Concerned about the shrinking number of competitive races for the General Assembly, a statewide coalition is launching a new push for redistricting reform.
“North Carolina’s voters deserve choice in who they elect,” said former Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Cobey Tuesday at a Raleigh news conference for the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform. “But come November, most voters won’t have a choice.
“There’s something wrong with democracy in our great state when 63 state House candidates and 22 state Senate candidates face no competition on Election Day,” said Cobey, who also served as state GOP chairman. “Can you believe that more than half of all legislative races in our state this year have no competition?”
On the other side of the partisan political divide, former Democratic U.S. Rep. I.T. “Tim” Valentine agreed with Cobey that the time has come for a change in the way North Carolina draws legislative and congressional election maps.
“The General Assembly is burdened with the task of redistricting every 10 years after the Census,” Valentine said. “This gigantic chore usually consumes a huge portion of the legislative time, and the process bleeds into other important public business.
“The public knows — and the House and Senate members know — that the struggle constitutes a serious conflict of interest. We’re here today to try to encourage the General Assembly and to try to focus public attention on the General Assembly to relieve itself of this noxious task.”
The bipartisan message from Cobey, Valentine, and Carnell Robinson of the N.C. Black Leadership Caucus highlighted one of four news conferences across the state. Events in Asheville, Charlotte, and Wilmington also supported the lobbying and government reform coalition.
“You will note that we have changed slightly the name of our coalition,” said coalition member Bob Phillips at the Raleigh event. A sign in front of Phillips had the handwritten words “and government” inserted within the group’s original name: the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying Reform.
“The name change is actually for a purpose,” Phillips said, “and that is to reflect that we are taking on another issue in 2007.”
Next year’s legislative session marks a good time to push for redistricting reform, said Phillips, who also is executive director for N.C. Common Cause. “The timing is right for our state to begin a thorough conversation on the need for redistricting reform.”
The current redistricting process has generated legal challenges in the past. A successful court case backed by the minority Republican Party forced the legislature to draw two different sets of election maps for the 2002 legislative races. Voters never used either set of maps. A Johnston County superior court judge instead substituted his own maps for the 2002 election, then forced lawmakers to draw another set of maps for 2004. The 2004 maps cover this year’s races.
Despite the legal hassles, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have ignored past efforts to change the redistricting process. Phillips thinks 2007 might produce a different result.
“That trend of increasingly less competition, as we talk about that more and people understand that, that’s another part of our effort,” he said. Some lawmakers also worry about the example set in Texas, where lawmakers drew new congressional district maps several years after the last Census. Federal courts have allowed that redistricting effort to stand.
“Some people interpret that mid-decade redistricting will be OK,” Phillips said. “I have heard some of the legislators say they’re concerned about that, and that’s people from both sides of the aisle.”
The coalition is not endorsing any particular type of redistricting reform, Phillips said. “What we want to do is look at all the models that are out there,” he said. “The 12 states that have independent redistricting commissions each have a different plan.”
Phillips and Valentine both noted interest in selecting an independent redistricting commission from a pool of prospective candidates. Valentine compared the process to choosing a jury.
The coalition has more than 50 members with a range of political views. Members include groups such as the John Locke Foundation and N.C. Justice Center, which often disagree on other public policies.
Interest in redistricting reform unites the groups. “Far too often, the sheer desire to control — to control the wealth of the state or to control the congressional delegation —becomes a priority, and somehow our voice and our vote become irrelevant,” Robinson said.
Mitch Kokai is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.