A new Public Policy Polling survey shows considerable support for having an independent redistricting commission to redraw North Carolina’s political maps next year. A plurality even would support calling a special legislative session to set up such a commission.
However, Republican legislative leaders who had supported setting up an independent redistricting commission to redraw political maps following the 2010 census say it’s too late to set up such a procedure now. That means that the new congressional and legislative maps will most likely be done next year by the General Assembly.
Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam, R-Wake, who was just selected by his GOP peers as the next majority leader in the House, said there is not enough time to set up a constitutionally mandated commission to redraw the maps.
“I’m not interested in a statutory one; I never was,” Stam said. “It can get overridden the next day.”
Most agree that setting up a binding independent commission, which would require an amendment to the N.C. Constitution, is not likely because of time constraints. The General Assembly will not go back into session until Jan. 26. Constitutional amendments must first gain a three-fifths majority from both chambers in the General Assembly and then be ratified by a vote of the people.
The next time North Carolina voters are scheduled to go to the polls statewide is during the May 2012 primaries, well after the time that the maps need to be approved. Calling a special election earlier so that such a referendum could be placed on the ballot would cost millions of state and local tax dollars at a time when governments are facing tough financial times.
“We’ve got six months,” said Rep. Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, who will likely be the next House speaker. He was referring to the time between convening in January and mid-summer 2011 when the leaders hope to have the redistricting maps complete so they can be submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice for Voting Rights Act approval.
“We want to be out of there by the end of June,” Tillis said.Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, who will likely be the top officer in the state Senate next year, also agreed that time constraints would likely prevent setting up such a commission.
“Clearly, we don’t have time for a constitutional amendment,” Berger said. He said he didn’t expect lawmakers to set up a commission by statute either. He added that a redistricting lawsuit filed by Republicans in 2001, known as the Stephenson decision, placed stricter guidelines that would limit aggressive gerrymandering attempts.
In the PPP poll, 49 percent of the respondents said they would prefer seeing an independent redistricting commission draw the lines next year while 21 percent preferred members of the General Assembly draw them. The remaining 30 percent said they weren’t sure.
Forty percent said they preferred calling a special session between now and the end of the year to set up such a commission while 27 percent said they opposed the idea.
Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, who has joined Republicans in sponsoring a proposed amendment to the N.C. Constitution setting up an independent redistricting commission, said she is considering doing so again.
She said that often the party in power decides having such a commission is not the best idea. She acknowledged that Stam’s concern that a statutory commission’s work could easily be overridden by the General Assembly was something to consider.
While census data, including the apportionment of congressional seats among the 50 states, will be released by the end of the year, some states may not get their redistricting data from the Census Bureau until next spring. Tim Storey of the National Conference of State Legislatures told a recent gathering of state political reporters called Capitolbeat in Phoenix that the data will be rolled out by April 1.
Storey said that states would likely need to allow for about 120 to 180 days for Justice Department approval under the Voting Rights Act.
BARRY SMITH
November 23, 2010 8:06 AM
