In response to draft congressional maps formulated by the Republican-controlled state legislature, U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, a Democrat from North Carolina’s 12th Congressional District, issued the following statement:
I have reviewed the congressional redistricting map proposed by the state House and Senate Republicans. My assessment is that the desire of the Republicans to gain partisan advantage has led them to violate both the letter and spirit of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and court cases interpreting the VRA. The Republicans have gone out of their way to pack African-American voters into the 12th District and, in the process, have made race the compelling rationale for the proposed district. This is neither justified nor sanctioned by the VRA. It represents a disappointing effort by the Republicans to dilute and minimize the political influence of African-American voters in the Piedmont by packing all of them into the 12th district so none of them have influence in adjoining districts. It also represents a sinister Republican effort to use African Americans as pawns in their effort to gain partisan, political gains in Congress.
The VRA was passed to level the political playing field for African Americans by neutralizing the impact of historic racial voting patterns that continue today. Overcompensating for racially polarized voting by packing more African-American voters into a district than reasonably necessary to offset racial voting patterns is just as volatile of the VRA as not placing enough African-American voters with common interests in a district to offset racial voting patterns. Republicans placing too much emphasis on race, which seems apparent in the drawing of the 12th district as well as some other districts in their plan, will almost certainly result in protracted and costly litigation, uncertainty and cynicism. I regret that the Republicans have chosen a course of action that will have this result in an effort to gain partisan political advantage.
Jonathan Kappler, research director at the N.C. FreeEnterprise Foundation, has a helpful table showing the political implications of the new maps. Taking the 12th district as an example, the percentage of voters who went for John McCain in 2008 — 29.1 percent — shifts downward to 21.5 percent in the new district. In other words, Barack Obama won there handily in ’08, and, if the maps go through, he’ll really win handily in 2012.
From the GOP’s perspective, that’s the aim: pack as many Democratic voters as practicable into a handful of districts. In this scenario, the 1st, 4th, and 12th congressional districts. Are Democrats justified in being upset? Yeah. But they did the same thing when they held the map-drawing pen 10 years ago. Another good argument for a nonpartisan redistricting process.
Yes, the next few months — and probably years — are going to be a litigation bonanza.
