Redistricting panel to host four hearings simultaneously

A legislative redistricting panel will hold four simultaneous public hearings May 7.

One of these meetings will take place at 9:30 a.m. in Building 9, Room 935, of Beaufort County Community College east of Washington.

The meetings will be linked electronically, related state Rep. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort.

“It’s kind of a unique thing, I thought, the way they’re doing it,” Cook said of the meetings.

Cook serves on the House redistricting committee. He plans to attend the meeting in Beaufort County.

Other May 7 sessions will be held at Pitt Community College, Wilson Community College and Edgecombe Community College.

The public will be allowed to speak on district plans “or any other topic related to redistricting,” reads a post on the N.C. General Assembly’s website.

Speakers will be allowed five minutes each in which to make their remarks, and they “are encouraged to submit their oral comments in writing,” the website notes.

For more information, call Erika Churchill or Kelly Quick at 919-733-2578.

Redistricting, the redrawing of legislative-district lines, is undertaken by the Legislature every 10 years, following each U.S. census.

The goal of the process is to tweak districts to meet federal population guidelines for the state’s House, Senate and congressional districts.

Observers say redistricting is important because it influences everything from who serves a particular county in Raleigh or Washington, D.C., to how a given county might interact with a neighboring community of interest.

In a recent interview, Cook said no district maps had been publicly released, at least not to his knowledge.

“I keep hearing all kinds of things. None of them have any validity to them,” he commented. “I don’t think anybody knows what’s going to end up happening.”

Another source familiar with plans reportedly being looked at on the Senate side said leaders in that body have drawn preliminary maps, one of which could change the makeup of Senate District 1, which includes all of Beaufort County.

One of these plans divides Beaufort County into two Senate districts, a concept many local leaders – Democrats and Republicans – have said would lessen the county’s influence in the Legislature.

The source declined to speak on the record because of the sensitivity of ongoing negotiations in the Senate.

In any event, none of the district plans has been approved by the House or Senate, whose majorities would have to reach some consensus on the maps before signing off on them.

The maps are subject to change repeatedly before being adopted, and could be subject to legal challenges after they’re adopted.

Beaufort County’s representative in the Senate, Sen. Stan White, D-Dare, predicted dire consequences for east’s ability to retain clout in the General Assembly, pointing to population growth in the metropolitan areas of the state.

Experts have noted a relative handful of the state’s most populous counties will gain through redistricting, asserting this could lessen rural locations’ opportunities to push through legislation favorable to them.

“Quite honestly, I believe if redistricting is accepted we’ll have 14 counties that will be running the state,” White said.

White said his Senate District 1 will have to take in about 11,000 new voters to meet the required formula for Senate districts.

The law allows a 5-percent variance in this ideal number, so the district has to draw in a minimum of 3,700 new voters, White pointed out.

These voters could be friendly to a Democratic candidate, or they could be hostile, depending on where the lines reach, he indicated.

“They’ve certainly got the guidelines they’ve got to go by, federal guidelines,” he said of the Legislature.

White also nodded to the fact that Republicans who control the General Assembly will hold sway over the process, and he wished aloud the GOP leadership would let Democratic senators with experience in these issues serve on the Senate’s redistricting committee.

“It’s a little ironic that we have two Democrats in the Senate that have been through the redistricting process before, both of them attorneys, but the Republican leadership will not allow them to be on the committee,” he said. “We’ve asked them several times.”