Editorial: Unhappy legislators sling mud at court

Republican leaders in the General Assembly are upset at the prospect that a court-ordered plan to fix their unconstitutional gerrymandered voter districts might lead to some competitive races in 2018.

After all, Senate leader Phil Berger, House Speaker Tim Moore and their redistricting lieutenants Rep. David Lewis and Sen. Ralph Hise probably feel like they’ve circumvented the U.S. and State Constitutions fair-and-square to manipulate voting districts so African-American voting influence is so mute that as few Democrats as possible get elected.

On the other hand, this shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that the legislature has been obsessed with weakening state judges and dismantling the state’s judicial system.

Referring to Persily as the “so-called ‘special master’” in their statement last week was disrespectful. Then they went on to describe him as a “left-wing California professor.” This is merely avoiding the issues. Calling names happens when the facts stack up against you.

The GOP leadership in the legislature may not like it, but the state and U.S. constitutions demand that all citizens have fair representation in government. It is a violation of citizens’ rights to rig election districts to deny some voters an equal voice because of their race.

Using a common sense approach, the gerrymandering proof isn’t hard to see. Just compare the shape of illegal state House of Representatives districts in Wake County drawn by the General Assembly with those proposed by Persily.

It is a redistricting map more inspired by Jackson Pollock than Thomas Jefferson. It is the result of an effort that’s first priority is to crush, at all costs, one political party rather than seek to assure all citizens are fairly represented.

The legislature’s redistricting plans have invariably been concocted in secret, keeping motives and methods far from the view of the public they serve. GOP leaders have also relied on their own taxpayer-financed “outside expert” for help drawing the gerrymandered maps, which is conveniently forgotten amid their outrage over Persily’s alternative plan.

There’s no mystery about what Persily’s done or how he’s done it. He has been open, transparent and explicit about his methods and criteria. Legislators and others have had broad opportunities for input. Rather than seeking ways to minimize some voters’ voices, Persily worked to give all voters a full voice in picking their representatives.

The only transparency coming out of the General Assembly these days is the hyper-partisan, inappropriate and insulting braying to impugn the work of a bipartisan panel of judges -- working simply to bring fairness to North Carolina’s elections.

You would think that’s a concept they should embrace.

Know this: Anyone with the temerity to disagree with our legislative leaders should be ready for a torrent of mud-slinging in the form of personal attacks and name-calling. They’re taking cues from the Donald Trump playbook.

North Carolina deserves better than this.