North Carolina Republicans Give Democrats a Big Boost, Unfortunately Its A Boost Towards Losing Their Status as a National Party

Thanks Anyway, but the Democrats Can Do This  Without Republican Help

A new re-districting plan was unveiled in North Carolina where the Republican controlled state legislature has total control of the process.  The new districts would take the current split of 7 to 6 in favor of Democrats to 9 to 4 or 10 to 3 in favor of Republicans.  This is accomplished by moving existing Democratic voters into solidly Democratic districts, leaving the Dems with 3 safe seats, and moving Republican voters into Republican leaning districts that are currently held by Democrats. [This type of partisan gerrymandering is done by both parties, nothing new here].

The Dismal Political Economist had earlier posted how a critical Democratic House member, Heath Shuler had three options, (1) run for re-election as a Democrat, (2)  change parties and run as a Republican and (3) leave Congress and  take a job as Athletic Director at the University of Tennessee.  Now Mr. Shuler looks like he is down to two choices, run as a Republican or return to UT where he starred in football.

Mr. Shuler has apparently not yet been offered the job at Tennessee, but if he is, well, lets say you don’t want to be standing in the road between D. C. and Knoxville if the offer does come.  As far as a political future is concerned, Mr. Shuler could turn around the sports program of the Volunteers and then run for office as a Republican (“I didn’t leave the Democratic party, the party left me”). 

All of this has national implications because about 40+ years ago the Democratic party started down the road of abandoning the Southern states, and in 2011 they are almost a non-entity in the South.  They have no significant political authority in government in  Texas, which is a critical state for national politics, and they are just totally non-existent in many other Southern states.  Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean had implemented a 50 state strategy for the party, but for some reason both he and the strategy are gone.

A future Democratic party may well be one that is fairly strong in the North east, the Mid-Atlantic states and the Pacific coast areas.  They may remain competitive in the population shrinking industrial states, and will have safely drawn minority districts in Southern cities. That could be it.

Not to worry, though there will still be competitive elections in states like North Carolina.  But those competitive elections will be in the Republican primaries, among candidates who are very conservative, extremely conservative and the ultra conservative residents of Crazytown. 

Here is a link to the information in North Carolina. 

General Assembly's 2011 redistricting database.