Posted on 10/27/2010 8:07:35 PM PDT by Libloather
B.J. Lawson, Rush Baby, Runs in Democrat Gerrymandered NC-4
October 27, 2010
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: To Denton, Texas. This is Bill, and it's great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. Mega dittos, longtime listener, second-time caller. I have knowledge of the District 4 race because my son is the challenger.
RUSH: B.J. Lawson is your son?
CALLER: Yes, B.J. Lawson.
RUSH: B.J. Lawson is running against this idiot, David Price, North Carolina 4. Charlie Cook just moved that race into toss-up or at least it's in play from solid Democrat. This district has been gerrymandered to be Democrat in perpetuity 'til the end of time, 'til the sun blows up, Durham and North Carolina and includes Chapel Hill. And B.J. is your son?
CALLER: Yes, he is. And he is a Rush Baby. In fact, in one of his campaigns as Dr. B.J. Lawson, he said, "Yep, I grew up on the Rush Limbaugh Letter and then naturally Rush 24/7."
RUSH: Well, this is a humbling honor. I mean you have made my day here, because I did not know this. You made my day. I knew that B.J. Lawson was the challenger, but I had no idea he was a Rush Baby. I could assume that every young conservative is, but I don't go that far. My ego won't allow me to. But you've made my day here.
CALLER: Well, thanks, we appreciate everything you do, Rush, and we appreciate the fact that you're helping us fight the good fight.
RUSH: Well, I really appreciate that. But I have said throughout the course of this program, it's people like your son who are doing the heavy lifting. B.J. Lawson, North Carolina 4, this is a district, when I tell you that it has been gerrymandered -- some people say (j)errymandered, it's named after a guy named Gerry. Don't e-mail me on the nitpick pronunciation here. Jerry, gerry, pronounce it both ways, the point is here this district has been drawn to make sure that nobody but a Democrat holds it forever, Chapel Hill and Durham and surrounding areas. And so here's a guy, B.J. Lawson, this is like running for emperor of Rome back in the old days, you didn't do it. Now, granted, it's a unique year when the Obama agenda has driven the Democrat Party genuinely over the cliff and in the ditch, but still this is something to be very, very proud of. And there are a lot of B.J. Lawsons all over the country who are tackling these supposed safe seats. Like Barney Frank, Sean Bielat taking on Barney Frank. I mean you talk about a race that nobody would ever think would be competitive, and it is.
Now, North Carolina 4, B.J. Lawson's being outspent two to one, and it's neck and neck. Look, when the guru, Charlie Cook, moves this from "safe" to "in play," that's not insignificant. And Charlie Cook doesn't do this with relish. When they move a district like North Carolina 4 to "in play" it is panic time. So this is great to know. B.J. Lawson is a real live Rush Baby. Not expecting an inheritance, by the way, don't get the wrong idea. There's a lot of Rush Babies out there, but they are not heirs. It's Sean Bielat in Massachusetts. And some of these other districts, like Peter DeFazio in Oregon, that's a lock, too, supposedly. And Charlie Cook has just moved that race to "in play." There are eight of them, as of yesterday, and North Carolina 4 is one of them.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I just wanted to point out B.J. Lawson, North Carolina 4, gave out more than 50,000 copies of the United States Constitution during the course of his campaign, and I'll wager in many cases some people were seeing and reading it for the first time.
Past posts -
10/11 - Why We Need to Support Dr. BJ Lawson Across the State And Vote Out Congressman Price
10/11 - Dr BJ Lawson For Congress On Glenn Beck Show, A true Constitutionalist That Gets it
10/09 - Randy’s Right Goes To Durham Dr BJ Lawson and Rep David Price Debate..photos/video
9/20 - BJ Lawson Holds Slight Lead Over David Price in NC-4 Congressional Race (46-45%)!
What? You call that gerrymandered?
MA-4, now that’s a gerrymandered district.
NC-4 is not a gerrymandered district. Its the suburbs of Raleigh and happens to contain Durham, Chapel Hill, and Cary (home of transplanted Yankees). NC-1, NC-3, and NC-12, now those are gerrymandered districts.
Hope Lawson wins. If he does, it will probably be because of the Yankees in Cary, Durham and Chapel Hill are lost causes.
Wow. Rush babies are now running for Congress.
gosh
there is so much good news
it is hard to contain myself.
