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State Senate maps out
The Joint Redistricting Committee rolled out its proposed state Senate maps this afternoon. Here's some early observations.
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By Laura Leslie
The Joint Redistricting Committee rolled out its proposed state Senate maps this afternoon. There's a lot to process here, and much will be written in the next few days on particular districts, but here’s some highlights:
- Lots of shuffling around out west to account for population but doesn’t seem to put anyone out, except Sen. Debbie Clary who’s double-bunked with fellow Republican Warren Daniels, but Clary’s already planning to retire.
- Lots of shuffling around up in the northeast too, also necessary to account for population. Dem Stan White’s 1st district gets a little less safe with the loss of Washington and Tyrrell, now part of Dem Clark Jenkins’ 3.
- Jenkins expands north, shuffling Dem Ed Jones’s 4th over to Halifax, Warren and Vance, with a dip down through Nash to Wilson.
- The new 5th looks like a new majority-minority district – parts of Goldsboro, Greene, Lenoir, and Pitt. It looks open as far as I can tell. (Former D Sen Don Davis could be a contender if he still lives in Greene). Republican Louis Pate, now in 5, moves to the new 7, carved out of the same counties.
- Dem Doug Berger, now in old 7, would move to the new 18th, which still includes Franklin County but pushes south into Wake.
- Wake would be represented by 4.5 senators – the four now (Ds Stein and Blue, Rs Hunt and Stevens) plus the new 18th, which would take the eastern edge of the county.
- Democrats Ellie Kinnaird (Chapel Hill) and Bob Atwater (Durham) would now share a district and would have to fight it out next year.
- Brent Jackson’s 10th gets flipped around his home in Sampson Co. It used to go east into Duplin and Lenoir. Now it’s heading west into Harnett and Lee.
- Stan Bingham leaves High Point and picks up Montgomery. The resulting shuffle moves Jerry Tillman’s 29th into Moore, which used to be Harris Blake’s 22nd.
- Blake's district goes away, split between Jackson and Tillman.
- In the Triad, Senate Leader Phil Berger is double-bunked with Dem Don Vaughn.
- Also, Forsyth Republican Pete Brunstetter is now double-bunked with Dem Linda Garrou.
- Mecklenburg gets a whole new seat: 41st, running around the eastern edge of the county.
- Hoke is split off from Robeson and tied to Cumberland instead, snaking into Fayetteville to pick up voters. It looks like it’s splitting precincts left and right.
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