Guilford County commissioner unhappy with her party over redistricting plan (updated)

ORIGINAL POST: Guilford County Commissioner Linda Shaw, a Republican, expressed displeasure about a redistricting plan created by her party. She confronted Jon Firebaugh, the vice chair of the Guilford County Republican Party, about changes to her district. She also complained that Firebaugh did not share earlier plans with her until she asked for them.

Guilford County commissioner confronts GOP county VC, part 1 from Jordan Green on Vimeo.



Untitled from Jordan Green2 on Vimeo.



Untitled from Jordan Green2 on Vimeo.



Untitled from Jordan Green on Vimeo.



UPDATE: Firebaugh acknowledges he misspoke when he said that Shaw only represents one Summerfield precinct.

"She was right," he says. "I was wrong."

Firebaugh says he had another map in mind when he made the statement. In fact, District 3, which Shaw represents, includes all four Summerfield precincts and two Oak Ridge precincts. Her complaint about the map drawn by her party is that it draws her out of a significant portion of her current district.

Firebaugh says he apologized to Shaw on Joe Guarino's blog, and plans to do so directly, too.

(Production note: I'm attempting to process additional video from yesterday's exchange, and plan to post it in sequence. The slow progress is frustrating.)

UPDATE 2: The final fourth video (third in the sequence) is posted.

Linda Shaw take-away quote: "“I am disappointed that my Republican Party that I have worked 50 years for has come to this.”

The feeling is apparently mutual.

"Frankly, I’m disappointed in Linda Shaw," Guilford County Republican Party Executive Director Michael Picarelli told me today. He added that for years Republicans have complained about Democratic gerrymandering, and Shaw should understand that the process is not about her.

The plan created by the Guilford County GOP would have drawn Shaw into a new district that shifted southward, and shed Summerfield, Stokesdale and Oak Ridge precincts to create a new district stretching across northern Guilford County.

After Firebaugh left yesterday, Shaw complained to commission Chairman Skip Alston and Commissioner Kay Cashion, both Democrats: "This is pitiful, pathetic. Now, Don Wendelken and Sam Spagnola can run without having to beat me."

Spagnola and Wendelken, who respectively reside in Oak Ridge and Summerfield, each ran for Shaw's seat in 2006, and Spagnola challenged her again last year.

Picarelli said the northern district was not drawn to favor any prospective candidates. He also said that Shaw's new district would have given her a healthy percentage of registered Republican voters to protect her from a Democratic challenger.

"Our consideration when we drew the maps was reducing the number of districts, not touching the minority districts and could we possibly get four Republicans elected," he said. "That's it."

Initially, the Republicans had hoped to reduce the number of districts from nine to six, but Picarelli said any map with less than eight districts would have failed the retrogression test and would likely have been rejected by the US Justice Department.

Picarelli also said the party wanted to avoid making the same mistake as the Greensboro City Council, when the majority faction initially passed a redistricting plan that was criticized as being retrogressive, or harmful to minority voters.

"When the commissioner map was looked at that was one thing that was looked at over and over again," he said. "Six and three was what we initially wanted. The only way to do that was to have two minority districts, and there was no way to do that without diluting one of the minority districts."

Picarelli said he is happy that the NC Senate passed a bill today to reduce the number of seats, but disappointed that the legislative action gives the Democratic-dominated commission the right to draw lines for themselves. He said he expects that the commission will draw a map that creates only three Republican-leaning seats and will contort the lines to ensure that Democrats retain their advantage.

UPDATE 3: Binker reports that both houses of the General Assembly have passed the bill reducing the number of districts in the Guilford County Commission to eight, but allowing the Democratic-controlled commission to draw the lines. Courtesy of the News & Record, here's the amended language that was approved.


1 comment:

Summerfield News said...

Jordan, Your video shows how Linda will turn an issue personal instead of what the issue is. Anyway, save this because this is the real Linda in action. If she runs again and evidently she is (per her comments) I know she will have competition.