One of the best things about 2016 coming to an end is that, at midnight, we’ll have a new governor of North Carollna. Before he goes, though, Pat McCrory wants to cause a little more trouble.
With just one day to go before Gov. Pat McCrory (R) leaves office, it appears North Carolina Republicans are throwing a legal Hail Mary to the U.S. Supreme Court in another effort to undermine the incoming Democratic governor’s ability to govern.
Lawyers for GOP state legislative leaders filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to pause a court-ordered special elections for more than two dozen state legislative districts in 2017 — special elections in which Democrats could have an opportunity to pick up seats in North Carolina’s GOP-dominated legislature.
A federal court found in the summer that 28 state House and Senate districts were racially gerrymandered, but the three-judge panel made the unusual decision to let the election go forward in those districts because it decided it was too late to redraw the maps. After the election, the court ordered the legislature to redraw the lines by March and hold special elections later in 2017.
Now, Republicans appear to be making one more, last-minute attempt to stop all that from going forward.
When the ball drops, I’ll spend a moment celebrating the changing of the guard in the Tarheel State.
Me too.
Who’s on rotation in the Supreme Court as this Hail Mary receiver? Alito?
Roberts.
Figures. Bummer.
Republicans are like the sociopath who doesn’t even try to hold the mask in place anymore.
There is no reason to hide it. Near 50% of the population will either reward it, or ignore it.
In a just world NC would see a wave election wipe the R’s out…but we don’t live in a just world.
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It would help if there was a functioning party in these states but there isn’t.
Absolutely true — but what if it doesn’t matter?
Here’s the Moral Mondays movement taking credit for McCrory’s defeat.
First, Tarheel, is that a valid claim?
If it is, two things:
If the Democratic Party is dead, it’s really no problem. Screw the Democrats. Go with an organization that can win.
Pretty much a valid claim as Moral Monday did more election protection than the Democratic Party at first, but eventually they got Democrats to join with them.
Establishment Democrats had trouble with Moral Monday being a fusion party that would accept support from Republicans and would support Republicans who signed on to their agenda. Democrats should not have worried; there were few Republicans willing to face the wrath of the bigots.
There are Moral Monday organizations in several states inside and outside the South and were attributed with some narrower margins for Trump than expected.
Those districts tend to be heavily Democratic district that were fragmented into more heavily Democratic districts and enough-Republicans-to-have-another-safe-district districts. If the boundaries of the districts are restored or redrawn, they likely will return to Democratic control but it still will take field operations. Moral Monday will likely not officially find candidates unless they can pick both sides of the general election. They are officially a fusion movement run out of a non-profit organization NC-NAACP.
The Democratic Party still has the corporate seal, the business donor base (although much reduced), the hungry consultants, the network of connections, and the geographically-limited schedule of events. The brand is toxic in many parts of the state because of Mike Easley and Bev Perdue and because of national delegitimization of the brand through the conservative media cartel. Establishment Democrats can be a problem because they can run just with funds and no field staff. And they still have the illusion that they need to be like Republicans to win (especially now in pandering to bigots and business interests). That is, without some dramatic changes in priorities, the establishment Democrats can be more of a problem than a help.
For a slightly different view, keep up with Tom Sullivan of digby’s Hullabaloo. He’s in a different part of the state and has a different perspective on what needs to be done.
I have read that it was a fatal mistake to allow the local Dem party to pre-empt the Wisconsin movement to get rid of Walker and others.
So Barber is hoping to take the MM national? Well, there are some 39(?)gubernatorial races that need attention, yes?
It was indeed a fatal mistake. The backstory is complicated; the synopsis is that the movement to recall Walker had as its sole basis of unity the slogan “Recall Walker”. But based on this we were able in 60 days, in the middle of winter, to gather over 2 million names on petitions to recall Walker, the Lt. Governor, and 4 other state senators.
All those names is a great thing to have but when it came time for the election we had bupkis. We were at that point a little like the dog that finally catches the car and has to figure out what to do. We were completely unorganized (meaning: structurally set up just completely wrong) for the election stage so we had to rely on the Democrats to provide the candidate and the campaign; and you know the rest of the story.
That was partly what led to my comment. If I understand what Tarheel is saying correctly, it sounds like MM is in a situation somewhat similar to ours in 2012: strong enough to challenge the power of the right wing and change the political context in an important way but not quite strong enough (or not organized quite right) to consolidate the gains from that.
I’d be willing to believe that Barber is trying to take MM national (though I’ll defer to Tarheel’s insight on this if he cares to comment) but it’s not the highest of priorities for them right now. Success in this would depend very much on strength of local NAACP chapters and that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms. So he does what he can to spread the word and stir up trouble. I think in his line of work it’s called spreading bread upon the waters…
Remember that Barber is the head of the NC NAACP. Taking the Moral Monday movement national so far has involved the state NAACPs and Barber’s network of clergy as a base network. Their first priority is to turn out people in the streets in North Carolina and especially in Raleigh when the General Assembly is in session.
Yes, there must be the tapping of a network that has legitimacy and presence in wide swaths of the geography in those 17 districts to put up candidates and win outside of the established two-party structures. That is a strategy and set of tactical actions that has got to be the edge of progressive thinking going forward. How do you get your narrative heard in all of those 100 counties of North Carolina in such a way that it is part of the local fabric (because there are people there who agree). Getting participation from the local areas on which to build a base is going to be the immediate and absolutely toughest challenge. Getting them to identify independent candidates to vet in a grassroots way is the second toughest challenge. Especially as hunkered down and burned over as a lot of small town and rural areas are about politics.
In some respects you have to look back 40 years to when the Republicans were in a similar situation strategically in the South.
It has to be some sort of fusion movement party that can legitimately draw from rump Democrats and dissatisfied Republicans who now hate what the General Assembly has done. Fusion movements tend to be temporary and tend to be opposition movements. This would be the time for such a movement to start vetting candidates in those 17 districts under court review and maybe trying to organize a district primary of several fusion candidates to (1) build interest; (2) get name recognition; (3) lay some policy agendas on the table; (4) provide a reason to canvass people. Just a thought.
VidaLoca, I think you’ve got a good grasp of where we are here.
Take a brief breath.
Cooper was sworn in after midnight last night (usually it’s lax enough to wait to noon on January 1). Looking for reports of moving trucks actually leaving the Governor’s Mansion with the McCrorys’ personal effects.
The Director of the Department of Natural and Community Resources gave himself a $90K merit system job within the agency. It will be interesting to see how he gets canned under merit system rules for cause. I would go for a corrupt hire charge myself.