Idea Whose Time May Have Arrived

The Pilot Editorial
December 8, 2010

Voters, it has been said, should choose politicians — not the other way around.

But in North Carolina, politicians in Raleigh have been choosing their voters for a long time. They do so every 10 years by exercising the rather self-serving prerogative of drawing up the legislative districts from which they are elected.

And for longer than anyone can remember, the folks making those redistricting decisions — not to mention calling all the other legislative shots that matter — have been Democrats.

Now, as a result of last month’s tidal-wave election, Republicans are about to take control of the N.C. House of Representatives and Senate for the first time since the late days of Reconstruction. During the years in which they were out of power, GOP legislators long argued in vain for taking redistricting out of the hands of the General Assembly and turning it over to an independent, nonpartisan redistricting commission.

Now, maybe that can finally happen.

2021 Is a Long Time Off

Or maybe not. Though they say they still support the concept, some of the newly empowered Republicans now say that there isn’t time to establish such a commission via the method that has been advocated in the past, which involves an amendment to the state constitution requiring a vote of the people. Put that whole process off, they say, so that it takes effect for the 2021 legislature.

That’s a long time to wait — though it must be pointed out that the Democrats made the Republicans wait a lot longer than that. Like till the 12th of never.

Any Democrats agitating for the change now also risk looking like Johnny-come-latelies that have suddenly seen the light now that the bread is being buttered on the other side. But that doesn’t make the change any less desirable in concept. Several other states have already had the courage to set up independent redistricting commissioners, and now seems like a natural time for North Carolina to join them.

Perhaps this is one thing, at least, on which there could be some degree of bipartisan agreement.

Promises to Keep

There is another way to get from here to there without going the constitutional amendment route and without waiting for 10 more years. That would be for the House and Senate to create such a commission by statute early in next year’s session and then vote near the end of the session to approve or disapprove whatever maps the commission has decided to recommend.

In 2009, GOP Minority Leader Paul Sam and Whip Thom Tillis were among 20 House Republicans who co-sponsored a bill calling for the creation of an independent redistricting body. On the Senate side, 14 Republicans did the same thing in the last session. They included Minority Leader Phil Berger, who is expected to become president pro tem of the Senate in January.

It will be interesting to see what happens now. North Carolina Republicans rode into power on a mandate to change the ways things are done by elected leaders. Among other things, they pledged to comply with voter demands for more open and responsive government and fewer back-room power games. Here’s a good opportunity to live up to that promise.