RALEIGH – State lawmakers are preparing for their decennial chore of redrawing the state’s political landscape.
Members of the Senate Redistricting Committee got an overview of what they can expect to be doing over the next couple of months as they, along with their House counterparts, will be mapping out 13 congressional districts, 50 state Senate districts and 120 state House districts.
“Our goal is to get this complete sometime around the first of June hand it to Justice and let it get preclearance,” said Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, the committee chairman.
Rucho was referring to the lengthy legal process, which includes a review by the U.S. Justice Department called “preclearance.” The Justice Department’s job under the Voting Rights Act is to make sure the state is doing nothing to dilute minority voting strength.
Before the legislative staff could get to work explaining the nuts and bolts of redistricting to lawmakers, an exchange took place between Rucho and Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, who is the Senate minority leader.
Nesbitt voiced a complaint that he had tried to get two veteran Democratic senators – Dan Blue of Wake County and Dan Clodfelter or Mecklenburg County – placed on the committee.
Sens. Clodfelter and Blue are the Senate’s most seasoned members on redistricting,” Nesbitt said. He said that he came to the conclusion that the two were actually excluded from the committee because of their experience.
Rucho said that there were reasons why Nesbitt’s request for a committee change had not been granted, including the geographical makeup. He also referred to previous redistricting panels being dominated by lawyers.
“We wanted to try to have normal people lead this,” Rucho said.
Rucho said that the committee plans to hold public comment sessions at nine to 10 different sites across the state.
Staff attorney Brad Krehely explained that the districts would have to be based on the 2010 Census figures, which showed North Carolina having 9,535,483 residents. The ideal number of people in each of the 13 congressional districts is 733,499. The ideal number in each of the 50 state Senate seats is 190,710. The ideal number in each of the 120 state House seats is 79,462.
By Barry Smith
Posted March 30, 2011 – 7:19 PM
From the Editors
M2Mpolitics.com
