For years I have been writing my legislators in Raleigh, asking them to gerrymander my house out of Senate District 38 and down the road to District 37.
My state senator, Joel Ford, is a DINO placeholder who accomplishes little and can afford to ignore constituent concerns. He's in a district the Republicans stacked to make it easier to win the ones around it. With 80% victory margins, all Ford has to do to stay in office is breathe.
Next door in District 37, Senator Jeff Jackson is also a Democrat, but one who actually stands for things. His main claim to fame is *not* that Republicans love him.
My state senator, Joel Ford, is a DINO placeholder who accomplishes little and can afford to ignore constituent concerns. He's in a district the Republicans stacked to make it easier to win the ones around it. With 80% victory margins, all Ford has to do to stay in office is breathe.
So I've been writing to get my house switched to Senator Jackson's district. I figured it out: a pathway just a few miles long will do it! "It shouldn't be hard for your experts," I wrote Senate boss Phil Berger.
District 38 is grey. District 37 is yellow.
And now I have proof it can be done. This Senator, Clark, got his district run five miles out to his house.
All I need is a squiggle down some local streets to the 16/77 intersection, then a straight shot down Brookshire.
Can you help now, Senate Republicans?
Democratic state Sen. Ben Clark of the Rockfish area in Hoke County has been critical of gerrymandering — the practice of drawing election maps with odd shapes to benefit one political side and harm the other.
This past week, Clark received what critics might call a gerrymander that benefits him.
But Clark said it was something the Republicans wanted to keep him out of Senate District 19, held by Republican Sen. Wesley Meredith.
Clark lives in District 21. He also recently built a second home in eastern Cumberland County in Meredith’s District 19. The new home spawned speculation that Clark would move there to run against Meredith. Clark said he has no plans to do so.
Still, this past week as the Republican-controlled legislature worked on revisions to the state House and Senate district boundaries, the Senate Redistricting Committee adjusted the boundaries of the proposed Senate 21 to encompass Clark’s new house.
The committee, including Clark, voted unanimously to add a wedged-shaped peninsula to Senate 21 that runs nearly 5 miles along N.C. 24 from the Cape Fear River to Baywood Road east of Interstate 95. This includes Clark’s new house near the Interstate 95 interchange at N.C. 24.
According to data from the 2010 Census, the Clark extension moves about 1,055 people out of the proposed Meredith Senate 19 district into the proposed Clark Senate 21 district.
Clark overall dislikes the proposed new legislative districts. He said they are gerrymandered to maintain the Republicans’ veto-proof super-majority control of the General Assembly despite the state’s voters being closer to 50-50 in their partisan voting for president, governor and other statewide elections.
“The inclusion of my second home within District 21 is a minor improvement to a still unacceptable plan,” Clark said Friday.
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