NORTH CAROLINA OPEN THREAD Sunday, November 7, 2021
338th Weekly Edition
This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this weekly platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we work on taking back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please join us every week. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads.
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Covid data 11/7/2021 1:00pm EDT
Click here for Covid-19 data from Worldometer Real Time World Statistics.
USA
NC |
Total
Cases |
New
Cases |
Total
Deaths |
New
Deaths |
Total
Recovered |
Active
Cases |
1,489,653 18,251 1,441,300 30,102
Redistricting
NC Policy Watch, Lynn Bonner, 11/4/2021
Maurice Holland Jr. laughed ruefully when he heard that a Republican Senate redistricting leader used Holland’s comments to justify a newly drawn congressional district. The district, which includes part of the Sandhills, that Republicans drew is the opposite of what Holland wanted.
“It’s a farce,” Holland said in an interview with Policy Watch. This week, Sen. Warren Daniel, one of his chamber’s redistricting chairmen, mentioned the names of 10 people whose comments he said were considered when drawing congressional districts.
Policy Watch interviewed four of those people. Three said that their comments were distorted and taken out of context to support a bad map. A fourth said his comment was not about the congressional map but did not object Daniel mentioning it or to the redistricting plan.
Legislators received thousands of comments on congressional, state House, and state Senate redistricting plans.
BlueNC, 11/3/2021
“These districts that are the ones that are in play have many, many less Democrats than we’d typically see,” Mattingly said. “The districts that are very safe for Democrats have a lot more Democrats, so they’ve been packed in it. And the districts that are very safe for Republicans actually have less Republicans, still leaving them safe.” The state House passed a bill for its new district lines Tuesday night, and the state Senate did the same for its own map Wednesday.
Nothing is likely to change as the maps wait for approval in opposite chambers. Pat Ryan, a spokesperson for Senate Republicans, said Wednesday he’d need more details on the Duke team’s analysis of congressional map proposals before commenting. Translated: Give me some time to find an errant word or two to criticize and distract people from seeing the obvious.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article255511481.html
BlueNC, 11/5/2021
Republicans said they offered Marcus a chance to draw her own district without a double-bunk. And she did so on Tuesday night, creating a district that met certain tests in the legislature’s self-imposed redistricting criteria better than the GOP version of the map.
But she never submitted the amendment Wednesday morning during the Senate vote. Marcus and Sen. Dan Blue said Republicans, specifically Sen. Paul Newton, told them Wednesday morning that the only way they’d accept an amendment saving Marcus is if Democrats agreed to include the same version of a southern Mecklenburg district that Democrats have previously said is an example of gerrymandering. “They insisted, in other words, that we endorse their gerrymandering in order to save my place in the Senate. We would not agree to that deal. The need for fair maps in NC is too important,” Marcus said. They always have a self-serving agenda, and it's time voters took notice.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article255459726.html
Watauga Watch, 11/6/2021
Above, NC House districts for the next decade -- barring judicial interference. This map overall graded F by the Princeton Gerrymandering Project. The opinion of Watauga voters in Blue Ridge and Elk precincts -- unprintable in a G-rated blog. Blue Ridge and Elk precincts have been added to the 87th House District, which is mainly Caldwell County where Destin Hall holds the seat. Hall, incidentally, is the Republican chair of the House redistricting committee, and he drew the map.
Blowing Rock precinct is left in House District 93, which means that Ray Pickett was allowed to keep his district. District 93 also now includes Allegheny County. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project rates the partisan divide 41.68% Democratic to 58.22% Republican.
This map and the NC Senate map are not targets of the law suit filed yesterday in Wake County. That legal challenge will move forward in state courts, beginning with a three-judge panel to be appointed by Chief Justice Paul Newby. The suit complains only about the 14 US congressional districts (which also chops up Watauga so that Congresswoman Virginia Foxx can be rid of most of us Wataugans while retaining the core of her red district). Surely there will follow suits against the NC House and NC Senate redistricting.
