Candidate filing halted for legislature and Congress | Eastern North Carolina Now

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has entered a temporary order to halt filing of candidates for the state House, state Senate, and Congress in the new districts just redrawn by the legislature.  The order allows the Democrats time to argue to the Court for a more far reaching restraining order.  Candidates for all other races are allowed to file.

As expected, the Democrats filed lawsuits challenging all of the new district maps.  That has become part of the ritual of politics.  The three judge Superior Court panel hearing the case declined to restrain filing, so that was appealed to the Court of Appeals which has now done so.

In the last redistricting, the Court of Appeals issued an order micromanaging how it should be done.  The legislature has again complied with that procedure, so the Democrats are having to think of something new.  In the last redistricting, the Democrats had thought they had struck gold with the new districts, but when the votes were counted in November, it was the Republicans who gained legislative seats from those maps.

If the delay is substantial but the districts ultimately do not go back for redrawing, this could be a huge benefit for conservatives, because a later primary neutralizes the establishment GOP's incumbent protection scheme in primaries.  A May primary creates a more level playing field for GOP primary challengers than the way-too-early March primary.  This was only one of the ways the establishment GOP in the legislature has tried to corruptly stack the deck for incumbents in the primaries.