Showing posts with label NC Redistricting. Show all posts

Friday, July 1, 2011

Robeson County is epicenter of changes to 2012 NC Congressional map!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Re-Districting Maps!

Re-Districting maps were made public today. Robeson has been split between two Congressional Districts. Congressman McIntyre is already complaining. In reality he should be happy. Had the County not been split, he would have been forced into the 8th Congressional District with Democratic Congressman Larry Kissell.

Robeson should get to know the name of Kissell as he, Schuler and Miller are the three Democrats most affected by re-districting. Their Districts are now decidedly more Republican. Kissell will run against a GOP contender to represent western and northern Robeson. Kissell is in an unlikely position to hold the seat and McIntyre would have been in a worse position being unknown in that District. The west end of the 8th is decidedly Republican. Kissell will not be able to hold on to the seat.

The new 7th District cuts up I-95 then carves out the middle of Lumberton. McIntyre lost about 3% right off the top. McCain won the 7th with 52% in 2008 but would have garnered 55% in this new District. Bush took 56% of the old 7th, he would have taken 59% in this new District. Keep in mind, McIntyre won his last election with about 53% so the loss puts him on the most level playing field of any Democrat.

The new 7th Congressional District consists of 42% Democrat, 32% Republican and 26% Unaffiliated. So of the four Democratic Congressmen affected – three are expected to lose and McIntyre’s is a toss-up at best. McIntyre’s challenger is Ilario Pantano, a former US Marine. The re-districting plan picks up Onslow county and the Marine Base there.

Clearly, the lawsuits will now begin regarding re-districting as they did when Democrats gerrymandered the State a decade ago. The Democrats horrendous map has stood for the past decade. There is little reason the Republican map will not stand for the next.

At best, Republicans expected a county represented by a Democrat & a Republican as a result of re-districting as the 8th was expected to be a Majority-Minority District - it's not. As it turns out, Robeson actually has the chance of being represented by two Republicans.

Operations level Republicans are still studying the maps. But so far, things will be interesting as Republicans have a lot of work to do.

8th Congressional District West & North Robeson - 7th Congressional District South East Robeson = Dividing Lumberton.

As North Carolina redistricts, Gov. Perdue must stand by as a virtual 'spent hen'.

Posted: Friday, Jul. 01, 2011

A Republican-backed proposed congressional redistricting map for North Carolina (as of July 1, 2011).

Verne Strickland Blogmaster 070111

By: Michael Barone | Senior Political Analyst | 07/01/11 1:08 PM

North Carolina is unique among the states in that under the state Constitution the governor cannot veto a redistricting plan passed by the legislature. This means that Democratic Governor Beverly Perdue cannot veto this congressional redistricting plan produced by the Republican-controlled Senate and House redistricting committees and likely to be passed by both houses.

Currently the North Carolina House delegation is made up of 6 Republicans and 7 Democrats. The redistricting plan creates 3 overwhelmingly Democratic districts (the 1st, 4th and 12th) and 10 districts in which Republican Senator Richard Burr received at least 59% of the vote in November 2010 and in which John McCain received at least 55% of the vote in November 2008.

This puts in jeopardy the seats of the 7th district’s Mike McIntyre, the 8th district’s Larry Kissell, the 11th district’s Heath Shuler (who reportedly is weighing an offer to become athletic director at the University of Tennessee, where he was a football star) and the 13th district’s Brad Miller (who was on the redistricting committee 10 years ago). Republicans have the potential, but not the assurance, of gaining 4 seats.

In the 7th district—previous version 52% McCain, new version 55% McCain—Democrat Mike McIntyre beat Republican challenger Ilario Pantano 54%-46% in 2010. The redistricting removes most of Robeson County (with its large population of blacks and Lumbee Indians) and the Democratic area around Fayetteville and adds Onslow County, home of the Marine Corps’s Camp Lejeune. This could help Marine veteran Pantano.

The 8th district goes from 52% Obama to 55% McCain; Democrat Larry Kissell won 53%-43% last time after a controversial Republican primary. The district no longer contains black precincts in Charlotte.
The 11th district loses the increasingly liberal city of Asheville and adds four heavily Republican counties. In the process a 52% McCain district becomes a 58% McCain district, with the second highest McCain percentage of any of North Carolina’s 13 districts.

It’s rumored that incumbent Heath Shuler is weighing an offer to become athletic director at the University of Tennessee, where he was a star quarterback. That looks like it would give Shuler more power and tenure; in the House he’s on the outs with the Democratic leadership because of his open opposition to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The 13th district has seen the sharpest transformation, from a 59%-40% Obama district to a 56%-43% McCain district. The Supreme Court recently ruled that states are not required to create near-minority-majority districts (i.e., those with large numbers but not a majority of blacks or Hispanics) to comply with the Voting Rights Act. This was one such district; the Republican redistricters clearly placed many of the old 13th’s blacks in the heavily Democratic 4th district.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

North Carolina NAACP -- count your blessings! GOP is more generous than Democrats!

