Debunking those NC Republican Talking Points

Those of you who read Anglico's post and comments found at this link are familiar with a couple of the new talking points the NC Republicans are using as cover for their inability to answer a direct question.

From Larry Brown:

In all due respect, North Carolinians voted for 35,000 votes more than the Democrats. Democrats won because of gerrymandered districts established by confessed felon Democrat Speaker JIM BLACK.

From Ruth Samuelson:

thanks for your concern.m As an FYI, there were more votes cast for Republican legislators than Democrat in the last election. What you see now is the power of the gerrymandering that former Speaker Jim Black put in place.

From Nelson Dollar:

Interestingly enough the citizens of the State of North Carolina did elect a Republican majority to the House and Senate in 2002, 2004 and even in 2006.

:::snip:::

Also, not to belabor the point on gerrymandinger (sic); however, if you look at the votes for the N.C. House hear (sic) in Wake Co. in 2004 you will find that more voters cast ballots for Republican House candidates than Democrat candidates even when you discard all of the votes for Jeffery's and compare an even number of D and R candidates. To quote Al Gore this may be an "inconvenient truth."

Holy crap! This is the most moronic load of horse manure I've heard in a very long time.

What, is there some kind of new vote sharing plan they think we should implement? Did any Republican not win election who received more votes than his Democratic opponent? Am I missing something?

Maybe they just haven't done the math. (Apparently I didn't do the math either...totals should be correct now.) There were 32 Democrats who ran unopposed and 32 Republicans.(One Rep. had opposition by two unaffiliated voters, but no Dem.) The average vote total for a Republican running unopposed was a little over 12, 820. The average vote total for a Democrat running unopposed was approximately 9,758.

So, the North Carolina electorate didn't vote for a Republican majority, they simply cast more votes for their 32 unopposed (or unopposed by a Dem) candidates than Dems cast for their unopposed candidates. I know this is a fairly complex concept for these Republican legislators to understand, but if they are going to have their brains anywhere near the state budget and other important aspects of governing, it would be nice to know they are capable of grasping complex issues. (My math wasn't that good either as I totally screwed these totals the first time around, but I'm not tinkering with the state budget or any other complex issue - AND I will admit when I screw up.)

And.....what the heck is this gerrymandering mess? Have Republicans even looked at the district map or registered voter data? Do they know how many of North Carolina's 100 counties have a Democratic majority? Do they know that as of last October Democrats had over 600,000 more registered voters in this state? Apparently not. Democrats enjoy a majority in 70 of North Carolina's 100 counties. That's right. Seventy, 70, seven zero. It doesn't matter who the speaker was during the last redistricting, it doesn't take gerrymandering to come up with a majority of Democratic districts when that many counties account for over 600,000 more Democratic voters. Actually, it's probably more of a challenge to come up with Republican districts.

I'm feeling a bit visual today, so why don't we look at some maps.

NC House District Groupings (Click for a large PDF version)

There are a few unusual looking districts among them, but without knowing the concentrations of D's and R's you don't know if these are evidence of gerrymandered districts. I could bore you by going district-by-district but I'd rather show a couple more maps.

Let's look county-by-county at registered voters. Here is a map of North Carolina showing counties with a Democratic majority (blue) and Republican majority(red). [click to see a larger version]

Wow, that's a lot of blue! That doesn't mean they all vote with their party, of course.

Now, take a look at the congressional districts colored in to show where there is Democratic representation and Republican representation.

Hmmmm. I see some pockets of blue in Republican territory and some pockets of red in areas with a majority of registered Democrats. Gerrymandered districts? Districts drawn to comply with the North Carolina constitution? Districts drawn to comply with the voting rights act? Hmmmmm. Maybe I'm just too dense to see it. Anyone care to help me out?

Finally, I just have to say something about their lack of comfort with the English language. It isn't the typos, incomplete sentences or creative spelling that lead me to say this, it's their amazingly childish use of the word "Democrat" instead of the proper adjectival form "Democratic". Honestly, if they're going to call us names don't you think they could come up with something a little more creative? That just plain makes them look ignorant. Why anyone would make themselves look any more stupid then they obviously already are is beyond me.