Redistricting moves afoot in the N.C. General Assembly could alter Beaufort County’s political fortunes, said sources who have inside lines.

Redistricting, the redrawing of legislative-district and congressional lines, is conducted by state lawmakers every 10 years following the census.

The lines are redrawn to fit population requirements for legislative and congressional districts.

Currently, Beaufort County is part of state Senate District 1, an eight-county district in the northeast portion of the state.

The trouble is the district doesn’t contain the approximately 190,000 people needed to meet the population requirements for state Senate districts, said one local Republican leader.

This could mean that Senate District 1 will need to be redrawn to include another whole county or portions of other counties, said Greg Dority, newly elected chairman of the Beaufort County Republican Party.

Dority visited the Legislature on Wednesday as part of a delegation of local Republicans concerned about the effects of redistricting.

“We feel that the best option is for Beaufort County to continue to be structured with the northeastern counties because of the relationship that Beaufort County has with these counties,” he said.

At the moment, District 1 č with around 179,000 people č falls short of the population needed to meet the ideal Senate-district profile, according to Dority.

“It appears another county would have to be added to meet the new number because of the population shift to the west,” he remarked.

Dority and other members of his Republican delegation are advocating for keeping Beaufort County whole and intact, as it is, instead of seeing it divided between multiple Senate districts.

The gist of the whole-county school of thought is that counties represent fairly unified local communities of interest, and that dividing them unnecessarily between legislative districts weakens their strength in Raleigh.

A court-specified direction to keep counties whole in legislative districts whenever possible was solidified by the Stephenson versus Bartlett decision.

That decision came about almost a decade ago because of a lawsuit filed by Republican officials. The lead plaintiff in that lawsuit was Washington Republican Ashley Stephenson, who died last year.

Activists who favored the lawsuit said the Stephenson case was a landmark for redistricting in this state, but some are predicting more lawsuits before this year’s round of map-tinkering is said and done.

To Dority, it’s all about homegrown needs.

With around 46,000 residents, Beaufort County has the highest year-round population of any county in Senate District 1, but the center of power in the district has long been in Dare County, home to former state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, and the man who replaced him this year after he stepped down, Sen. Stan White, D-Dare.

According to Dority, Beaufort County hasn’t had its own, home-based senator in more than 40 years. That senator was the late Sen. Ashley B. Futrell Sr., D-Beaufort, editor and publisher emeritus of the Washington Daily News.

With redistricting approaching, Dority and others in the know say now is the time to start advocating for Beaufort County’s interests in Raleigh to ensure the county isn’t left behind in the struggle for state resources.

One area lawmaker seems to agree.

State Rep. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, has a plum assignment as a member of the House redistricting committee.

“I would like Beaufort County to stay whole,” Cook asserted. “I think that’s key.”

The redistricting committee will craft House district maps and the House’s version of the congressional map. The committee’s Senate counterpart will cobble together the Senate-side plan and its congressional blueprint.

At some point, those plans will be reconciled by the House and Senate and approved with up-or-down votes č ideally, just one step along the road to codified maps for the 2012 election year.

A few observers said one thing seems certain: With populations growing at a faster clip in the Piedmont, the rural east will lose legislative clout this year as urban places gain seats in the Legislature.

These shifts could spell increased competition for things like road funding, and the richer, more heavily populated Piedmont stands to gain because the numbers are on its side, noted Tom Thompson, Beaufort County’s chief economic developer.

“Political power will shift with the population and the resulting redistricting,” Thompson said.

The key House and Senate leaders č Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger č are from the Piedmont, Thompson pointed out.

“We’re going to have a very difficult time fighting the Piedmont on legislation,” he added.

As Thompson sees it, the best the east can do is stick together as a lobbying bloc through groups like N.C. 20, an entity formed to push the goals of 20 counties located east of Interstate 95.

“We could unite more so than we have,” Thompson said, adding, “It’s definitely time to prepare for the worst.”

A call seeking comment from Alice Mills Sadler, chairwoman of the Beaufort County Democratic Party, wasn’t returned Thursday.