Gerrymandering/Redistricting

“The winner is chosen in the primary and the primary draws, for lack of a better way of saying it, the most extreme and emotional voters,” said Bob Phillips, who leads the redistricting reform group Common Cause NC. He said he’s heard state legislators on both sides of the aisle complain that their party’s leaders instruct them not to even mingle with the other side when they’re in Raleigh, let alone vote with them. “We’ve seen it in Raleigh and seen it in Washington,” he said. “Folks that come have no incentive to compromise because they’ll only be punished for it.” Phillips said House Bill 2, the controversial 2016 law that became known nationally as the “bathroom bill” and ended up costing North Carolina millions of dollars, is an example of politicians supporting polarizing bills. It’s OK for them to pass laws that please their base even if it goes against popular opinion, he said, because gerrymandering insulates them from any fallout. The state legislative districts in use at the time were later ruled unconstitutional gerrymanders, and Phillips said that looking at those maps, 92% of those who voted for HB2 in the N.C. House either didn’t have an opponent in their previous election or won it by double digits. Phillips said he blames gerrymandering in part for this, since it tends to make politicians beholden more to their party’s furthest wings, but he also blames also other factors, including media coverage focused on the most extreme views from either side. “It may also embolden you to speak in a more shrill, harsh, attacking mode,” he said. “We’ve certainly seen that decline in civility.”

“What’s really sad about all of this for Ohio voters: not that many people vote in primaries anyway," said Mia Lewis, associate director of the good-government group Common Cause Ohio. "What’s going to be the incentive for an Ohio voter to bother to pay attention and figure all of this out?”

Voter rights groups are suing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his secretary of state and lawmakers in a bid to throw out redrawn congressional districts, saying the governor inappropriately influenced the once-a-decade process. The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Tallahassee by Common Cause Florida and Fair Districts Now, two non-partisan groups advocating for good government. The complaint states DeSantis overstepped his executive powers to propose his own maps to favor Republicans. It says his plans violate state and federal laws protecting the redistricting process against partisan gerrymandering. DeSantis’ plans would likely eliminate two Black plurality districts. The lawsuit says his first plan also weakened one Hispanic district, favoring Republican candidates.

Today, a panel of Common Cause’s redistricting experts briefed the media on the major victories local communities are winning in their efforts to transform redistricting into a citizen-led process.

Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, a group defending the state's new districts, called Monday's action a victory. "We're pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the legislative defendants' shameless attempt to impose their gerrymandered congressional map upon North Carolina," Phillips said.