NC legislature loses Democrats to retirement after redistricting

In recent months, the N.C. General Assembly has witnessed 35 resignations, retirements and announcements of not running for re-election.

More than half of these announcements came from Democrats. In the last few years, the Democratic Party has lost its grip on the state’s legislature, with the Republicans gaining the majority in 2010.

This trend is not a surprise to Tom Carsey, a UNC political science professor, who attributed it to the state’s recent redistricting.

“It’s certainly true that retirement rates in state legislatures always have a spike whenever there is a wave of redistricting,” he said.

Virginia Gray, another UNC political science professor, said this type of change is typical after redistricting. But she said it can still be damaging to the state’s makeup.

Many of the Democrat legislators who resigned were vocal supporters of public universities.

House Minority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange, a staunch supporter of the UNC system, announced Feb. 2 that he would not be running for re-election.

His announcement followed in the wake of retirements by Democratic Senators Marc Basnight and Tony Rand, committed supporters of the system in previous years.

The onslaught of resignations has left the future of the University system unclear.

“I do think it’s a loss to lose Hackney on top of having lost (other university) supporters within the last few years,” Gray said.

Anita Watkins, the UNC-system vice president for government relations, said the system has already faced huge cuts and now the task is to prevent future cuts being implemented.

“We are going to work hard to convince the legislature that the $414 million that we took this year had a big impact on us,” Watkins said.

Another $9 million cut is already in place in next year’s budget, which Watkins hopes the system will be able to prevent.

Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, said the extensive cuts made system administrators feel like they had to raise tuition to offset the cuts.

The resignations have caused the University to lose friends in the legislature, she said.

“We feel that we’re in real jeopardy as far as our educational system is concerned,” she said. “It’s very dangerous right now because of this philosophical difference of the Democrats strongly supporting education at our universities, and the Republicans perfectly willing to slash the funding for the universities and education.”

Less than two weeks ago, Sen. Richard Stevens, R-Wake, an alumnus of UNC-CH and one of the state’s most influential lawmakers, announced he would also not be seeking re-election.

A long time advocate of public higher education, Stevens said he is not concerned about the future of funding for North Carolina’s universities.

“I am confident that those who follow me in the General Assembly will continue that strong support for higher education,” he said.

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