#ncga: Don’t like the way the table is set? Turn over the table.

images-2What started out as a mission to tweak a few districts to bring the 1st and 12th congressional districts in line has resulted in radical change for a lot more voters and some political favors (as well as hits).

Legislators released new maps detailing their proposal for appeasing the federal judges who questioned the state’s congressional districts. (Click Here to compare with the current district layout.)

A few interesting observations about the new districts:

  • District 12, now represented by Greensboro’s Alma Adams (D), is now entirely contained within Mecklenburg County.
  • District 2, now represented by Renee Ellmers, has been drastically changed to include territory more akin to the district she ran in against Bob Etheridge in 2010.  She giveSnip20151219_2s up Moore, Lee, Chatham, and Randolph counties while picking up most of Wake, some of Johnston, some of Wilson, and Nash and Franklin counties.  Chatham County Republican Jim Duncan, now seen as the biggest threat to unseating Ellmers, has been moved to District 6 which is currently represented by Republican Mark Walker of Greensboro. (The law simply says you have to reside in the state you run for the House in.  Walter Jones won his first race for the 3rd district while living in the Democrat-majority 1st.) 
  • District 8, represented by Republican Richard Hudson of Cabarrus County, now stretches from Salisbury to the Fayetteville area.   It now includes Moore County, Hoke County, and a piece of Cumberland that had been in D-2.
  • District 9, represented by Republican Robert Pittenger, has been pittengerchanged BIG TIME.  Having been primarily focused on Mecklenburg County and Charlotte, it now stretches from a small sliver of Mecklenburg County along US 74 and the South Carolina border to include Democrat territories like Robeson, Richmond, Scotland and Bladen Counties.

Governor Pat McCrory has officially called the legislature back into session for TOMORROW.  The honorables will be charged with getting the maps right, voting on them, and sending them along to be blessed by the judges.

Some of the points the new maps advocates will throw out there? :

  • This map splits fewer counties (13) and precincts (13) than any map since 1990.
  • The current map, now being revised, splits 32 counties and 68 precincts. images-3

This certainly can open up a Pandora’s Box as far as what to do with all of those absentee ballots that have been cast in the current districts for the March primary.