By KEN RAYMOND | Guest columnist

Published: June 28, 2011

The Republican-controlled General Assembly's redistricting map produces more majority-black districts, for the House and the Senate, than the Democratic-controlled General Assembly created 10 years ago. And although most blacks are glad to hear about the additional 15 House districts and nine Senate districts, there's one organization that's not happy at all — the NAACP.

North Carolina NAACP President William Barber has expressed opposition to the GOP plan, even though it's clearly in favor of the black community. Apparently, Barber is so used to challenging Republicans that he can't stop criticizing them long enough to see that African-Americans will now have more representation in Raleigh.

"To believe the ultra-conservative, extremist majority in the N.C. legislature is suddenly deeply concerned about upholding the civil rights and political power of African-American and minorities and therefore wants us to accept their plan sight unseen is absurd," Barber said in a press release.

Well you can see it, Mr. Barber. And I don't think the black community is complaining. Are you going to urge the Democrats in the legislature to oppose it? Or are you going to organize a march against it in Raleigh? That would be interesting to see.

Other members of the NAACP are already testing the bounds of their credibility. During a public meeting last Friday, Ben Griffin, a member of the NAACP from New Hanover County, said, "This will make it harder, not easier, for minorities to have their interests represented."

More black districts make it harder for minorities to have their interests represented? Maybe in some alternate universe that Griffin is familiar with, but not here on Earth. When you hear ridiculous arguments like this, it almost makes you wonder if the NAACP cares for fair representation for blacks.

If Barber cares about his credibility at all, he'll support the GOP plan. And if he cares about truly expanding the political influence of the black community, he'd use this situation as a springboard to open a dialogue with the Republican Party.

This is an opportunity for Barber to strengthen the political clout of African-Americans. Will he take it? Or will he keep it cornered in the Democratic camp? We'll see.

And the Democrats' response to the new districts is very interesting, too. Obviously, charges of racism won't carry any weight. So they're accusing the GOP of creating more African-American districts so that they can draw the remaining districts for themselves.

Maybe the Democrats can't bear the thought of being openly out-performed on the race issue. If the number of minority districts remained the same, they'd charge the GOP with unfairness. And if the number were fewer, they'd certainly charge the GOP with racism. I'm beginning to think the Democrats are at a loss with how to respond and this is the best they can do.

Here in Forsyth County, there are some people lamenting the loss of Democratic Sen. Linda Garrou. Garrou, who represents the 32nd District, has been redrawn into the 31st District. The 31st, which is represented by Republican Sen. Pete Brunstetter, includes the county area, and its voters are mainly Republicans.

I think those people have lost sight of the most important thing. The important thing is that the people are fairly represented in Raleigh, not whether incumbents keep their seats. The voters are supposed to chose their representatives, not the other way around. The seat belongs to the people.

After redistricting, incumbents sometimes find themselves drawn out their district. Or they're placed in a situation where they have to run against another incumbent from their own party. That's the way it goes. And this time, the GOP is drawing the lines.

And finally, I'm really looking forward to the day when race is no longer a factor in redrawing lines. The fact that so many people believe that there must be districts with African-American majorities proves that many people believe that all African-Americans think alike.

And that's not true. There are black liberals, conservatives, moderates and everything in between. And yes, most black people vote Democratic. But that's not because black people think alike. A big reason for it is cultural conformity, not ideological agreement.

Drawing boundaries that ensure African-American majorities is one of the residual effects of the Jim Crow era. Many people are still sensitive to a time of institutional disenfranchisement. Therefore, any significant demographic change in the districts would certainly bring accusations of racism.

But when organizations such as the NAACP play racial and partisan games, it's going to take much longer for society to get to a place where race will not be a factor in redistricting.

http://www2.journalnow.com/news/opinion/2011/jun/28/wsopin02-naacps-gamesmanship-rings-hollow-on-new-m-ar-1159511/

Ken Raymond of Forsyth County is active in Republican Party politics.

Monday, June 27, 2011

North Carolina Democrats brace for GOP remap -- a political tsunami in the making?

Verne Strickland Blogmaster

June 28, 2011
By: Alex Isenstadt
POLITICO

North Carolina Democrats largely survived the carnage of the midterms — eluding the fate that claimed many of their Southern colleagues.

But the redistricting nightmare they now face will be harder to escape.