These people
BlueNC, 11/7/2021
It was arrogant, mean and un-American. It was the kind of divisive rhetoric that might come from dictators like Hungary’s Victor Orban – not someone who is the lieutenant governor of North Carolina. But tragically, uninformed, over-the-top, hurtful and inflammatory speech has become the norm for Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
“Enemies” across the aisle? Democrats are NOT the “enemies” of Republicans or anyone else in this nation. Nor are Republicans. They are, as the cliché goes, the “loyal opposition.” “Socialist hellhole?” What is he talking about? Expressing concern for others, providing for their education and basic health needs regardless of where or how they live, who their parents might be or national origin, isn’t socialism. It is human decency.
Robinson’s “Christian patriots” who “will own this nation and rule this nation.” Has he read AND UNDERSTOOD the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution?” Does he understand what the nation’s founders meant? No, he does not understand, and he doesn't want to understand. Like Orban, he is an authoritarian megalomaniac, and must be stopped.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-lt-gov-robinson-goes-too-far-with-divisive-remarks/19958889/
Two weeks ago in North Carolina Open Thread: Traitors and Monsters, I highlighted this guy as a MAGA rioter, insurrectionist and all around traitor and bad guy. He was sworn in on Halloween to the General Assembly and was righteously protested by the Democrats.
North Carolina Policy Watch, Lynn Bonner, 11/2/2021
Gathered with other Democrats outside the House chamber Monday night, Rep. James Gailliard of Nash County said they decided not to participate in or witness Loftis’ swearing in to protest his being seated in the General Assembly.
“We had the will of the people being threatened to be overturned,” Gailliard said of the January 6 insurrection. “This was really an attack on democracy, which is an attack on everybody, whether you are Black, white, brown, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, it was an attack on our entire nation. We have to defend democracy. We should not be supporting the seating of an individual who participated in that.”
Rioters seeking to prevent certification of Joe Biden’s election victory overran outnumbered police to break in through the Capitol’s doors and windows. More than 100 police officers were injured. Lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence were hustled from the House and Senate chambers as rioters approached.
News Observer, Brian Murphy, 11/2/2021
North Carolina House Democrats walked out of Monday night’s session before Republican Donnie Loftis was sworn in as the chamber’s newest member. The Gaston County Republican Party selected Loftis, a 30-year Army veteran and former county commissioner, to complete the term of Rep. Dana Bumgardner, who died in October.
Democrats, in walking out, were objecting to Loftis because of his participation in protests at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 — protests that devolved into a violent riot. Loftis posted on social media then that he “got gassed three times and was at the entrance when they breached the door.”
“My Oath of Enlistment has the phrase ‘both foreign and domestic.’ We didn’t think it would actually be domestic,” Loftis wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post. Loftis told WRAL in late October — after being selected for the House — that his involvement was strictly peaceful.
Raw Story, Bob Brigham, 11/4/2021
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) warned of a "sexless" America in a rant against Democrats.
Cawthorn made comments Wednesday night on the far-right OAN network during a discussion with Dan Ball.
"I'm telling you, when I see the people that are in Washington, DC who are trying to insert their woke politics into our culture, trying to destroy western civilization, trying to take all of our morality away from everyone, trying to make everyone genderless, sexless, and Godless," he warned.
"We want our country back, we want our culture back, and if you want to stand in the way that, we will run you over," he threatened.
Yahoo News, Lee Moran, 11/5/2021
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) raised eyebrows with a wild rant about the left and a warning about what will happen to anyone who disagrees with the right’s agenda during a frothy interview on the far-right network OAN this week.
Cawthorn fearmongered about people in Washington “who are trying to insert their woke politics into our culture, trying to destroy Western civilization, trying to take all of our morality away from everyone, trying to make everyone genderless, sexless, and just absolutely Godless.”
“I realize that the American people are sick and tired of it,” he added. “We want our country back, we want our culture back, and if you want to stand in the way that, we will run you over.”
