Reading between the lines
The N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform (they’ve changed their name, if not their web site) has a new mission: make the process of redrawing the state’s legislative boundaries a little more sane. These are the same group of folks (from the left and right) who pushed for and got some of the lobbying and ethics reforms during the last General Assembly session.
Legislative lines are redrawn every 10 years after the census is taken. The constitutional idea is that you redraw the lines so that everyone has roughly the same representation and no one district becomes way more populous than another.
The problem, of course, is that we leave the redrawing in the hands of the politicians who stand to gain or loose from the lines being redrawn. So the final product is wacky looking lines like the skinny N.C. 12th Congressional District that meanders from Charlotte to Greensboro or the equally weird (although not quite as obvious) 13th District which wanders from Raleigh to Greensboro and just happened to have been drawn by the guy who now occupies it.
The results are distasteful if you’re into competitive elections, representative democracy, etc.... In this year’s legislative elections, more than half the seats are uncontested in large part because potential challengers with any sense don’t walk into what they see as a political buzz saw. Truth be told, most of the contests that are on the board won’t be that competitive come election day because of districts where one party vastly outnumbers the other.
But don’t take my word for it. When John Hood and Chris Fitzsimon agree on a matter of policy, one should use one eye to look at potential changes to the law and another to scan the skies for locust.
The idea is not a panacea. It won’t completely solve the problem of balancing out districts because there will be some places in the state where Democrats simply outnumber Republicans and visa versa. But certainly one could clean up some of the geographical conflicts of interest and gerrymandering.
I don’t know whether the idea of an independent redistricting commission will fly. The folks floating the notion said they have not pitched it to many legislators yet. What I do know is that they have a limited time to sell the idea or any of its cousins.
By the time end of the decade rolls around, people are going to have a good idea of who will hold the reigns of power after the next census and those who figure to be in power will be reluctant to give that up.