Local Democrat Gerrymandering, Continued

In the midst of the Greensboro City Council redistricting controversy, I had an interesting conversation with a long-term local political operative whom I shall not name.  This person had a wealth of information regarding the history of local Democrats' gerrymandering, and other manipulations they effected with the electoral process.  Here is some of the information this person shared with me: 

1. One key element of the gerrymandering that took place on the Board of County Commissioners was the creation and subsequent gerrymandering of so-called "majority minority" district seats.  These are the disticts that contain a fairly high percentage of black voters.  The federal Voting Rights Act requires that opportunities be afforded for minority representation with the formation of election districts.  But my source claimed that local Democrats went way beyond the requirements of the federal Voting Rights Act.  Apparently, the district lines for the three "majority-minority" seats were drawn so they all would be solidly in the Democratic column; and so that Republicans could not hope to be competitive in these districts. 

2. I had reported earlier this week about how two Democratic state legislators from Greensboro during the early '90's passed legislation to increase the size of the county board and to create district seats.  I am told that happened, at least in part, because local Democrats felt that Republicans had been winning too many county commissioners' seats until that time.

3. Interestingly, I am told that Jim Melvin was a part of some of these efforts.  The creation of district seats on the City Council and the gerrymandering of Greensboro City Council seats occurred in part to help Democrats win elections.

4. The effects of Democratic gerrymandering locally have even affected judicial districts and the election of judges.  This is probably one of the reasons why we have such a weak criminal justice system and bad crime conditions locally.

Similarly, Democratic manipulations of elections for the Board of County Commissioners have had one big impact.  That is the current fiscal crisis facing our county.  Many years of overspending and poor stewardship have taken their toll.

In any event, this information adds even further to the overall picture of Democratic gerrymandering and manipulations of the elections process in our county over the last quarter century to tilt the playing field in their favor.  Consider all this information in the context of the huge upwelling of outrage that materialized last week in response to Republicans attempting to redistrict the City Council.  Democratic activists attending the council meeting, and their accomplices in various local media, went berserk without even considering what they themselves had perpetrated and allowed in our area for many years.  It was the most brazen demonstration of political and journalistic hypocrisy I had ever seen.  These folks had benefited from all kinds of gerrymandering and electoral manipulations in the recent past.

That is why I called on these media voices to challenge the county commissioners to make the situation right.  Unfortunately, the response from the local media thus far has been fairly muted.  It seems they are not terribly interested in correcting Democratic transgressions, at least thus far.  But we will keep talking about it.

Comments

[triadwatch]

i will also add this to the mix in that there was over 30 plus people crammed into a small room at gtcc last night with plenty of them there to talk to the chairman of the redistricting committee and was there one media outlet there to cover this meeting, NO. Not even one reporter showed up.

It amazed me even if there was a reporter there with all that is going on at the state legislature and needed to talk with some of the state legislature because they were there for example, vaughan, robinson, adams, harrison, jeffus,and faircloth along with rucho heading the meeting were present and cordial to everyone.

[Dr. Mary Johnson]

Heavy sigh. As it pertains to the local press, it's business as usual.