Resolution Concerning State Senate Redistricting: Legislature Redistricting NC Senator Bill Cook Out of a Job | Eastern North Carolina Now

News Release:

    This presented resolution was adopted unanimously August 15, 2017n by the Beaufort County GOP executive committee.

    WHEREAS, Beaufort County has had a long association with the Albemarle area counties in Senate districting for decades, with all or part of Beaufort County being part of the 1st State Senatorial District, and

    WHEREAS, Beaufort County with its approximately 80 miles of estuarine coastline has numerous commonalities of interest with other estuarine and coastal counties that make up the 1st Senatorial Dsitrct, particularly as related to issues involving development in the coastal area, and

    WHEREAS, Beaufort County has few commonalities of interest with Piedmont counties way up on the Virginia line like Vance and Warren, and

    WHEREAS, the present configuration of the 1st and 3rd State Senatorial districts create one district that tilts Republican now held by Republican State Senator Bill Cook (R-Beaufort) and one heavily Democrat district, while a proposed map that has been published swaps counties between the 1st and 3rd districts in a manner to keep one heavily Democrat district and make the other much more marginal, and

    WHEREAS, Beaufort County Republicans have worked long and hard to achieve success in legislative races, first carrying the county for a GOP legislative candidate in 1966 with John Wilkinson for NC House, an early GOP legislative breakthrough in the east, and first electing a Republican to the legislature in 1990 with Zeno Edwards in the NC House, with the GOP holding that seat for four successive elections with Edwards and his successor Sandy Hardy, again gaining that House seat in 2010 with Bill Cook, and with Bill Cook making the breakthrough in the northeast for the GOP in the State Senate by beating a Democrat incumbent in the 1st Senatorial District in 2012, a seat he has held since, and

    WHEREAS, Beaufort County votes about 60% Republican and does not deserve to be submerged in an overwhelmingly Democrat district whose Senator would be highly unlikely to care about either local policy issues or the political philosophy that reflects the majority in our county, nor does the remainder of the Albemarle area deserve to have a greater chance of deprived of Republican representation in the State Senate, and

    WHEREAS, restoring the district lines between the 1st and 3rd districts to what they are presently, even if they have to be adjusted by splitting a county somewhere, preserves commonalities of interests within the districts, preserves longstanding relationships among the counties, and preserves representation attuned to local interests and prevailing local political philosophies,

    BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee calls upon the Redistricting Committee of the State Senate to restore Beaufort County to the 1st Senatorial district and to generally configure the line between the 1st and 3rd Senate districts to that which presently exists.

    Contact: Steve Rader

      stevenrader@yahoo.com