North Carolina GOP (The Gift That Keeps On Giving): NCGOP Chair Indicted

[Gass3268]

https://twitter.com/gercohen/status/1012747740974145537

https://twitter.com/gercohen/status/1012752808293134337

https://twitter.com/gercohen/status/1012763762284220419

All but ensures that the Democrats will keep the majority.

Edit: Expand the majority!

[Gass3268]

Oh my gosh, it keeps getting better. A committee of 2 Democrats (SoS Elaine Marshall & AG Josh Stein and 1 Republican (Legislative Services Officer Paul Coble) get to write the ballot language for the Consitutional Amendments the Republicans are trying to pass:

https://twitter.com/gercohen/status/1012769890296586240

https://twitter.com/gercohen/status/1012769893404508160

https://twitter.com/gercohen/status/1012769895082315781

https://twitter.com/gercohen/status/1012773358457454594

[Gass3268]

When NC GOP loses their super majority in November, they're then going to lose their gerrymandered districts in 2020. NC GOP on suicide watch.

Unfortunately, North Carolina doesn't allow the Governor to veto maps.

[Gass3268]

The current Republican incumbent is in 3rd place! LOLOLOLOL

https://twitter.com/TimBoyumTV/status/1049434262082994176

[Gass3268]

The two anti-democratic Constitutional amendments are failing:

https://twitter.com/TimBoyumTV/status/1057406795726053376

Also the incumbent Republican Supreme Court Justice is still down big (22 points):

https://twitter.com/TimBoyumTV/status/1057407053302353920

[Gass3268]

Ugh, I come here thinking I'm finally the first one to post a poll, and here it already is, posted hours ago lmbo. This just reminds me why I love this forum so much. For all the crap Atlas gets, it's not easy to find another forum out there dedicated to political data but also highly active too. I don't think another one exists.

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Anyway, this is amazing. I was deeply skeptical that the judicial selection and election board amendments would fail, given how innocuous they seem to the average voter, but word seems to be out that they are power grabs. Even if just the judicial selection amendment failed, that would still be a massive win. It means no court-packing and the state supreme court goes 5 - 2 Democratic.

If that happens, the legislative lame duck period is going to be interesting. Can't wait to see how Republicans plan to lash out then. Maybe they can pass a bill defunding coffee machines in the Governor's office?

Can you imagine the rage when the NCSC strikes down all of their redistricting maps in 2021, forcing them to be drawn by a court?

[Gass3268]

New Republican Christopher Anglin was a hero to all people of North Carolina. Anita Earls probably loses a heart breaker without his hard work.


Source

[Gass3268]

It's happening.gif

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1062382430915571712

Kinda surprised they didn't wait until after the lame duck was over.

[Gass3268]

It's happening.gif

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1062382430915571712

Kinda surprised they didn't wait until after the lame duck was over.

Yea, I was thinking it might be iffy to do that while they can still technically impeach justices, but then again, Cooper would get to fill the vacancy with another Democrat, so it doesn't matter. We'll see if the General Assembly will lash out soon in their special session. They are a very reactionary bunch, so I'm sure this is weighing heavily on them.

Whatever nonsense they try to do in the speical election will just get struck down. This is all reminding me of a game of wack a mole.

[Gass3268]

NC GOP Trying Again To Cement Control Of Local Elections Boards During Election Years

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/nc-gop-trying-again-to-cement-control-of-local-elections-boards-during-election-years

You must be logged in to read this quote.

So basically, the GOP gets to hold a majority on county election boards when there is a major election, and Democrats can chair when it's nothing but local elections. Sounds very fair and definitely not a power grab meant to deny early voting to Democratic counties!

They just can't stop trying to seize control of election boards. Their desperation stinks.

Luckily the State Supreme Court will smack most of this down. It's like a game of whack-a-mole.

[Gass3268]

NC doesn't allow initiative or referendum.



The governor can't veto the map.

Is there any way at all to end Republicans' gerrymandering?

State Supreme Court is now 5-2 in favor of the Democrats, so a Pennsylvania style lawsuit.

