|
Richard
Morgan and Democrat Party “Coalition” Violate
NC Constitution on Redistricting To
Destroy Republican House Majority Richard Morgan, the
“Republican” Co-Speaker, and the Democrat House Caucus, passed 2003
redistricting plans, prepared in secret, that violated the North Carolina
Constitution, in order to gerrymander House districts to ensure the Democrat
Party the majority of the House seats for the rest of the decade. Democrat-Morgan
Coalition Strips Judge, Limits Chief Justice Lake’s Authority To protect their
unconstitutional plan, Richard Morgan and Democrats even included an
unprecedented new law stripping the current judge of venue over the Stephens
redistricting case, and limiting the Chief Justice, Republican I. Beverly
Lake’s, power to designate judges to hear cases. This new law is itself
unconstitutional, but once again time and money will have to be spent to get it
declared unconstitutional. Democrat-Morgan
House Plan Clearly Unconstitutional There is no question that the
Democrat-Morgan House Redistricting Plan itself is unconstitutional. The North
Carolina Supreme Court has twice held that two previous redistricting plans
enacted by the Democrat majority were unconstitutional. The NC Supreme Court
held that the Legislature must follow the “Whole County Provision” by first
keeping as many single counties in tact as possible, next drawing as many two
county combinations as possible, and create as many groups or “clusters” of
counties, as possible. A comparison to the Republican alternative, “Remedial 14
Amendment,” makes this clear. Democrat-Morgan Remedial
14 NC
Constitution House Plan House Plan Requires Greatest
Number of: 10 11 Single
Counties 12 14 Two
County Groupings 36 39 Total
County Groupings Richard
Morgan Did Not Allow Republican Alternative Plans to be Heard The RNC, Republican National
Committee, experts prepared “Remedial
14 Amendment,” as an alternative that complied with the North Carolina
constitution. Morgan and Republican Redistricting Chairman Rick Eddins had
turned down offers of help from the RNC, preferring to work with the Democrats
in secret. Eddins never held a committee meeting, and Rep. Joe Kiser,
Republican Leader, never held a Republican House Caucus, where the RNC
constitutional alternatives could be presented and discussed. Morgan and the Democrats never allowed
Republicans to offer the plan as an amendment, or even speak on the
redistricting bill. The reason Morgan and the Democrats would not let
Republicans, other than Rick Eddins, speak or offer amendments, was because
they knew their own redistricting plan was unconstitutional compared to the
Remedial 14 Amendment plan: Alternative
Remedial 14 Plan Favors Republicans And Is Constitutional A constitutional plan, such
as Remedial 14, would also have ensured that when the majority of citizens
voted Republican for the NC House, then a majority of Republicans would have
been elected. The Democrat-Morgan plan ensures the Democrats control of the
House for the rest of the decade. Democrat-Morgan Remedial
14 Number
of Districts Won by Republicans House Plan House Plan in Elections
for: 66 75 Beverly
Lake, 2000 Chief Justice 54 64 Les
Merritt, 2000 State Auditor 45 48 Richard
Vinroot v. Mike Easley, 2000 Governor Supporters of Richard Morgan
argue that because Beverly Lake won 66 of the Democrat-Morgan House districts,
Republicans can expect to win 66 House seats in 2004. The problem is
Republicans always do better in judicial races than legislative races,
regardless of the candidate. And Beverly Lake was an extremely strong candidate
running against a weak Democrat. The more realistic race to use would be the
State Auditor where Republicans win only 54 seats under the Democrat-Morgan
Plan. Regardless, under the
Constitutional Remedial Plan, Republicans win 9 to 10 more House Districts than
they do under the Unconstitutional Democrat-Morgan Plan, using
either the Chief Justice or Auditors race! Democrat-Morgan
Plan Pack Republican Districts To Help Elect Democrat Majority Another measure used to
determine if a district can be won by a Republican, often cited by NCFREE, is
if it has Republican voter registration of 35% or more. Democrat-Morgan Remedial
14 House Plan House Plan Percent of
Voters Registered Republicans 56 61 Republican Registration of 35% or
more 12 7 Republican
Registration of 49% or more Again, the Democrat-Morgan
House Plan has only 56 districts where Republicans have 35% or more of the
registered voters. Remedial 14 has 61 such districts, clearly better than
Richard Morgan’s plan. Interesting enough the Democrat-Morgan plan has 12
districts with a Republican registration of 49% or better, compared to only 7
such districts in Remedial 14. What does it mean when Richard Morgan’s plan has
12 districts greater than 49% Republican, but only 56 greater than 35%
Republican? It means Richard Morgan joined the Democrats in “packing” a lot of
Republican voters in high percentage Republican districts, in order to make the
rest the districts more Democratic. This is a classic gerrymandering technique,
only this time it is being used by “Republican” Richard Morgan to prevent a
Republican majority. And in order to pack Republicans, he violated the NC
Constitution. Another
Payment On the Morgan-Democrat Deal for Co-Speakership Why would Richard Morgan
fight for and sue to uphold the unconstitutional Democrat-Morgan Plan,
when the Constitutional Remedial Plan will elect more Republicans? The answer is obvious. It
must be part of Richard Morgan’s deal, what he agreed to give Jim Black and the
Democrats, in order to be given the title “Co-Speaker.” First, it was rumored that
Morgan had agreed to give the Democrats the majority of House committee
chairmanship, including the sole Rules chairman so the Democrats could control
the flow of all legislation. This is exactly what happened. Next, it was rumored that
Morgan had agreed to give the Democrats “cover” to increase state taxes and
spending on another out of balance budget. Again, this is what happened. Morgan
led a handful of Republican House members to vote for higher sales taxes and
higher income taxes, the same tax increases that Republican legislators voted
against in 2001. Now, after giving away the
Republican House majority elected in 2002, after giving Democrats cover to
raise taxes, the main election issue, Morgan has also given the advantage to
the Democrats in redistricting, even though it required violating the NC
Constitution. Republicans
Lose, Democrats Gloat Richard Morgan got his title
of Co-Speaker. The Democrats gave Morgan the power to punish Republicans. And the people of the state who pay higher
taxes, and the majority of the people who elected a Republican House majority,
are the losers. And now Richard Morgan is
joining the Democrats in using our tax dollars to defend their unconstitutional
redistricting plan, and raising money to defeat Republicans in primaries. Is there any Legislator, any
member of the public, who really, still, believes Richard Morgan is acting for
the good of the state, or the good of the Republican Party and conservative
principles? Meanwhile the Democrats are
openly gloating and laughing about how they used Richard Morgan to steal the
majority away from the Republicans and the people who voted Republican. And now
with political cover on their tax increases and new legislative districts,
their power is secure for the rest of the decade. And all they had to do was
give Richard Morgan a title and nice offices! There Is
Hope, If You Act Our hope is that the courts
will continue to uphold the North Carolina Constitution and strike down, for a
third time, the Legislature’s unconstitutional gerrymandering. And, in
Constitutional districts, the Republican grassroots, activist and donors will
rally and defeat Richard Morgan and his supporters in the primaries. Otherwise, the Democrats will
be in control, using Morgan as a front, regardless of the will and vote of the
majority of our citizens for Republicans. |