Is the issue really representation, or that NC’s electoral votes have gone to the GOP?

Based on how this Daily Tar Heel editorial about the Electoral College begins, I think it’s fair to ask whether the board’s opinion would hold if Chapel Hill was located in one of the bluest of blue states, such as California or New York? There’s a reason that DNC Chairman Howard Dean killed the North Carolina General Assembly’s bill that would have ended North Carolina’s winner-take-all approach to EC votes. This story explains why, and notes that the group formed to oppose this same idea in California (55 electoral votes) is backed by California’s Democrat Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein.