Redistricting revisit

By Phil Kirk, former State Board of Education chairman and NC SPIN panelist, published in News and Observer, May 27, 2014.

Forty-three years ago as a young, naive Republican state senator from Rowan County, I introduced a bill to provide for a constitutional amendment that would set up a nonpartisan redistricting commission to handle legislative and congressional redistricting every 10 years. I felt it was the only reasonable and fair way to remove partisan politics from the process. Not only did the Democrats refuse to permit the Senate to vote on submitting the proposal to the voters, they would not even allow it to be considered in committee!

With the Republicans now firmly in control of the legislative and executive branches and the Supreme Court, some members of the minority party have finally seen the light and favor the approach I suggested 43 years ago, and one that has been re-introduced nearly every session since then.

Some House Republicans support the idea but propose writing the commission into law rather than placing it in the Constitution. That is a bad idea because any legislature could easily revert to the partisan approach.

While I still favor a nonpartisan commission, I understand and support the Republicans doing the redistricting for the next 150 years. Then we will be “even” and can implement a nonpartisan commission.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/05/27/3891570/phil-kirk-redistricting-revisit.html?sp=/99/108/