Redistricting and The Meaningless NC Constitution

polifrog


The Senate Redistricting Committee and the House Redistricting Committee have made public their proposed US Congressional districts map.

The NC Constitution requires these districts to be drawn along county lines as a hedge against gerrymandering; the federal government requires districts to be drawn along racial lines. Unfortunately it has been deemed by the Supreme Court that federal racial requirements in districting trump state constitutional requirements. There is no Tenth Amendment; there are no droids here. The result is the freedom to gerrymander effective representation into non existence via district 12, district 4 and all transgressions of county lines.

What we have here is a map of federalism in decline.




It appears I won't be updating my sidebar.

On the other hand, the 13th is drawn such that Brad Miller's socialist representation will likely come to an end in 2012.

A conservative, hopefully Tea Party leaning, candidate will likely find a new home in the 13th.



Edited for clarity.
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Redistricting in NC. ..

polifrog



Three new conservative districts may be created by way of creating a second Mel Watt, thus likely forcing Miller and Kissell into less cushy districts.

Rep. Patrick McHenry via NewsObserver:

"Republicans should pick up three seats under any fair and legal map," he continued. "That is huge. No other states in the nation would gain as many Republican seats. Clearly, Reps. (Larry) Kissell and (Brad) Miller are serving their final term."

Don't like these results? Put blame on the Voting Rights Act as it trumps the NC Constitution's anti gerrymandering measures.




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