With North Carolina Republicans slated to unveil a new congressional map this week, Democrats are bracing for a buzzsaw. Party officials sullenly concede that as many as three Democratic incumbents could be imperiled and that there is little they can do to stop it.

“I don’t think there will be anything subtle about it,” said Mike Davis, a longtime Democratic consultant in the state. “It will be more like a bulldozer.”

Democrats believe they are in store for two incumbent vs. incumbent races — with Democratic Reps. Brad Miller and David Price likely to compete for one seat and Democratic Reps. Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre vying for another. Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler could see his western North Carolina district take on an increasingly GOP orientation.

“It’s going to be brutal,” said Brad Crone, a Raleigh-based Democratic strategist.

With the GOP controlling the levers of redistricting, Democrats have long anticipated deep losses in the state. Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of the state Legislature for the first time in more than a century and Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue has no veto power over the new map.

It’s a blow for a delegation that mostly weathered the Republican midterm wave that obliterated the ranks of Southern Democrats. Just one Democratic incumbent — Rep. Bobby Etheridge — fell short, while Shuler, Kissell and McIntyre survived, providing Democrats with a narrow majority in the state’s congressional delegation.

Over the past several months, according to Democratic aides, party lawmakers began to realize that they were on a collision course with a forthcoming blueprint that would present the most serious threat yet to their political careers.

“This is out of our hands, unfortunately. I think everyone is very realistic about what the situation is,” said a well-placed Democratic aide, who said Kissell and McIntyre have yet to discuss the possibility of running against one another. “We’re just prepared mentally for what is to come.”

For Republicans, the new map will cap months of preparation that began as the dust from the midterms was settling. As they started plotting their 2012 blueprint, Republican strategists determined that North Carolina’s redistricting effort could yield a handful of ripe targets — and that they had to make the most of the opportunity.
>
> In February, the National Republican Congressional Committee unleashed the first of a half-dozen robocalls targeting four North Carolina Democrats and followed up with TV ads hammering Shuler and Miller on spending. The goal, according to those familiar with the approach, is to brand the North Carolina Democrats as early targets and signal to potential GOP challengers that Republicans will be investing heavily in the state after the new lines are drawn.

The North Carolina GOP delegation — led by Reps. Patrick McHenry and Virginia Foxx — meanwhile was spearheading the effort to guide state lawmakers to produce a Democrat-dooming map.

“It is a very important battleground state,” said state GOP Chairman Robin Hayes, a former congressman who lost the seat he had held for a decade to Kissell in 2008. “Taking back North Carolina is one of our main goals as a Republican Party.”

“If we don’t gain any seats, it will be a colossal failure,” said Paul Shumaker, a North Carolina-based GOP consultant who serves as a top political aide to Sen. Richard Burr.

North Carolina will be central to Republican efforts to offset redistricting losses in Illinois and California, where the party could lose as many as 10 seats.

Republicans familiar with the redraw said they are determining how best to produce a map that strongly favors the party for the next decade and unravels Democratic-crafted districts in urban areas that have allowed Shuler, McIntyre, Kissell and Miller to win in a Republican-leaning state. They are also looking to bolster the prospects of GOP Rep. Renee Ellmers, a potentially vulnerable freshman who unseated Etheridge, by adding Republican voters to her central North Carolina district.

That Miller finds himself in the redistricting cross hairs is something of a twist.

During the previous round of line-drawing, it was Miller — then the chairman of the state Senate redistricting committee — who personally drew a Raleigh-based district to include much of his political base, enabling him to launch a successful 2002 congressional campaign.

Now the pol whose masterful boundary-crafting became part of North Carolina political lore finds the knife pointed at him.

“There will be payback, for sure,” said Crone.

While Democrats won’t be able to stop the new map legislatively, they will be able to launch legal challenges — potentially over whether it discriminates against minority voters. Under the Voting Rights Act, North Carolina, like other Southern states, must have its map precleared by the Justice Department.

“Everyone should expect a lot of legal challenges. It’s going to be Barack Obama’s attorney general doing preclearance on these districts,” said Shumaker. “We should absolutely make gains. Bur are three seats a given? Absolutely not.”

Thomas Mills, a Democratic consultant in the state, said it’s possible Republicans might overreach and endanger their own incumbents by drawing Democratic-oriented areas into their districts. One possibility: that in weakening Shuler, Republicans would place the Democratic stronghold of Asheville within McHenry’s new boundaries.

“The days of Democrats being in the majority are over, but the seats that Republicans hold may be competitive by the end of the decade,” said Mills. “Things change.”

But, he said, “They’re going to make this as ugly as they possibly can.”

