In today’s News & Record, both Doug Clark and Susan Ladd attacks U.S. Rep. Mark Walker over his ‘no’ votes for the $36.5 billion disaster relief bill. Quite the interesting point of view from Ms. Ladd, considering she penned an earlier column more or less stating that Houston—the “model of the pro-business, anti-regulation policies that conservatives advocate and Trump relentlessly has pursued”–had the destruction in the wake of Hurricane Harvey coming.
Meanwhile, Clark says Walker’s vote–as well as the ‘no’ vote of nine other N.C. representatives— is an “outcome of North Carolina’s radical congressional gerrymandering.” And guess what, Clark says— it can only get worse:
At the redistricting trial in federal court in Greensboro this week, plaintiffs contend that Republican legislators illegally packed Democratic voters into just three congressional districts, leaving 10 districts with Republican-friendly electorates. Republicans freely admit this; they just say there’s nothing illegal about it.
We’ll see. But we can already see the outcome. In these 10 districts, real competition comes in Republican primaries. The foremost political fear of GOP representatives is a primary challenge from more conservative candidates. So they have to please the extremist voters who dominate low-turnout primaries.
This has given North Carolina what may be the most right-wing congressional delegation on Capitol Hill — and to heck with hurricane victims.
There you go Triad-area citizens—exactly what Doug Clark thinks of you simply for exercising your right to vote. And they wonder why no one subscribes to their newspaper.
For Mark Walker’s part, he explains his vote in this Wall Street Journal op-ed. Note the comments beneath—secret’s out about Congress’ “bad habit of loading up disaster-relief bills with handouts or other must-pass items,” as Walker puts it. I think he should be commended for raising the issue. That what I–as his constituent–would want him to do.
