Few would argue the polarization of politics isn’t causing some kind of problem. One of the reasons for that polarization is redistricting – how individual Congressional districts are drawn. Western North Carolina saw the immediate effect of partisan redistricting more than anywhere else in the state. But reforms are unlikely to occur.
North Carolina is like most states in the U.S. – the party in power in the state legislature has a huge hand in redrawing Congressional districts every 10 years. In 2011, Republicans controlled the North Carolina General Assembly, and the redrawn lines for the following year’s election reflected that says Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper. “The 11th Congressional District for example went from being the most competitive district in the state to be the most Republican district in the state overnight.”
The 11th district used to encompass all of Western North Carolina, but now it only contains half of heavily Democratic Buncombe County and the city of Asheville. That allowed the seat to flip from Democrat Heath Shuler to Republican Mark Meadows in 2012. One solution to such drastic redrawing – or gerrymandering depending on which end of the outcome you’re on - is to have independent commissions redraw the districts in each state. That’s something Chris Cooper says 13 states have already done to varying levels of success. “For example, California has pretty close to a true independent redistricting commission. It sets the number of Democrats, it sets the number of Republicans, and it sets the number of independents. As a result they’ve been pretty successful. Other states like Arkansas have created very small independent redistricting commissions that consist of elected officials.”
A bill in the North Carolina General Assembly would create a ‘non-partisan’ commission that cannot consist of elected officials, nor those elected or appointed to an official position within a political party. Republican Representative Chuck McGrady of Hendersonville is one of the sponsors of it, but his fellow Republicans at least in party leadership are cool to the idea. The measure is not scheduled to get an official hearing in Raleigh, ending any chance of it passing. Even if independent redistricting caught on, not just in North Carolina but in all 50 states, Chris Cooper doesn’t think it would have much of an effect on political polarization.
“Ideology - whether I’m a liberal or conservative – and partisanship – whether I’m a Democrat or Republican – have now come into almost perfect alignment. As late as the 1970’s, about a quarter of all Democrats called themselves conservatives. That meant people across party lines could find some places to agree. At this point that number is in the single digits.”
One state this year did pass independent redistricting – Maryland. But that Democratic-backed measure (vetoed by Maryland's Republican governor) said the Bay State would only set up an independent commission if five neighboring states in the Mid-Atlantic region joined them in doing so. One of those five states – North Carolina.