Andy Yates
Pantano for Congress
(704) 467-0795 cell
andy@pantanoforcongress.com

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Sunday, May 22, 2011

McIntyre grumpy about possible split of Robeson County in redistricting. GOP says prospect makes sense.

By Bob Shiles, Staff Writer
The Robesonian May 15, 2011

Verne Strickland Blogmaster

U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre

LUMBERTON — U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, fresh off his closest election since he won the District 7 seat in Congress, might have a steeper hill to climb in 2012 — if Republicans in the General Assembly get their way.

According to an online article published earlier this month on politico.com, state Republicans are targeting districts now represented by McIntyre and U.S. Reps Larry Kissell, Brad Miller and Heath Shuler — all Democrats — as potential majority Republican districts.

That could mean Robeson County, which is now entirely in McIntyre’s district, could be split into two separate districts. McIntyre doesn’t like that idea, saying it will water down the county’s clout in Washington, D.C.

“We need to keep Robeson County moving forward, and we want to keep Robeson County united as one county in a congressional district,” he said in a statement. “It is critical that Robeson County not be split apart, which would only diminish our voice in expressing our needs and concerns in Washington. Our county’s citizenship and needs are unique, and any effort to split those up only hurt our efforts to move forward with economic progress.

“Many Robeson County citizens have expressed concerns about redistricting to me, and they do not want Robeson County to be split two or three ways with a congressman from Charlotte, Goldsboro, or Morehead City. Putting us in a district with folks from Charlotte, Goldsboro, or Morehead City will diminish our views, needs and our communities of interest here in Robeson County and all of Southeastern North Carolina,” said McIntyre.

The highly political process of redistricting sets legislative boundaries for the next 10 years based on the last census. This will be the first Republican-controlled General Assembly to lead redistricting since Reconstruction.

Gary Strickland, the former chairman of the Robeson County Democratic Party, also worries about a fractured Robeson County.

“It would be best to keep our district the way it is. I don’t think we need to split Robeson County,” he said.

“If we were mixed up with a more conservative Mecklenburg County there would be a lot of static in our voice when it comes to voting. … We would have to woo two different congressmen.”

The current District 7 also includes parts of Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Sampson, Duplin, New Hanover and Pender counties.

Phillip Stephens, the chairman of the county Republican Party, said there are several unofficial maps circulating, some showing District 7 being expanded to the east, west, or north.

Stephens said that because of Robeson County’s size and large Democratic population, it can easily swing an election and negate the vote of two or three smaller counties.

The GOP leader said that Robeson County Republicans are lobbying for “common sense” district lines based on the region’s values and beliefs, not party designation.

“We’re keeping our eyes on the Republicans now more than the Democrats,” Stephens said.
Stephens said that because redistricting is a “political process” that occurs only once in a decade, it’s difficult to identify who holds the heavy hand in the process.

“We’re finding no one seems to know where the center of power is in redistricting,” he said. “I don’t think there is one person, Democrat or Republican, who knows how all of this is going to turn out.”

Stephens said there is a chance that local Democrats and Republicans will both be unhappy when the process is complete.

“We want to make sure that Robeson County is adequately represented, and that means by someone who is familiar with Robeson County,” Stephens said. “We don’t want to be represented by someone far distant from the county, whether he’s a Republican or Democrat.”

Stephens supported Ilario Pantano, a Republican who is from the North but has adopted Wilmington as his home, against McIntyre in last year’s General Election. McIntyre won with about 54 percent of the votes, his closest election since his first in 1996. Pantano has indicated he would run again for the District 7 seat.

According to reports, state Rep. David Lewis, a Republican from Harnett County and the senior chairman of the House Redistricting Committee, has said that draft maps will be ready by mid-June. He also has said that an unspecified number of public hearings will be held afterward.

State Rep. Garland Pierce, a Democrat who represents Robeson, Hoke and Scotland counties, serves on the House Redistricting Committee. He cautioned that the process is in its early stages.

“We’re hearing all kinds of scenarios,” he said. “Until we get the maps, everything is just speculation.”

Bob Shiles can be reached at (910) 272-6117 or bshiles@heartlandpublications.com.

Friday, May 6, 2011

N.C. GOP (claims Politico) will boost blacks, hurt Dems in redistricting.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster

Got news for you, friends. This is a tainted news story. Democrats, who have ruled the roost for a century in North Carolina's redistricting decisions, are crying foul before the first pitch is thrown in shaping new maps.

Hearings are being held around the State to gain citizen opinion. Mike McIntyre says he will load the hearings with his own partisan goon squads. Republicans say they will be fair -- something the Democrats could not be accused of doing -- and will not take advantage of the situation.

