Home Local News Special congressional map splits Richmond County in twain

Special congressional map splits Richmond County in twain

ROCKINGHAM — Richmond County will be split into two congressional districts if special maps drawn Wednesday are held up by the N.C. Supreme Court.

A three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals, which includes Richmond County Superior Court Judge Dawn Layton, said maps recently drawn by the General Assembly do “not satisfy the (state) Supreme Court’s standards,” the Carolina Journal reports.

The “interim” congressional maps were drawn by former state Supreme Court Justices Bob Orr and Bob Edmonds, along with former UNC System president Thomas Ross.

The map from the “special masters” places the western two-thirds of Richmond County in District 8, with Anson, Union, Montgomery, Stanly, Rowan and Davidson counties, as well as eastern Cabarrus.

The 9th Congressional District has its western border around Hamlet, along U.S. 74, and appears to stretch along N.C. 177 to Hoffman and Derby, near the intersection with the Montgomery and Moore county lines.

The rest of the district includes Scotland, Hoke, Lee, Chatham and Randolph counties in addition to northwest Cumberland and western Harnett counties.

Richmond County Elections Director Connie Kelly said this is the first time in her 29 years that the county has been split.

Congressman Dan Bishop represents the 9th District, which currently comprises counties mostly along the U.S. 74 corridor — Richmond, Anson, Scotland, Robeson, Hoke and Union counties — as well as parts of Mecklenburg and Moore counties.

Bishop had previously told the RO that he had planned to move into the redrawn district that included most of the same counties, except his home county of Mecklenburg.

However, following Wednesday’s ruling, Bishop said he was undecided.

“Activist judges have subverted our constitution,” Bishop said in a statement posted to Twitter. “I am weighing whether to run in the court-imposed 8th or 9th district.

“But,” Bishop added, “I am also actively exploring running for state-wide judicial office — in 2022 we will restore constitutional government in North Carolina.

Bishop won a special election in 2019, defeating Democrat Dan McCready, after the seat sat vacant for most of the year following an absentee ballot scandal in Bladen County linked to the Mark Harris campaign.

Advertisements

Running in the 8th Congressional District could pit Bishop against Rep. Richard Hudson, another Republican.

Hudson’s current district includes his home county of Cabarrus and Stanly, Montgomery and Cumberland counties and parts of Moore, Lee and Harnett counties.

Richmond was included in Hudson’s district before maps were redrawn in 2016.

Due to a quirk in the U.S. Constitution, those in the House of Representatives do not actually have to live in the district they represent — as evidenced in the 2019 Republican Primary when half of the 10 candidates lived outside the 9th District.

The maps have gone through several variations in recent months.

The original maps proposed by the state legislature — subsequently shot down by the state Supreme Court  placed Richmond in the 8th District along with Union, Anson, Hoke, Moore, Montgomery, Scotland and Stanly counties and a strip of eastern Mecklenburg.

A map tweeted by state Rep. Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, on Feb. 15 lumped Richmond, Scotland, Anson, Union, Stanly, Montgomery Moore and Lee counties together with half of Chatham — and Orange.

Two days later, the General Assembly published a map showing the 9th Congressional District comprising Richmond, Anson, Union, Stanly, Montgomery, Moore, Hoke, Scotland and Robeson counties, as well as southern Davidson and western Columbus counties.

Wednesday’s ruling was appealed by multiple parties, the Carolina Journal reported.

All election filing, even for local races, was halted by an unsigned order from the state Supreme Court just three days into the period due to ongoing legal challenges of the maps. However, it is currently slated to resume Thursday, pending a stay from the court.

 



Previous articleRichmond Senior students become pioneers in apprenticeship program
Next articleRebecca Buckner Ross
Managing Editor William R. Toler is an award-winning writer and photographer with experience in print, television and online media.