More Madison “Tough guy” Cawthorn
Watauga Watch, 11/7/2021
Except for Virginia Foxx's residential precinct, the rest of Watauga County is now the northernmost chunk of the new 14th Congressional District, and the blue voters here make everything better for every Democrat south of us. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project rates the district with a 46.13% Democratic vote share and a 53.69% Republican share. Those are numbers any congressional candidate, especially any candidate running against the likes of Madison Cawthorn (Bold by author), should be able to work with and build on.
Here are the Democratic candidates (alpha order) that I know about, with more probably arriving presently:
Jasmine Beach-Ferrara (D)
Jay Carey (D)
Katie Dean (D)
Eric Gash (D)
Bo Hess (D)
Josh Remillard (D)
Brooker Smith (D)
Chelsea White (D)
Two days ago on Twitter, Dr. Steve Woodsmall, retired USAF major and a former Democratic primary candidate in both 2018 and in 2020 for the 11th CD nomination, made an announcement in reaction to more juvenilia from Cawthorn (Cawthorn had threatened anyone who opposed him with violent retribution):
This is the last straw. I am now ready to run against this lowlife little twerp but since a Dem can’t win here I will run unaffiliated if y’all can help me get the 9400 petition signatures to get on the ballot!
Dude, get a grip. We welcome your passion, but “Unaffiliated” means to me that you are not a serious candidate. (author)
Pollution
NC Policy Watch, Lis sorg, 11/2/2021
The NC Department of Environmental Quality is taking Colonial Pipeline to court for allegedly “failing to meet their obligations” in its clean up of a 1.29-million gallon gasoline spill in Huntersville, the nation’s largest such accident since 1991.
According to the complaint, filed in Mecklenburg County Superior Court, Colonial has failed to provide DEQ with “essential information required for appropriate remediation at the site.” This includes an accurate estimate of the amount of fuel that was released into the environment; nor has Colonial fully investigated the extent of PFAS contamination at the site, which is thought to be the result of material applied to the gasoline to keep it from igniting shortly after the spill.
Nor is Colonial fully using hydraulic control wells at the spill site. That could allow the petroleum contamination to spread beyond the 11 acres currently documented.
DEQ last month issued a fourth Notice of Continuing Violation to Colonial Pipeline regarding ongoing contamination from a major gasoline spill in Huntersville, at the Oehler Nature Preserve. The 1.29-million gallon figure is likely an underestimate because the extent of the contamination below ground is still unknown. According to the complaint, data from recovery wells and transportation documents show that the amount of petroleum removed already exceeds that figure.
NC Policy Watch, Lisa Sorg, 11/4/2021
The hundreds of people who live closest to SGL Carbon in Morganton are breathing air so polluted that they face a lifetime cancer risk 120 times greater than set by the EPA. Each year, SGL is allowed by state permit to emits nearly a ton of methylene chloride and 174 pounds of benzene, both known carcinogens
The area near the plant is one of thousands of “hotspots” identified by ProPublica, which yesterday unveiled a massive environmental story that mapped the spread of cancer-causing chemicals from sources of hazardous air pollution across the country between 2014 and 2018.
Of the thousands of “hotspots” in the U.S. — not just census tracts, but down to the neighborhood level — there are more than 30 in North Carolina. (See list below.)
NC Policy Watch, Jacob Fischler, 11/4/2021
Lawmakers from Chesapeake Bay states are looking to attach a climate-related provision to the must-pass annual defense bill.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, (D-Va.), introduced Thursday legislation that would allow the Defense Department to use several sources of federal funds to undertake stormwater management projects at military bases. The plan also has been backed by House members from Virginia and Maryland and Democratic Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Mark Warner of Virginia.
Kaine, a member of the Armed Services Committee, wants to add the measure to the fiscal 2022 defense bill, an aide told States Newsroom.
The bill would apply to bases nationwide, but Kaine highlighted its importance for the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the largest estuary in North America. The Department of Defense has several installations in the watershed, including Norfolk Naval Air Station, Naval Air Station Oceana and Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. North Carolina is home to eight military bases — all of which are in the eastern half of the state where stormwater ultimately runs toward coastal areas. (Bold by author)
Thank you for reading and contributing, I hope you have a safe week.