We’re still trying to make sense of the minority-district maps released Friday by the chairmen of the state House and Senate redistricting committees.
Apparently we’re not alone.
Sources contacted for a redistricting story on today’s front page also expressed confusion and – well, the word is shock in response to one of the draft plans, which would carve up parts of western Beaufort County and couple them with a district in western Pitt County.
Yes, we wrote western Pitt.
OK, so the committee chairmen understand they have to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act in putting these puzzles together, and it’s clear they think these proposed minority districts will meet the feds’ requirements.
But we suspect … no, we can pretty much proclaim that a number of Beaufort County’s leading black officials won’t like these maps. In fact, many of these leaders have publicly declared their opposition to any plan that divides this county.
And few people elected or appointed to public office here would be nuts enough to endorse the crazy-quilt map churned out by the House redistricting committee.
In the last round of redistricting roughly a decade ago, Democrats engaged in shenanigans to draw some of their competitors out of office. In taking this “if-you-can’t-beat-them-beat-them-up” approach to shaping district lines, the Democrats erred on the side of drunk-with-power abandon.
Now, some Republicans, some of the same people who cried out about the Democrats’ redistricting maneuvers, are making similar power plays with maps drawn behind closed doors in Raleigh.
And a carved-up Beaufort County could be at the end of this twisting path paved by the GOPers.
The more things change …