Even so, the crisis crews of the Democrat Party are already out ratcheting up the hysteria. Black leaders are revving up the faithful and whining that they are being squeezed out. Say what? Chill, people! No pen has been placed on a map. No one will be disenfranchised.

But get real, Democrats. You lost. It's not the same as what you have been experiencing for these many years. Please read this little vignette published by Politico (12/24/09) and see if it might have a familiar ring:

President Obama listened to Republican gripes about his stimulus package during a meeting with congressional leaders Friday morning - but he also left no doubt about who's in charge of these negotiations. "I won," Obama noted matter-of-factly, according to sources familiar with the conversation.

The message from the GOP, then, boys and girls, is this time WE WON -- GET USED TO IT!

And, if you can, do it with some class. You're in political purgatory for ten years. But We'll bring you some food, and you'll have visiting rights.The time will fly by.

Posted to Federal Government News Politico Politics NC May 4, 2011

By Richard E. Cohen

The redistricting wars are about to hit North Carolina, and Republicans in the Tar Heel State are considering a controversial but well-worn strategy that has worked elsewhere in the South: Create a new majority-minority district while destroying other districts occupied by white Democrats.

The state’s Republicans — who are in control of the General Assembly for the first time since Reconstruction — are basically planning to blow up the current congressional map and give North Carolina a third district that has a large enough minority population to elect another African-American member of Congress. But in doing so, they’ll be drawing new lines that would secure the political safety and expand the ranks of the state’s congressional Republicans.

The maneuvering shows that even in the new South, in a state that went for Barack Obama in 2008 and has had two straight decades of Democratic governors, congressional districts aren’t immune from old-fashioned racial gerrymandering. In a sense, North Carolina is planning to catch up to race-based redistricting that has spread across the region over the years.

And while Republicans hope for buy-in from local black political leaders, their greater goal is to end the careers of a handful of North Carolina Democrats who survived the 2010 GOP landslide. Reps. Larry Kissell, Mike McIntyre, Brad Miller and Heath Shuler could all be in danger of being drawn into Republican-majority districts.

Reps. G.K. Butterfield and Mel Watt — the two African-American Democrats from the Tar Heel State — likely would be entrenched in their minority districts, as would Rep. David Price from the more liberal Research Triangle area. The six GOP incumbents would remain safe.

“It’s politically probable that there will be a new minority influence district. … It’s logical based on the demographics of our state,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who has become the point man in Congress for the state’s redistricting.

McHenry and other North Carolina Republicans defend their redistricting efforts, saying the Tar Heel State’s booming population and the surge in Republican voters — not to mention the fact that Democrats drew the current districts — justify a new map that could give the state nine Republicans and four Democrats in Congress.

“Republicans should pick up three seats under any fair and legal map,” McHenry said. “That is huge. No other states in the nation would gain as many Republican seats. This would be in a state that Barack Obama won in 2008 and where we have had a Democratic governor since 1992 — the longest such period in the nation. A 9-4 delegation is pretty good and would attempt to avoid the risk of a bad year for Republicans. Clearly, Reps. Kissell and Miller are serving their final term.”

But Watt, a veteran of lengthy redistricting wars both in the political arena and in courtrooms, warned Republicans not to assume they will be successful in creating a third minority district.

“I haven’t seen a plan that can be credibly drawn. Nor is it legally required,” Watt said. “So I doubt that it would be practically done.”

Watt himself was embroiled in a long-term legal fight over his painfully drawn, snake-shaped minority-majority district, so his skepticism on the new North Carolina map may be a guidepost for Democrats.The result could be another extended round of litigation, Watt warned. The 1992 creation of his district that extends north of Charlotte led to two Supreme Court rulings and a redrawing of his district.

Although Democrats were reluctant to discuss their uphill prospects in North Carolina, campaign strategists concede that they have been planning for the worst there — something of a mirror image to Illinois, where Republicans risk losing three or four seats in a Democratic-controlled state.

Even assuming they jam their plan through the Legislature — Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue has no veto power over redistricting legislation — Republicans will most likely still face a major obstacle in the Justice Department or court review. Under the Voting Rights Act, North Carolina is a covered state for review of any election law changes.

“Republicans can roll the dice. But they may come up snake eyes,” said former Texas Rep. Martin Frost, who has a long history with redistricting, both in his home state and as a House Democratic leader. “They are trying to concentrate minority voters into as few districts as possible and to bleach surrounding districts with as little minority population as possible. It remains to be seen whether a Justice Department under Democratic control will go along.”