It most certainly is gerrymandered. It's just that if you are not from here you don't realize what they have done. They've taken an area (Wake County) that would vote pretty Republican if it were allowed to be lumped logically, and divided it into pieces. A big portion of R support is broken off of the southwest corner of the county and grouped with Chapel Hill and Durham, thus preventing any chance of us electing a Republican.
They do the same thing with Fayetteville:
http://www.fws.gov/southeast/pubs/maps/nc.pdf
What would be a nice Republican group of people around a military town is divided in two, for dilution.
* Ping *
NY’s 22 beats some of those, with a tentacle going out west to Binghamton and then bending north to Ithaca.
Yeah, it's not gerrymandered.
Two parts? Wrong, three parts. North section goes to Ethridge, S/E to McIntyre and west to Kissell. Fayetteville is the point of three spears.
Good point.
At any rate, we are seriously gerrymandered, even though not all of our districts look like NC-12.
I am from around there, just don’t live there now. But, I do understand what they have done, it just doesn’t fit the traditional definition of gerrymandering. Its been going on in NC for a long time. My 7th GGrandfather was elected to Congress in 1800 as a Federalist. He was from Lincoln County and represented a solidly Federalist District. But the state was Democrat, so they redistricted and in 1802 he was out. He moved to Tennessee.
I heard BJ’s Dad call Rush AND I voted for BJ yesterday!
There’s a few of us in Cary (Containment Area for Relocated Yankees) that are working hard to get rid of Price!
I am also a volunteer for BJ Lawson and was VERY excited to hear Rush talk about this yesterday. I was really feeling down yesterday,but this lifted my spirits!! I will be working at one of the early voting sites today with a renewed optimism!!
Hey, come on back and cast your vote. You don’t even need an ID around here. You can register and vote the same day during early voting. Anyone who shows up will not be turned away!! The rats are in total control. Of course, if they think you’ll vote Republican, they’ll send you to one of the “special” voting machines that will cast a vote for the democrats no matter what you choose.
In North Carolina, redistricting is done my the General Assembly (State Senate and State House); the Governor does not have a veto on redistricting matters (this is significant because there is a chance that the Republicans could take one or both houses of the General Assembly next week). I don't complain too much about the Dems' gerrymandering, because if the GOP controls the process, their district lines will be just as creative.
Whichever party (or parties; it could be a split decision) controls the redistricting process, they'll have to answer to judges appointed to enforce the provisions of the Voting Right Act of 1965. Specifically, two "minority" districts (currently Districts 1 and 12) will have to be preserved. If the GOP controls the process, their obvious strategy will be to make the black districts even blacker, and likely even more attenuated, causing the adjacent districts to be marginally more Republican.
Here's a look at the current Congressional Districts statewide:
.
As krb noted, Raleigh's mostly Republican suburbs were carefully carved up to minimize their influence. Western Wake County, including Cary and Apex, is strongly Republican; as a part of NC-4, it was attached to strongly Democratic Durham County (a large, politically active black community, plus blue-collar whites, plus Duke University), and notoriously liberal Orange County (home of my beloved but leftish alma mater, UNC). Historically, Durham and Orange have provided more than enough Dem votes for Price to overcome Republican Western Wake. But might the Dems have stretched things a little thin? With Obama not on the ballot, will the turnout of blacks in Durham and the vegetarian Birkenstockers in Chapel Hill fall off? Hasn't Western Wake grown rapidly, and filled in with more Republicans since the district lines were last drawn in 2001? Stay tuned.
A big chunk of northern and eastern Wake County (Wake Forest, Zebulon, and -- who could forget? -- Lizard Lick), also mostly white and Republican, is attached to a string of mostly rural, heavily black counties across the northern tier to form NC-13. So, eastern Wake's Republican vote is overpowered.
And finally, central and southeastern Raleigh, mostly black and heavily Dem, is attached to Etheridge's elaborately drawn NC-2, serving to (so the Dems hope, and it has been the case so far) cancel out the growing GOP vote in suburbanizing Johnston and Harnett Counties.
It will be interesting to watch on election night, and should the Republicans prevail in the State Senate and/or State House (obviously, they'll have to overcome the gerrymandered nature of their own districts, but that's a whole 'nother story), the redistricting process will be fascinating.
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