Governor's footdragging on filling Watt's seat unacceptable

Residents of the 12th Congressional District will go without representation in the U.S. House until November due to a cynically partisan decision by Gov. Pat McCrory.

The Republican announced Monday he will not schedule a special election to replace former Rep. Mel Watt, a Charlotte Democrat who left Congress Jan.1 to become director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Special House elections typically occur within several months of a departure.

Instead, the state will add the election of a 12th District representative for the remainder of Watt’s term to the regular 2014 campaign schedule. That means the district’s 600,000-plus citizens will have no representation until after Nov. 4, Election Day.

The 12th District, which runs from metro Charlotte to the Triad and contains portions of Forsyth County, is heavily Democratic.

McCrory offered three reasons for delaying the vote -- the potential cost of more than $1 million, the possibility of confusing voters and efficiency.

The cost rationale is insulting. Having a representative in Washington is well worth the cost, especially in terms of bringing home tens of millions of dollars in federal help.

As for confusion, it will be more so holding two elections for the same congressional seat, the first for the last two months of Watt’s term and the second for the two-year term of 2015-2016.

As for efficiency, democracy is notoriously inefficient. Despotism is efficient.

The real reason is partisan politics. The U.S. House is in Republican control by a 233-200 margin -- with two vacancies – and while that margin is large, it can’t hurt McCrory’s Republican friends to have one less bothersome Democrat to contend with.

By the way, the other House vacancy occurred when a Florida Republican died last fall. There, Republican Gov. Rick Scott has scheduled a primary and general election for this winter, almost certainly adding another Republican to the House.