State Republican leaders scrambled Wednesday to distance themselves from comments made by U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, who suggested that his party would use race as a determining factor in redrawing North Carolina's congressional districts to give GOP candidates maximum advantage.
McHenry, who is from Cherryville, has emerged as a point man for the Republican effort to redraw the lines of the state's 13 congressional districts now that the GOP has won control of the state legislature. In an interview with the POLITICO news site, McHenry said Republicans would unseat incumbent Democrats by concentrating black voters into a new minority-majority district.
"Republicans should pick up three seats under any fair and legal map," he continued. "That is huge. No other states in the nation would gain as many Republican seats. Clearly, Reps. (Larry) Kissell and (Brad) Miller are serving their final term."
Democrats have worried for months that Republicans drawing the new district lines for the 2012 election could concentrate black and Latino voters into a third minority-majority district. State Sen. Dan Blue, a Democrat from Raleigh, has said that would amount to "ghettoizing" black voters to reduce their influence.
McHenry's remarks appear to be the first public confirmation that such a plan is in the works. The comments also come as legislators hold a series of public hearings across the state where residents have the opportunity to offer opinions about how the district lines are drawn.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/05/05/1176188/mchenry-gop-will-draw-districts.html#ixzz1LURut7wV