In Raleigh, Republican lawmakers are moving cautiously. Rep. David Lewis, who is senior chairman of the state House Redistricting Committee, said GOP leaders are “committed to drawing fair and legal districts.” Beyond adding, “We are still analyzing all data and receiving public input,” he said he was not “comfortable” with commenting on specific options.

But three well-connected North Carolina GOP sources recently told POLITICO there is “conceptual” agreement among key players for a third district that would have a substantial black population. It would be centered in Fayetteville-based Cumberland County and include numerous mostly rural adjacent counties, many of which are now represented by McIntyre. Although McHenry said blacks are “too dispersed to achieve” 50 percent in a district, they most likely would produce a majority-minority district when Hispanics and the area’s large Lumbee Indian tribe are included.

Other GOP objectives include extending Butterfield’s district in eastern North Carolina closer to Raleigh. That might remove a large African-American community from the district of freshman GOP Rep. Renee Ellmers and facilitate the evisceration of Miller’s district north of Raleigh. To oust Shuler in the western part of the state, other Republicans said that perhaps half of his Democratic-leaning Asheville base could be moved to McHenry’s safely Republican adjacent district.

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/05/nc-gop-aims-boost-blacks-cut-out-dems-redistricting

Thursday, April 21, 2011

GOP's Ilario Pantano: McIntyre aggressively working to influence direction of NC redistricting.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster

CONGRESSMAN DENIES HE IS INTERVENING IN DISTRICT POLITICAL MAPPING, BUT HIS WEBSITE URGES McINTYRE FOLLOWERS TO MAKE SHOW OF FORCE IN HIS BEHALF.

By Patrick Gannon
Patrick.Gannon@StarNewsOnline.com

Published: Thursday, April 21, 2011

U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre raised $150,000 in the first quarter of 2011, more than doubling the fundraising efforts of Ilario Pantano, a potential Republican challenger in 2012.

Pantano calls the Democratic incumbent’s early fundraising an attempt to send a message to General Assembly lawmakers redrawing congressional district boundaries this year.

McIntyre, by attempting to show that he has strong local support and that he would be a tough opponent in 2012 regardless of where his new district is drawn, hopes to influence map-drawers to largely leave his district alone and focus on other areas, Pantano suggested.

Pantano also said he believes McIntyre is trying to dissuade potential Democratic primary challengers, who may find it difficult to match McIntyre’s fundraising totals.

“Like a turkey, he’s showing his feathers,” Pantano said. “He’s trying to appear bigger and more formidable than he is.”

McIntyre said how the new maps are drawn is “completely up to the state House and state Senate.” But on his campaign website, McIntyre is urging supporters to contact state lawmakers to encourage them to keep Southeastern North Carolina together in one congressional district. “Do you want your next Congressman to be from Raleigh, Goldsboro, or Charlotte?” he begins his website message.

Lawmakers in Raleigh have just begun the once-a-decade task of redrawing the state’s 13 congressional districts based on 2010 population figures. And it’s unclear whether McIntyre, who lives in Lumberton, and Pantano, who lives in Wilmington, will even run in the same district once the process is complete.

Observers have suggested that McIntyre’s district could be carved up by the General Assembly Republicans who control this year’s redistricting process to give a Republican a better shot of representing the district, which McIntyre has served since 1996.

McIntyre also is asking his supporters to attend scheduled public hearings on state and congressional redistricting. Meetings will be held at 7 p.m. May 5 at Cape Fear Community College’s downtown Wilmington campus and at Brunswick Community College’s Supply campus.

“Please join me in standing up for our homes, our businesses, and our way of life and let’s keep Southeastern North Carolina together – moving forward!” McIntyre says.

Some Republicans have criticized McIntyre, saying he is only trying to protect his job in the U.S. House.

Pantano is also keeping tabs on the redistricting process. He visited the Legislative Building in Raleigh recently, meeting with Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, chairman of the Senate Redistricting Committee, among other lawmakers. He said he wasn’t lobbying for any specific changes to the 7th Congressional District, which now includes all or part of 10 counties in the southeastern corner of the state.
“I live in Southeastern North Carolina, and whatever the district is that’s drawn around the place I live, I will be eager to represent,” Pantano said.

The Battle for the Bucks

McIntyre raised about $150,000 from January through March, while Pantano’s campaign took in about $60,000, according to reports available at the Federal Election Commission’s website, FEC.gov.

Most of Pantano’s contributions – $53,000 worth – came from individuals. McIntyre received more than $95,000, or 64 percent, of his cash from political action committees.

Pantano pointed out that he raised more campaign cash from individuals than McIntyre, who pulled in more than $41,000 in the first quarter from individual donors.

