Carolina Journal reports on one of the more competitive races this election season:
One of the more high-profile state House of Representatives races in the Nov. 6 general election is the matchup between longtime Republican incumbent Rep. Nelson Dollar and Democratic challenger Julie von Haefen.
The race received national attention in a Washington Post article speculating whether opposition to President Trump puts the General Assembly in play for Democrats.
Republicans hold a 75-45 veto-proof supermajority in the House, and 35-15 supermajority in the Senate. Democrats would have to pick up 10 seats in the Senate to break even, and 15 in the House. Some Democrats think House District 36 can be flipped.
The North Carolina FreeEnterprise Foundation, which closely tracks state elections and voting behavior patterns, rates the district as competitive. Dollar won in 2016 by 1,400 votes.
The district is the subject of ongoing litigation. It was redrawn by state legislators to comply with a federal court order to fix 28 legislative districts whose boundaries were said to unconstitutionally rely too heavily on race. House District 36 was not one of them, but it was redrawn to allow corrections to the others, Republican mapmakers said. A court-hired mapmaker changed the General Assembly’s map, but the U.S. Supreme Court rejected that alteration.
Dollar is the senior budget writer in the House, and a key member of that body’s leadership, making him a symbolic target for Democrats.
Read more here.
