I can’t fault you for that. Someone needs to reaffirm it.
I am sure glad you’re not grading any of my papers or exams, D.g. Objectivity does not appear to be a principle you adhere to. You have just gone on another lengthy tirade trying to belittle my opinions. Why even bother to respond if my logic and reasoning is so far off base? A few weeks you vowed not to engage me in debate on this blog. Seems you now
have reneged on that promise.
So I hope you will continue with your diatribes against those of us who do not share your partisan views. I rather enjoy yanking your chain and evoking your over-the-top emotional responses.
You are right!
Oh, and by the way, isn’t using the “criterion that a new map continues to yield a 10-3 Republican delegation” the definition of gerrymandering?
Comment “endorsed liberally.” Seriously, are they idiots? Or do they just think voters are?
“The problem is, nobody is quite sure what the court wants the legislature to do”???? LOL!
How can you write this blog but then make that contention?
Can’t you and your GOP pals see that the court wants the legislature to NOT racially gerrymander; to NOT cram AfAms into a few districts and white voters into most others; to NOT to have an over-abundance of county splits; to NOT to have any illegal point contiguities????
Redesigning only these two districts is just a welcome pebble in the path of the earthquake that needs to happen in redistricting in NC. I think everyone who cares about the state realizes what a disaster the current maps are and what a travesty of justice. Maybe even the Republicans, if they would be honest.