THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 10, 1997 TAG: 9701100502
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 64 lines
Congressional redistricting in North Carolina is expected to be a desk-pounding and rafter-rattling issue in the General Assembly this year with Senate Democrats threatening to ignore the Republican House and write a solo voting-rights bill for federal approval.
``We've had our own Select Committee on Redistricting in place for some time but we've yet to meet with our opposite numbers in the House,'' Sen. Frank W. Ballance Jr., the Warren County deputy-pro-tem of the Senate, said Wednesday in Raleigh.
``We're now considering writing our own bill and submitting it for approval to the three judges of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.''
Redistricting in North Carolina has been an emotionally wrenching topic ever since the General Assembly in 1992 redrew the state's congressional districts to include two new areas created to favor the election of minority candidates.
In the new 1st Congressional District, Rep. Eva M. Clayton, D-Warren, became the first female and the first black elected to Congress from North Carolina. In the new 12th District, Rep. Mel Watt, D-Mecklenburg, who is black, easily won election from the Charlotte area. Both Clayton and Watt won re-election in November.
Ballance was Clayton's campaign manager in both of her successful 1st District elections, and he is widely expected to succeed her in the House.
But last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Watt's 12th District was unconstitutional because race was a deliberate factor in redrawing the new voting area. To achieve the required voter balance, both of the new districts have shapes that have been described as ``Rorschach blots'' or ``amoebas.''
The Supreme Court returned the 12th District case to the federal tribunal in Raleigh with instructions to have legislators redraw the 12th District to conform with U.S. Voting Rights guidelines.
The three U.S. judges told the legislators to come up with a better 12th District by April, and that will be the challenge before the legislators at the new session.
Each of the state's 12 congressional districts holds about 500,000 voters, but any change in the makeup of one district automatically requires adjustments that change the numbers in most - or all - of the remaining districts.
In the northeast, Clayton's 1st District seems to have earned acceptance, even though it follows a convoluted path from the Virginia border almost to the South Carolina line. The 12th District, however, is mostly a narrow, serpentine track between Charlotte and Durham and in some places it is no wider than I-85.
Ballance said the federal tribunal ``has given us until April to produce an acceptable redistricting bill. If our Senate bill is, in the court's judgment, the best legislation, then we feel they can approve it without participation by the House.''
Fifteen heavy hitters in the Senate, including Ballance and some Republicans, were named to the Senate's Select Redistricting Committee by Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, with the tacit understanding that they could face a less than friendly Republican House.
The House is still Republican, but the margin is narrower than it was after the previous congressional elections. There are now 61 Republicans and 59 Democrats in the House. The Senate remains Democratic with 30 Democrats and 20 Republicans.
KEYWORDS: REDISTRICTING NORTH CAROLINA