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Mayors complain that NCGOP is dividing their communities

Submitted by James on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 7:39am

What's to complain about? Just another example of Republicans doing what Republicans do best.

"The problem with the redistricting is not the work you've done," said Jane Pinsky, director of the N.C. Coalition on Lobbying and Government Reform. "The problem is the process. The process has been created to be a partisan one ... to let the party in power to stay in power."

According to Michael Bitzer, a political scientist from Salisbury's Catawba College, that's exactly what's likely to happen. Bitzer analyzed the new legislative districts on how they voted in the last to presidential elections and compared that to how the state voted. His findings: In the 50-member Senate, 13 districts would be solidly Republican and 16 would lean Republican. Only five districts, he said, would be considered true toss-ups.

Gives new meaning to the old expression: to the victor go the spoils, with special emphasis on "spoils."

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Comments

As I recall...

Submitted by usna77 on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 7:55am.

...and correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the redistricting that resulted from the 2000 census accomplished with a House split 50-50, with co-Speakers?

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Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. -- sign on Einstein's office wall.

The Legislature,

Submitted by SPLib on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 8:15am.

be it controlled by Democrats or Republicans, is quite skilled at ignoring and abusing local governments and the will of their local residents. Our wonderful leaders in Raleigh always know much better what is best for counties and municipalities. It is great to know we have such intelligent benefactors up there in Raleigh.

not *just* the ncga

Submitted by Jerimee on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 7:28pm.

While I agree with the sentiment, you can't pin this all on the General Assembly. Citizens, advocates, and corporate powers have been known to demand that North Carolina disempower her municipalities.

See Time Warner Cable.

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Anyone have data on how many split precincts

Submitted by usernamehere on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 9:08am.

...there were in the last redistricting compared to this redistricting?

I recall reading somewhere that the last redistricting resulted in zero split precincts for the NC Senate, and this redistricting plan has a whole bunch of split precincts.

Please correct if I'm wrong.

Nothing screams gerrymandering and splitting communities like increasing the number of split precincts.

If my memory is correct and there were no split precincts in the last NC Senate plan, didn't the last Senate redistricting result in partisan control of the NC Senate being virtually tied after some elections (26-24), strong Democrat after some elections (30-20) and strong GOP after some elections (31-19) over the past decade?

The previous Senate plan seems pretty fair to me.

 

list of split precincts

Submitted by TrueMeckDem on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 1:43pm.

Mecklenburg has 37 (out of 195) split precincts this time around

Here is a list of all the split precincts in NC under the new plan:

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gis/randr07/District_Plans/DB_2011/Senate/Ru...

Wow...

Submitted by usna77 on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 4:31pm.

1.3 million voters in split precincts...that's unconscionable.

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Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. -- sign on Einstein's office wall.