by Christopher Cooper
As readers of this blog are no doubt aware, new maps dropped for North Carolina's congressional, state house and state senate districts last week. All four of us have been busy trying to understand what these maps might mean for representation in the Old North State. Here are a few quick links, graphs and tables that we hope will help others trying to do the same.
By Christopher Cooper
Nearing the end of its term, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in the highly anticipated Moore v. Harper case. Here are some quick reactions as to the critical points of the opinion (Michael Bitzer and I will likely have smarter and more informed takes after some more time has passed and after we've had a chance to read it a few more times).
Before we descend into the weeds, I'm going to pull back and attempt to provide a 10,000 foot nuance-free summary of how we got to this point. If you're the kind of person who has strong opinions on the independent state legislature theory (ISL), or is prepared to weigh in on the relative weight we should apply to so-called "natural packing" v. gerrymandering, this summary is not for you.
If, however, you've been paying attention to other things (hello: College World Series fans) and want to catch up quickly, this is for you. Just remember, as a nuance-free summary, it might get you through a cocktail party conversation, but not one filled with politicos or election lawyers.