Statistics released by the state House and Senate recently provide a strong indication of just how partisan the N.C. General Assembly has become. And how dysfunctional our political process is.
The clerks tally legislators' votes cast on the winning or losing side. Because most bills that come before the General Assembly are not controversial, even the most contrarian of legislators vote with the majority about 80 percent of the time.
Because almost every legislator must protect particular interests in his or her district, it is also almost impossible that one will vote on the winning side 100 percent of the time. So, the real range of contention is in the other 20 percent.
The vote tallies, as reported by the Journal's James Romoser, indicate that almost all Democrats vote with the majority at the high end of that 20-percent range. That is, they are voting on the winning side about 95 percent of the time.
Republicans, on the other hand, are in the winning range less frequently, some voting with the majority only about 80 percent of the time.
Put that together and one conclusion is obvious: Party bloc voting dominates in the legislature.
That should come as no surprise to anyone who watches the action in Raleigh. Party leaders hammer out what are known as "caucus positions" on controversial bills and they expect their Democratic or Republican caucus members to abide by those positions almost all of the time.
Given the power of party leaders to raise money, and thus to help or hurt individual legislators in both primary and general elections, the rank-and-file members are under a lot of pressure.
North Carolina's flawed redistricting system only adds to the pressure on individual legislators to go along with the party leadership. Over the last two decades, redistricting has assured that most districts are not competitive in partisan terms. Districts lean heavily to one party or the other. This means that an individual legislator is more vulnerable in a primary than a general election. And individuals who challenge their party leaders, by failing to vote as they are told, tend to get more primary opponents.
This is not democratic representation. There are always hierarchies in legislative bodies, but rank-and-file legislators must have more independence in this state.
The first step in restoring a more representative legislature would be a nonpartisan redistricting process that sought to create competitive districts. Unfortunately, the current legislative powers would have to agree to that and they don't appear to be in any hurry to do so.
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