Redistricting reform bills to get committee hearing in House

With all of that uncertainty, the House Redistricting Committee will talk about changing the way North Carolina draws election maps, debating bills that would take at least some of the legislative power and partisanship out of the process. This is the first time in years a long-standing reform effort has gotten a committee hearing.

Three bills with bipartisan support will get hearings: House Bill 69, House Bill 140 and House Bill 648. Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, a sponsor on two of the bill's and one of redistricting reforms most vocal supporters at the statehouse, said he was promised hearings. After that, the bills' fates are unsure, but two of them have enough co-sponsors to pass the House if leadership sends them to the floor.

McGrady said he doubts any of the bills will move forward as is, but a consensus bill may be crafted. House Redistricting Chairman David Lewis, the chamber's point man for years on drawing maps, said Tuesday that he's "genuinely open to a better way to draw districts."

Lewis, R-Harnett, has consistently defended the House's current map-making process in court. He routinely is the lead defendant in lawsuits attacking North Carolina maps as racial or partisan gerrymanders.

"If a workable plan can be reached, I hope it makes it to the floor," Lewis said.

Support in the Senate is less clear. Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and other GOP leadership in the chamber supported reforms in the past, when Democrats controlled the legislature and the map-making process. Back then, it was Democrats who opposed the change.

Sen. Terry Van Duyn, D-Buncombe, who is running for lieutenant governor in 2020, said on Twitter that reforms "won't happen until senate turns over" and Democrats are back in charge.

House Bill 69 has 66 sponsors out of the House's 120 members. It would create an appointed commission that would hold public hearings and draw maps, and the legislature would vote those maps up or down.

House Bill 140, which has 63 sponsors, would ask voters to change the state constitution. If passed, legislative staff would draw maps, and the General Assembly would vote on them. The ground may have shifted under this bill, particularly when it comes to Democratic support. Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the Democratic Party's point man on redistricting at the national level, came out against the bill last month, saying it doesn't go far enough.

House Bill 648 creates a new commission that would hire an expert to draw maps, with the commission choosing one of those maps to submit to the General Assembly. The General Assembly could alter that map before final passage. This bill has 25 sponsors.

The process right now allows legislators to draw maps, effectively letting them pick their own constituents as they and party consultants comb through past voting results to draw reliable Republicans and Democratic voters into districts using computer programs, increasing the chances that one party or the other will win a district.

The House committee meeting was initially planned for Wednesday, but it has been moved to Thursday at 9 a.m. in room 643 in the Legislative Office Building.