State Sen. Bob Rucho (R) rang us up to shoot down — in flames — any hint of a suggestion that he has any interest whatsoever in running for the 9th CD. In fact, Rucho reiterated his stance that it would be “unethical” to be involved in the map drawing process and then run in one of the districts you created (see Miller, Brad.)
This gets us right back to the issue swirling in local GOP circles: Is this Sue Myrick’s last term?
She says no. If so, then Rucho and his fellow map-makers cannot slice and dice the 9th out of being a comfortable GOP district. I mean they could, but it would be exceedingly rare for the party in control of the map-making to cause headaches for an incumbent of the same party.
However, should the 9th become an open seat, then it is easier to weigh the pros and cons of moving blocks of GOP voters around in and near Charlotte. The chance — however remote — that the 9th could no longer be a safe GOP seat is what has Meck conservatives wondering about what could forestall that — and Rucho has made it clear it won’t be him.
Alright, that possibility is off the table. Why does the 9th matter so much? Just the 30 years of defining and reflecting local politics.
Let’s rewind to 1984 and Alex McMillan’s first term in the seat. McMillan held the seat for the GOP as Jim Martin left to run for governor — and it was not easy. First McMillan had to top Carl Horn in the GOP primary and Horn had the backing of Jesse Helms and the Congressional Club. McMillan played the experience card — a single term on the county commission a decade before — and Charlotte’s nascent banker class did the rest. In fact, you could say the modern Charlotte GOP can be traced to the more moderate, genteel McMillan taking 58 percent of that primary vote.
However the general election was no cakewalk. D.G. Martin had the backing of the legal community and local Democratic pols and actually carried Mecklenburg County, which did not have the bursting GOP burbs it would have just a few years later. McMillan still managed to squeak out a 321 vote win, however. A rematch with Martin in 1986 was not as close and the 9th began its run the bankers’ moderate Republican seat and the pinnacle of Charlotte GOP power.
The 1990 remap meant that the 9th no longer held all of Mecklenburg for 1992. And that too was a quintessentially Charlotte political move. The city would have one safe black Democrat seat and one safe GOP seat. The sliver of the 8th that cut into East Charlotte would help make for some additional political pull and make Charlotte the media market center of that CD, as Kissell-Johnson showed again last year, but neither party would be able to put a hammer-lock on the seat.
In short, what happens to the 9th matters very much to Charlotte Republicans who view it as “their” seat and a tangible sign that the city has not been totally taken over by Democrats. A new 9th that — for whatever reason — is no longer a safe GOP seat would represent a huge shift in the local political firmament and would be seen by many as proof that Charlotte has gone Blue and ain’t coming back. Similarly, a 9th that stays nominally a GOP seat but shifts away from Meck and toward Union would send the same message.