[Gass3268]

As a person born in North Carolina and lived there til I was 30, the hand-wringing over North Carolina Republicans by the Democrats, a party that ran the state pretty much consecutively from the end of Reconstruction 130 or so years onward, is amusing. It's one corrupt party telling the other party "you're corrupt". Sorry, I actually took a class on North Carolina history.

"We are out of power now, let's go find religion and be for no gerrymandering and other things in elections to ensure wins that we did for more than a century."

For the record as a person that used to live G.K. Butterfield's district, I'll support anti-gerrymandering laws that ban districts purposefully drawn for demographic reasons, which is currently required for North Carolina by federal law. Do Democrats not realize that districts like the 1st which are used to elect African-Americans make them weaker everywhere else? Also, what a gerrymander is needs to be absolutely defined, because I've seen the term used in conflicting circumstances by different commentators to further their respective arguments.

Luckily the Democrats have a large NCSC majority now and can clean up the mess.

[Gass3268]

I like how every commenter after my post glazes over the fact I posted that North Carolina and other southern states are required by the federal government to create supermajority Democrat districts specifically to elect African-American candidates to Congress, and this in turn makes other districts that surround these districts more Republican. If you do not remove that requirement, that means Democrats in the rest of the state's districts would always be fighting uphill.

it has never been required for a super majority district anyway. I think by now outside the deep south a 45% AA district is enough according to some court rulings. In a place like NC a 40% AA district would reliably elect african americans as they would form like 4/5 the primary vote for D's and then the few liberal whites which is greater than Ms liberal whites would elect a black D.

Anyway Im no fan of the VRA required districts and they clearly aren't required anymore outside a few deep south states(see MS LA AL) as we saw people like Lauren underwood and Joe Nuguese get elected in like % black districts.

That makes them supermajority Democrat districts, which mean every district that surrounds it is more likely to elect a Republican. What's a gerrymander again?

Drawing districts specifically to elect African-Americans to Congress are by fact gerrymanders because you're taking all the Democrats and putting them in one area. In addition to being disgustingly segregationist, the Voting Rights Act requires them otherwise all the districts get thrown out, and yet some commentators are talking about gerrymandering as the reason Democrats lose while defending the existence of these districts. It's the height of bullsh**t.

I will not take any anti-gerrymandering post or comment by anyone seriously until they say they are for stopping this requirement on drawing districts, period, otherwise you're a walking contradiction. If that requirement was removed, this would IMPROVE Democrats' chances on getting more seats, so you cannot accuse me of supporting this for partisan reasons. So why don't Democrats support this other than they don't have the balls to stand up to the Black Caucus?

VRA is essentially to proper representation of minority populations, especially in the Deep South. Saying otherwise is ignorant.

[Gass3268]

Lol, the North Carolina Supreme Court will now be 6-1 Democrat.

https://twitter.com/garydrobertson/status/1088907946346598400

[Gass3268]

Lol North Carolina Republicans

https://twitter.com/jonathankappler/status/1092833120880115712

[Gass3268]

FWIW I believe the canceled judicial primaries for 2018 was just that - 2018 only, and not a change to future elections. The official justification Republicans gave was that they needed more time to debate/pass a redistricting bill for judicial districts (and other power grab reforms). Although we all know they just wanted to hang on to a Supreme Court seat at any cost.

https://www.greensboro.com/news/government/elections/federal-appeals-court-backs-skipping-judicial-primaries-in-north-carolina/article_b54bdeff-e19d-5c23-b7f5-8cd03e1ead28.html

So vote splitting shouldn't be a big issue this time around.

Ah okay, that's weird. Still, I look forward to the NCSC striking down everything the NCGOP did over the past 6 years.

[Gass3268]

https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1099072027481145345

https://twitter.com/PoliticsWolf/status/1099078366144061441

Going to be interesting to see what a 6-1 Democratic Supreme Court does here.

[Gass3268]

https://twitter.com/NickOchsnerWBTV/status/1113105777114468353

[Gass3268]

Say goodbye to gerrymandered state maps:

https://twitter.com/newsobserver/status/1149792082292346880

[Gass3268]

Laughs. Lived in North Carolina all my life up until 2012. Democrats ran the state continuously for more or less 130 years essentially unchallenged.