At the end of March, McIntyre had nearly $151,000 in his war chest, with no debt, according to the FEC. Pantano’s campaign had about $47,000, with $43,000 in debt, most of which carried over from his unsuccessful 2010 campaign against McIntyre.

“We don’t have the Washington special interests to bail us out,” Pantano said. “I didn’t get $100,000 in PAC checks.”

McIntyre said he is grateful to the individual donors and political organizations that have given to him because “they want to make sure Southeastern North Carolina continues to have a strong voice.”

The PACs that have given to him, McIntyre said, “represent local farmers, local businesses, local educators, local health care providers, local law enforcement and others who help drive our economy.”

#######

Monday, March 28, 2011

Del Pietro: NC Seventh District 'going nowhere' under Mike McIntyre -- after 14 years!

By Verne Strickland
March 28, 2011

"His tenure appears to have fallen flat as far as generating any real progress for the poor, disadvantaged and sick people in his own county," said Wilmington resident Del Pietro of current U.S. Congressman Mike McIntyre.

Robeson County is where McIntyre keeps his residence, and Pietro says if he's not taking care of the home folks, he is not taking care of business.

"The first thing you should do in politics and business is benchmark," advises Pietro, 38, an announced candidate to challenge McIntyre in the 2012 Democratic primary.

Redistricting, though, which will be shaped within the coming few weeks, could change a lot of things. It's not clear what the Seventh District will look like after a GOP-dominated redistricting committee finishes its work. Candidate match-ups, district boundaries, and even party switching make the whole scenario fluid and dynamic.

Pietro has long talked of challenging McIntyre. He can do that even if McIntyre's home County of Robeson is carved out of the Seventh District and placed in an adjoining District, such as the Eighth -- which makes sense to many observers.

Robeson is where McIntyre votes, so he has the responsibility -- or blame -- for much of what happens there in terms of opportunity and quality of life. It's not a situation he brags about.

"If you take a look at what the economics and the health statistics were in Robeson County, his home county, when he took office, until now, these benchmarks haven’t improved one bit," Pietro asserts. "We just have to wait until the new census figures come out to prove what is my assumption -- that the situation has probably even worsened on Mr. McIntyre's watch."

According to Democrat challenger Pietro, a family man and resident of Wilmington, McIntyre gets low marks for leadership, low ratings for planning and execution -- both required in order to change the fate of people in his county and district.

"The most astounding thing is that Congressman McIntyre has no plan, and never has had a plan, for the future of his own District. I’ve never seen one and nobody knows of one. So he doesn't have an idea which way to go, and can be accurately described as totally reactionary,"

McIntyre describes himself as a conservative, but Pietro charges that he votes in the conservative column just enough to get re-elected in his District, where this stance plays well.

"We have here an opportunist who does just enough to get elected," Pietro commented. "He knows the liberals in the district are going to vote for him no matter what. So he appeases conservatives every now and then by throwing them a bone, such as his vote to repeal health care. And nobody calls him out. It's shameful."

Congressman McIntyre will host a "Job Creation Summit" on Tuesday, March 29, from 10:00 am to 12 noon at the Cape Fear Community College north campus, 4500 Blue Clay Road in Castle Hayne. The event is free and open to the public.

Candidate Pietro is not impressed.

"It's just another photo op, doesn't stand a chance of accomplishing anything for the unemployed, under-educated, sick and impoverished people in his district. This should have taken place ten years ago," said Pietro.

"Robeson County is right at the top of the heap when it comes to need, and right at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to any hope of eventually climbing out.
That's not going to change under a Congressman whose claim to fame is bringing in a new firetruck or a few loads of sand," Pietro concluded.

Del Pietro said he will attend McIntyre's job creation summit on Tuesday. "I'm looking for a job too -- representing the Seventh District in the U.S. Congress," Pietro said.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Del-Pietro-NC-7th-Congressional-District/131774246836913

http://www.facebook.com/mikemcintyre

Sunday, March 27, 2011

NC district map-makers could be political king-makers -- but GOP vows to play fair.

REPUBLICANS IN CHARGE OF CRITICAL PROCESS, WHICH GETS UNDERWAY THIS WEEK

Verne Strickland Blogmaster

BY JIM MORRILL - CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
Saturday, March 26, 2011

It's the mantra of North Carolina's Republican leaders: This year's political redistricting will be "fair and legal."

They don't say it will be non-partisan.

The process that will change voting districts for millions of North Carolinians - and the state's political landscape for at least a decade - starts Wednesday when House and Senate lawmakers charged with redrawing districts meet for the first time. A series of public hearings will start in April.

Republicans drawing lines for the first time since Reconstruction will work from a 2010 census that left current congressional and legislative districts unbalanced a decade after they were last drawn.

