NC Senate panel approves congressional plan that would help GOP candidates in next decade

[The Northerner]

Raleigh, NC -- A state legislative committee on Friday recommended congressional district boundaries for North Carolina that would diminish chances for as many as four Democratic incumbents to win re-election in 2012.

The Senate Redistricting Committee agreed on a party-line vote in favor of the Republican-penned map after rejecting a mountain lawmaker's changes that would have kept all of Buncombe County in the 11th Congressional District.

Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, said area residents are angry about the GOP plan because it would take about 130,000 Buncombe residents currently in the 11th District and represented by Democrat Heath Shuler and move them to the Republican-leaning 10th District for the next 10 years.

"They feel like you have neutered them politically," Nesbitt told colleagues before the amendment was defeated on a similar party-line vote. He said his proposal, which also would have put Polk County in the 11th District and returned Burke and Caldwell to the 10th, "draws a good concise district for the western part of the state. It's what the people up there want."

Read more: http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/b957619ff1fa4a82b3f60df15df1512e/NC-XGR--Redistricting/

[AndyTiedye]

1. Gerrymandering Could Easily Cost us 50 House Seats Nationwide

Looks like we're losing 4 seats in NC to gerrymandering,
7 or so in Texas, half a dozen in some other state last week.
This is really starting to add up.
The Teabaggers control 27 states. If we lose just 2 in each to gerrymandering, that's 54 seats.

Do we have any way to fight this?