Posted on 07/19/2011 9:46:55 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
North Carolina Republicans released a second draft of a new Congressional map Tuesday that is worse politically for Democrats than the original version released earlier this month.
The new map draws Democratic Reps. Brad Miller and David Price together into Price’s 4th district and puts Democratic Reps. Mike McIntyre and Larry Kissell together in Kissell’s 8th district. The first version of the map did not pair any incumbents together and the latest, and likely final version, looks substantially different from that draft and the current map. Tar Heel State Republicans attributed the changes made to the new map largely to the requests of Democratic Rep. G.K. Butterfield, an accusation he denied.
“We felt we had a very compact, pre-clearance map for district No. 1, and Butterfield decided that he felt that he needed the Section 5s and, in essence, we gave that back and we moved him into Durham,” state Sen. Bob Rucho (R), chairman of the chamber’s redistricting committee, said in an interview.
Rucho was referring to counties covered by Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The proposed 1st district increases the percentage of African-Americans and the percentage of voting-age African-Americans in the district, which Butterfield has represented for four terms. The district remains heavily Democratic.
Rucho added that McIntyre and Kissell, as well as Miller and Price, were drawn together as the result of adjusting the 1st district.
“That wasn’t our intent to begin with, but we had no alternative as we proceeded to adjust because of the request by Butterfield,” he said. “We believe the maps are fair, legal and competitive.”
(Excerpt) Read more at rollcall.com ...
I wonder which map will be passed in NC and whether it’ll hold up in court? It ought to, but you never know.
Best part...
Democrat Gov. Beverly Perdue cannot veto it under NC law.
This is beautiful — screw two of the four Democrats by combining their districts, and then blame it on the black guy and the Voting Rights Act! It doesn’t get any better than this...
Nice to see them apoplectic over this. Hopefully most of what the R's want will get through the courts.
I love it. We’ve been held captive since reconstruction.
McIntyre, aka McInlier, has a real good chance of losing since they pulled all the country out of his district and pushed it up the coast line. That means it goes all the way up to Jacksonville, home of THE MARINES and all conservative.
Well the old map split Fayetteville three ways between Kissell, Mac and “Who are you” Ethridge.
Ellmers took out Ethridge - not we just have to work on the other two.
Is there a map identifying precisely what counties are in the purposed districts? I would love to see what the districts look like.
I like Pantano a lot. He took Mac in Pender 68% to 32%. He should be as strong north of here from Jacksonville to New Bern. His strength was up in Burgaw and that area.
Would be cheaper to replace him with a rubber stamp of "I think what she thinks" and hand it to 9% Nancy Pelosi.
Proposed Map:
Posting #12 has a link.
The 2008 presidential results for the NC congressional districts are here: http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/blogpost/9882703/
There are 3 safely Dem CDs, and 10 comfortably GOP CDs. The lowest 2008 McCain vote percentages are 54.10% in the Charlotte-based NC-09 and 54.10% in the Wake County-based NC-13; Obama overperformed there even more than in the rest of the state, so I’m pretty sure that President Bush got over 62% in those districts in 2004, and that they will easily be won by Republicans in 2012 and beyond (Congresswoman Myrick in the NC-09, and a Wake County Republican in the NC-13).
The map will yield 10 Republicans and 3 Democrats, a net gain of 4 for the GOP while making new Congresswoman Renee Ellmers safe in the NC-02. This is a political grand slam for the GOP, and will singlehandedly put up a firewall for GOP control of the House over the next decade.
(BTW, this map has since had minor adjustments made between NC-10 and NC-11, placing Polk County into NC-10 and reducing the percentage of Buncombe County precincts in the CD to 53% or so; this will make McHenry’s NC-10 more Republican than before the alteration while still keeping the NC-11 even more Republican than the NC-10, so either way Heath Shuler is history (unless he switches to the GOP).
So, this second map is preferable to the first?
I noted there are 2 Black Republicans running in the reconfigured 13th (Bill Randall, who was Brad Miller’s opponent in ‘10 & the colorful Vernon Robinson). Unless there was anything particularly objectionable, it seems like Randall should be given the nod to try again, as he got the highest % against Miller in that district than any other since its creation. Randall is a retired Naval Command Master Chief.
http://www.randallforcongress.com/
As for the NC Governor’s race, unless someone else entertains the notion to get in, it looks like the field may be cleared for Pat McClory to have his rematch against the execrable Bev “Blanco” Perdue.
I think that the second is more likely to survive a legal challenge.
Anybody but Vernon Robinson.
I’m still waiting for Virginia Foxx to vote like Hillary Clinton as Robinson said she would.
It is even more likely to result in 10 GOP Reps, and gives Dems even less of a legal justification for having the courts strike it down. So, yes, it’s even better. Not a pretty map by any means, but not as bad as the Dem-drawn maps of 2001 and (especially) 1991.
Is Vernon Robinson still thinking of running in the new NC-13 now that it will be composed of eastern Wake County and areas to its east? Robinson is from the Triad area, and ran in the NC-05 from his home base in Winston-Salem and then in the current NC-13 that stretches from Raleigh to Greensboro. The new NC-13 in the July 1 draft map included a lot of turf north of Winston-Salem, but the new map makes it very, very difficult for Robinson to run there. His best route to Congress would still be running against Virginia Foxx in the NC-05, or maybe waiting for Howard Coble to retire in the NC-06 (Greensboro, High Point and areas to its north, NW and NE). I’ve always liked Vernon Robinson, and contributed to his House campaigns in the NC-05 in 2004 (when, I will be the first to admit, his claims were eventually proven wrong by Virginia Foxx’s voting record, which is not to say that Robinson’s record wouldn’t be even more conservative) and in the NC-13 in 2006, but he should not run in the redrawn NC-13.
Bill Randall will have plenty of competition for the GOP nomination in the redrawn NC-13, since the GOP nomination is now an almost certain ticket to Congress and since there are plenty of Republican politicians in eastern Wake County and the adjoining white rural areas. But I hope that conservatives once again coalesce around Randall, who was willing to run in 2010 under far less hospitable lines.
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