Larry D. King: N.C. wins this Super Bowl

Regarding the Feb. 19 news article “Congressional primaries could be reset to June 7”: North Carolina just trounced Iowa in the Gerrymander Super Bowl, 18-0!

Since the 1980s, North Carolina’s gerrymandered districts have been challenged in court 18 times, but Iowa has experienced no challenges. For folks who do not follow political athletics, winning the Gerrymander Super Bowl is not an honor.

In the General Assembly, the party in power draws the districts for its own partisan advantage. In Iowa, nonpartisan legislative staff draw the maps without regard to political affiliation, previous election results, addresses of incumbents.

In 2011 with bipartisan support, the N.C. House passed a redistricting reform bill based on this Iowa model. The Senate never considered the bill. In 2015 the same bill was submitted to the House, again with bipartisan support of a majority of the members. House leadership never brought the bill up for a vote.

Let’s quit spending millions of dollars of our tax money defending these gerrymandered districts, having to reschedule primary elections, having to redraw (still gerrymandered) districts on court orders, ad nauseam. Let’s end gerrymandering now!

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Larry D. King: N.C. wins this Super Bowl."