Republican bastion of North Mecklenburg headed to new Democrat NC12?

Legislators in Raleigh faced with having to redraw two of the state's Congressional districts due to a Federal court order, appear to have taken a more extreme approach than many would have expected.

For voters here in North Mecklenburg that would include a big move from the current NC9 to the vastly reconfigured NC12.

Voters in Davidson may remember being part of the old NC12 that snaked its way from Charlotte along I85 up to Greensboro.  Prior to the last round of redistricting that also included picking off Davidson along the way.

In decades past that may have made some sense to include it in the old strongly Democratic 12th, due to Davidson's reputation as a liberal college town.  However, by 2010 that had changed somewhat.  Davidson, like the rest of North Meck has more Republicans than Democrats.  Independents outnumber both parties.  See here for more on that from back in 2012.

Cornelius and Huntersville were in the old 9th, long represented by Republican Sue Myrick.

With the proposed map pictured above, all that history goes out the window.

The old gerrymandered 12th becomes a compact and more sensible district completely within Mecklenburg County - including all of North Mecklenburg.  The 9th District, now includes just the southeast part of Mecklenburg and a number of counties along the South Carolina border.  It will be a much more closely contested district than the current NC9.

The newly proposed 12th is one of three heavily Democratic districts in the state - meaning many North Meck voters accustomed to having a House Republican representing them in Washington, DC will almost certainly have a Charlotte Democrat in that spot.

Another quirk of this new map is that neither Republican vying for the current NC9 nomination will live in the new NC12.  Rouco is in Mooresville and Pittenger is in the new 9th.  Also, Alma Adams who represents the current 12th district won't live in the new 12th district.

What this means is that unless the NCGA reopens filing to allow for new candidates to enter the race, the 12th is unlikely to to be represented by someone who lives in the district - a situation which is actually allowed at the Federal level.

The proposed new map throws much of the state into disarray with some equally strange circumstances going on in other districts.

One has to almost wonder if the NCGA did this on purpose to make it difficult for the Feds to approve it and put pressure on the US Supreme Court to let the old districts stand...at least for this election.

Stand Up NC Hosts Vince Coakley to Standing Room Only Crowd

Steve Bennett Kicks Off the Evening

The Charles Mack Center in Mooresville was packed tonight with conservative voters and candidates coming out to see special guest Vince Coakley from WBT Radio.

By the end of the evening a standing room only crowd of nearly 150 was in attendance.  After roughly 20 minutes of opening remarks, Coakley began taking questions.   Energy was still high and the questions were flowing over 90 minutes into the evening.

Rep Myrick's hand-picked successor? I think I'll make my own choice.

Coming as a surprise to nobody, Republican Sue Myrick endorsed Jim Pendergraph as her hand picked successor Monday - following that up quickly with an email blast seeking fundraising support for the former Democrat running in the heavily Republican and newly re-drawn NC-9 Congressional District.

Davidson Moves to New Congressional Home - Says Goodbye to NC-12

This year Davidson moves to its new congressional district after the redistricting effort last year in the state legislature based on the 2010 Census.  What does this mean for the average Davidson voter? Well if you are one of the growing number of Republican or conservative independent voters in town it means you'll likely be able to elect a candidate to your liking for the first time in a long time.  (See new map at right from ncleg.net., old map below from nationalatlas.gov)

FlackCheck.org Meets Mecklenburg Politics

A funny thing happened last night when I got home from Dr Kathleen Jamieson's lecture at Davidson College on ugly campaign tactics. Waiting right there in my inbox was an email that made me think "does this qualify?"

Sue Myrick bails...NC-9 Fiscal Conservatives Go From Frying Pan into Fire?

Sue Myrick's choice to leave Congress at the end of this term, gives NC voters a chance to put a real fiscal conservative in that seat. I'm not sure they'll get the chance though.

Sue Myrick is certainly a strong foreign policy conservative, and she may be a good social conservative too.  However, I stopped seeing her as any sort of fiscal conservative when she supported the Charlotte Streetcar project back in 2010 to the tune of #$25M.  See her letter of support here.  This letter came in late in the project's application process for Federal grant money and likely put the project over the top by rounding out support from our local congressional delegation.  (The line doesn't even go into her old 9th district by the way.)  It was the last nail in the coffin for any effort to prevent what will surely be a huge waste of money.

Here's a link about Democrat Jim Pendergraph running for Sue Myrick's seat.  No, you didn't misread that.

That link is from 2007 when speculation was rampant that then Democrat Pendergraph was planning to run for the 9th District seat even back then.  Pendergraph was leaving Mecklenburg County for what turned out to be a short-lived Washington job at Homeland Security.  While in DC working under the Bush administration, he switched parties to become a Republican.

Now that he's thrown his hat in the ring for the newly redrawn NC-9, we'll get to see how far that conversion from Democrat to Republican has truly come.  My guess is not far enough for some in the GOP.