When the North Carolina Supreme Court issued its latest redistricting decision on April 28, both angry Democrats and triumphant Republicans declared that the court had removed itself from any oversight of the state’s electoral districts. That’s not what happened. Parties will continue to litigate congressional and legislative maps for years to come. And North Carolinians...
Democrats have devised no compelling rationale for booting Republicans out of power in the state legislature. So they’re not going to, not anytime soon.
Both political camps have to be willing to accept redistricting reform that doesn’t maximize their partisan interests but at least reduces their downside risk while giving voters more intelligible and competitive electoral districts.
Redistricting lawsuits can produce specific remedies to specific harms but they are no substitute for reform enacted with bipartisan supermajorities and approved by North Carolinians in a referendum.
Letting politicians choose their voters rather than letting voters choose their political representatives is incompatible with basic principles of conservative governance.
Death and taxes aren’t the only two certainties North Carolinians face. New congressional and legislative districts are coming, too — for 2020 (by court order) and 2022 (after the end-of-decade census). Chances also are strong the Tar Heel State will get a 14th congressional district, so reapportionment should be on the agenda for the 2022...
If a Democratic judiciary strikes down popular policies just approved by the voters themselves, most will see the Democrats as the party hostile to popular sovereignty, not the Republicans.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers Thursday introduced the second of what may be several measures to reform North Carolina’s redistricting process. The two bills share several sponsors. But House Bill 140, Fairness and Integrity in Redistricting, rolled out at a morning news conference, not only would change state law but also would ask voters...
The wisest course is to craft political institutions and make procedural rules as if you don’t know which party will be on top in the future — because you really don't.
On a measure of net lean to the Democrats or Republicans, North Carolina are one of only six states (along with Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Maine, and Colorado) to be within two points of the national median.
Unless state lawmakers or redistricting commissioners gerrymander the maps in a different sense, Democrats can’t count on new districts handing them control of Congress or the General Assembly.