This sounds a lot like the zany claim that "Democrats were the party of slavery". Yes, in the 1860s. That was a long time ago.

The GOP has not realised that in today's world, politics is about much more than money. It undergirds every aspect of ours lives, from family to consumption to sexuality. Attacking the process of fair elections is denying the right to a fair society, which is the core belief in the US as a country. The anger will never subside.


That there were shocking shenanigans in the 1950s in North Carolina, a time of white male authority when a large chunk of the population was disenfranchised, is immaterial to today's world and does not justify anyone's actions.

The actions I'm describing were from the 1990s and 2000s where the Democrats dominated affairs on a state level. I've not even touched the unique version of straight ticket voting the state at least used to have, not sure if they still do, that the Democrats pushed through (you can vote straight ticket for everything but president, that way if you hated the national Democratic Party as a lot of N.C. Democrats at least used to, you could vote R for president and D for everything else), or how white Democrat vs. black Democrat politics work in smaller voting districts (e.g. municipal level). This wasn't the 1950s, this was the 2000s.

North Carolina Democrats raising hell about the Republican actions in the state is an alcoholic suddenly finding religion and is in favor of throwing the book at anyone that has a sip of wine. I was a resident of the state of North Carolina for 30 years of my life, lived in Beaufort, New Bern, Havelock, Raleigh during my time in college, Rocky Mount, took classes in North Carolina history, was actually awake for them, and you're a resident of Ireland per your avatar. Unless you're lying about where you're from, I think I know more about the state politically than you, with all due respect.

State Democrats suddenly throwing a fit about gerrymandering, dear God, if there was ever a clearer case of the pot calling the kettle black. "Racial gerrymandering" - go look at the electoral map of eastern North Carolina over the past 30 years. The 1st and 3rd districts of the '90s were outright disasters and the guy that drew it should be locked in jail for having his only eye being toward intentionally segregating voters away from one another based on racial demographics. And you know who drew that map? A Democrat, because they controlled the State House continuously from 1899 to 2010 for all but a handful of years. Democrats can tell me they have changed when they start holding resolutions for their state party going back and censuring the actions of their corrupt members of the past. Until then, don't sit and try and tell me they're any better than the North Carolina GOP and act holier than thou. I'm not sitting here and telling you the North Carolina GOP are intelligent and saints, I'm telling you the Democrats are no better than them. They're a bunch of Bev Perdues, Easleys, and Holden Thorps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina%27s_congressional_districts#/media/File:United_States_Congressional_Districts_in_North_Carolina,_1993_%E2%80%93_1998.tif

Just looking at this 1990s CD map, how was this allowed? I know the 12th was struck down, but the 3rd and 6th districts here are definitely not contiguous. Even the racists of Jim Crow drew contiguous districts.

Water and touch point contiguity.

[Gass3268]

https://twitter.com/mel_bough

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article232677422.html

He also said that since the North Carolina constitution specifically gives redistricting power to the legislature, it shouldn’t even be up to a court to step in and dictate how redistricting should or shouldn’t work.

Right, because telling the courts they have no right whatsoever to rule on redistricting-related issues is totally a solid argument. It worked so well in Pennsylvania's case.

Haha, good luck with that NCGOP.

[Gass3268]

So the referee will get to pick the maps drawn by either the defendant legislature or the plaintiffs?

[Gass3268]

Saw a statement that the legislature is not going to appeal the decision.

[Gass3268]

Is this for both the state legislature and congressional seats? I have wondered why there was no state legislature redraws in PA as well.

Just the state legislature.

[Gass3268]

Saw a statement that the legislature is not going to appeal the decision.

You mean this? https://twitter.com/NickOchsnerWBTV/status/1168998919885508608

They realize how there is literally no way to win in a 6D-1R State Supreme Court,  so there's no point to appeal.

I've actually seen some rumblings that the plaintiffs should appeal in order to get a better ruling (essentially requiring the court to draw the first round of maps as the defendants can't be trusted).