Rebalancing the district's populations means that some, such as the 1st District of Democrat G.K. Butterfield in the northeast, must be redrawn to take in more people. Others, such as the Charlotte area's 9th District, represented by Republican Sue Myrick, will have to shrink.

Republicans expect the process not only will solidify their new hold on the General Assembly but help them gain as many as four congressional seats. One publication called North Carolina the GOP's "Golden Goose of redistricting."

"If [Republicans] just draw districts that, in their words are fair and legal, they should do pretty good," says Francis De Luca, president of the conservative Civitas Institute.

Drawing legal districts has never been easy in North Carolina.

Cases challenging N.C. plans have gone to the U.S. Supreme Court at least six times in three decades.

"It's definitely been the epicenter of some of the most landmark redistricting cases in the modern era," says Tim Storey, a senior fellow with the National Conference of State Legislatures. "Some of the seminal Supreme Court cases that guide legislators in every state in the country in the redistricting process originated in North Carolina."

Those cases as well as a series of state court rulings have created a legal thicket for map-makers. Virtually every case involved interpretations of the Voting Rights Act, the 1965 law designed to ensure the rights of minorities.

The court has said the state can consider race in redrawing lines. Just not too much.

Race will play a role

This year, race will be a factor again as lawmakers tweak the state's two "majority-minority" congressional districts - the only two represented by African-Americans - and perhaps try to add a third.

"We're looking at our options," says Sen. Bob Rucho, a Matthews Republican who chairs the Senate Redistricting Committee. "It's all going to be based on where we can find large pockets of population."

To rebalance North Carolina's 13 congressional districts, lawmakers must add nearly 100,000 people - almost the population of Wilmington - to Butterfield's 1st District. They'll have to subtract 3,000 from Charlotte Democrat Mel Watt's 12th District.

They'll have to do both without diluting the influence - what the Supreme Court called the "effective exercise" - of minority voters. Any plan has to win approval of the Democratic-controlled U.S. Justice Department.

African-Americans tend to be concentrated in the state's urban areas and in rural areas in the northeast and south.

One place lawmakers might attempt a third majority-minority district is along the southern tier, through much of what is now Democrat Larry Kissell's 8th District. Such a plan could effectively siphon traditionally Democratic voters from Kissell and Rep. Mike McIntyre of Robeson County who represents the 7th District.

(VS: McIntyre is already challenged by Democrat Del Pietro. Republican Ilario Pantano, who lost to McIntyre in 2010, is an announced candidate for 2012. )

"It's obvious why Republicans would want to create a third minority district," says Democratic Sen. Dan Blue of Raleigh. "Their whole goal and purpose is to bring all the black voters in the state together and sort of 'ghettoize' them and reduce their influence in other districts."

Robo-calls target Dems

This week the National Republican Congressional Committee began robo-calls against Kissell and Democratic Reps. Brad Miller and Heath Shuler, blaming them for rising gas prices. Similar calls have targeted McIntyre. All four are among the GOP's top 10 Democratic targets. Redistricting could help unseat them.

Shuler's 11th District must add about 30,000 people. They would likely come from Republican Patrick McHenry's 10th District, making an already conservative district more so.

Rucho has suggested that Kissell's 100,000 Mecklenburg County constituents - most of them Democrats - might be moved to a more compact 12th District.

Miller, a former state senator who in 2001 drew the district he now represents, could lose Democratic voters in Guilford and Wake counties.

Republicans could draw Robeson and Cumberland counties out of McIntyre's 7th District and replace them with Republican-leaning voters along the coast. Republicans could put Kissell and McIntyre, or Miller and Democratic Rep. David Price of Chapel Hill, into the same district.

Working within limits

But map-makers will be constrained by growth patterns, which have seen the state's population shift from rural to urban areas. And every change creates a domino effect on neighboring districts.

"There are just some limits to what they can do, simply because you have to make them fit," says Ferrel Guillory, a UNC-Chapel Hill political analyst.

While federal law will guide congressional maps, a 2002 N.C. Supreme Court ruling sets parameters for state legislative districts.

Chafed by what they consider years of Democratic gerrymanders, Republicans say they can be fair, legal and successful. By changing maps gerrymandered by Democrats, says House Speaker Thom Tillis of Cornelius, "logic would dictate that that favors Republicans."

GOP Senate leader Phil Berger of Rockingham County agrees.

"If we draw the plans fairly, consistent with the law, our folks will win on their merits," he says. "We want to draw maps that allow voters to choose their representatives, as opposed to maps where legislators pick their voters."

jmorrill@charlotteobserver.com or 704-358-5059
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/03/26/2173064/gop-ready-to-redraw-ncs-political.html

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