The fastest-growing congressional district- Mecklenburg’s 9th-is likely to be split
The single fastest-growing districts in North Carolina’s congressional, state Senate and state House are in the Charlotte area.
Congress
The 9th District, which includes southern Mecklenburg and parts of Gaston and Union counties, grew almost 38 percent – more than any of the state’s 12 other congressional districts.Lawmakers could put slices of the district represented by Republican Sue Myrick in neighboring districts represented by Democrats Mel Watt and Larry Kissell.
N.C. Senate
No Senate district grew more than District 35, which includes Union County and part of southern Mecklenburg County. It grew almost 57 percent.
The heavily Republican district will probably be split, giving the state’s fastest growing county more Senate clout.”It doesn’t surprise me based on what we’ve gone through,” said Sen. Tommy Tucker of Waxhaw. “Union County is a great place to live and work and raise a family.”
N.C. House
Freshman Rep. Craig Horn of Weddington represents more people than any lawmaker in the House. That’s because his District 68 in Union County grew 99 percent, more than any in the House. “It means that the new lines are going to impact me more than they’re going to impact anybody in the state,” said the Weddington Republican.
North Carolina’s political clout will shift to its exploding metro areas as lawmakers use new census numbers to redraw voting districts from Congress to the statehouse.Census figures released Wednesday show that Wake and Mecklenburg counties stand to be the biggest legislative winners, with each poised to add to already sizable delegations.
And the state’s two fastest-growing congressional districts centered in those metro areas almost certainly will be split, which will probably change the political calculus in a handful of districts.”It tells us once again that political power is increasingly concentrating in our big metro areas, with particular emphasis on the Research Triangle and Mecklenburg areas,” said Ferrel Guillory, a UNC Chapel Hill political analyst.
Wednesday’s numbers kick-start a process that will play out for months as lawmakers rearrange the state’s 289,000 census blocks. For the first time in more than a century, districts will be drawn by a Republican-controlled General Assembly.
Republicans, who often criticized what they called Democratic gerrymanders, say federal law and a series of recent court rulings will help ensure a fair process.”There’s been so much litigation on past redistricting plans that it really provides us a good platform on which to build fair and legal districts,” said Rep. David Lewis, a Harnett County Republican who chairs the House redistricting committee.”We’re concerned with (districts) being fair and legal much more than we are in trying to manipulate the data to our own advantage.”
Democrats are wary.
“North Carolinians expect to see a fair and open redistricting process,” said Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe. “Democrats will accept nothing less than legislative and congressional districts that are fair, legal and representative of all of North Carolina’s people.”
Redistricting will reflect population changes that saw 12 of the state’s 100 counties – mostly in urban and suburban areas – grow by more than 28 percent.The biggest growth – nearly 63 percent – came in Union County, reflecting Charlotte’s sprawling suburban growth. Four of the 12 fastest-growing counties are in the Charlotte metro area; another four are in the Raleigh metro area.
New districts will reflect the changes.
No congressional district grew faster than the 9th District, represented by Charlotte Republican U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick. It grew nearly 38 percent. The next fastest-growing was the 4th District, represented by Chapel Hill Democrat David Price. It grew almost 34 percent.Lawmakers could transfer thousands of Republican voters from Myrick’s district into the 8th, a swing district represented by Democrat Larry Kissell of Montgomery County.
Wake County could gain two seats in the state House while Mecklenburg gains at least one. Each county also could pick up a state Senate seat.Urban political gains could come at the expense of counties that have seen negative or relatively stagnant growth. Many of those are in the east or in counties such as Richmond and Scotland hit hard by economic reversals.
“Fourteen counties have half the voters in the state; the other 86 counties have the other half,” said John Davis, a Raleigh consultant who tracks state politics.”That means that half the state Senate and half the state legislature are going to be from those 14 counties. What we’re seeing is the consolidation of political power in this state in urban areas.”
Legal challenges delayed N.C. elections in 1998 and 2002. And no congressional district in the country has been litigated more than Democrat Mel Watt’s 12th, the source of four cases that went to the U.S. Supreme Court.
N.C. Sen. Dan Blue, a Wake County Democrat and former speaker, is from one of the fastest-growing districts in the state. He said the continuing shift toward urban areas heightens the responsibility of legislators representing urban and suburban areas to think about what’s best for rural areas lagging in growth – and clout.
“You can’t pit rural versus urban,” he said. “We have to remember there is still an obligation to the entire state.”
By Jim Morrill
jmorrill@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Thursday, Mar. 03, 2011
Lynn Bonner of the (Raleigh) News & Observer contributed.
