RALEIGH, N.C. -- Listening to Republicans and Democrats here describe their redistricting fiasco is something like hearing "Little Red Riding Hood" told from the points of view of her mother and the wolf. There's little on which they agree.
Republicans, who brought a so-far successful lawsuit challenging the Democrat-driven legislative maps, talk of saving innocent voters from an unseemly subversion of democracy. Democrats talk of a court that is misguided or worse and that has overstepped its bounds.
The once-collegial General Assembly is at war with itself, elections have been postponed, control of the legislature hangs in the balance, and voters are getting annoyed.
If the Tarheels have any advice for Marylanders, it's "Brace yourselves." The state could find itself in North Carolina's morass if federal appeals delay the resolution of Maryland's redistricting lawsuits and derail the primary scheduled for Sept. 10.
After Republicans and some angry Democrats sued, Maryland's Court of Appeals threw out Gov. Parris N. Glendening's legislative redistricting map last week. The judges said it violated state constitutional rules requiring districts to respect political and physical boundaries, such as county lines and rivers. The court plans to redraw the map with help from consultants.
Maryland and North Carolina have plenty of company nationwide. They are among 31 states involved in redistricting lawsuits charging state or federal violations, or both. In at least seven of those cases, judges have thrown out the maps. But North Carolina is the only state in which a primary election has been put on hold until the districts get sorted out.
According to Washington lawyer Sam Hirsch, whose redistricting clients include North Carolina Democrats and Prince George's County Executive Wayne K. Curry, the situation in Raleigh is unparalleled.
"The North Carolina electoral process is now on the verge of a complete meltdown," he said. Warring legal forces "have caused tremendous delay and disruption at all levels of North Carolina politics. By comparison, Maryland's situation is a lot cleaner and a lot less sharp-elbowed."
The tension here is manifest in various General Assembly scenes as lawmakers, who unlike their Maryland counterparts are still in session, wait to find out if the latest House and Senate maps pass federal muster. On Thursday, before taking on its regular business, the House held one of its many perfunctory "special sessions" in case the redistricting decision came down. Speaker James B. Black banged his gavel, called for a prayer, introduced visitors, and then it was over.
Meanwhile, partisanship is more rampant than ever. Last week, Republicans accused Democrats of using budget cuts as retaliation against the judges. Democratic Sen. Brad Miller says Republicans are refusing to help solve the state's budget deficit so they can blame Democrats come election time.
But by far the most serious concern is the postponed primary. Candidates don't know how to plan. Donors are markedly less willing to give, said Scott Falmlen, executive director of North Carolina's Democratic Party. Adding to the pain, the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to decide the state's number of congressional seats.
Miller, of Raleigh, is running for Congress. He sat in a windowless room with a telephone Thursday, trying to raise money. "The two questions I get are, 'Are you sure you've got a district?' and 'Do you know when the primary is?' The answer is 'No and no.' It certainly has affected fund-raising."
Don Wright, general counsel for the State Board of Elections, gets calls from candidates every day. "The county commissioners and the sheriffs, people running for smaller offices, have been put in limbo, and they don't like it," he said.
"A race they thought would last three months is lasting six. ... They're frustrated. They don't know when to spend money, when to get in the media," Wright said.
For some, the unusual situation has given rise to opportunity. Because of a quirk in the law on filing deadlines, some people can run for more than one office. C. Mort Hurst, a Martin County commissioner, plans to run for re-election and for the legislature. "Anytime you can steal second base with one foot on first, [why not?]," he said.
The Libertarian Party is taking advantage of the uncertainty with 128 candidates, more than twice its record. The confusion, said the state party's executive director, Sean Haugh, has made many major-party candidates reluctant to start campaigning. Also, voters are fed up with the bipartisan squabbling. "The Democrats and Republicans are definitely giving us plenty of ammunition," he said.
Charles Upchurch, 43, an account supervisor at a public relations company in Raleigh, is typical of the voters who have bothered to follow the redistricting machinations. "It more or less confirms every suspicion that you have about how government works," he said. "It's totally an exercise in political maneuvering, and it's not necessarily for us, but for them."
In some ways, North Carolina's mess can be seen as a cautionary tale for Maryland. Republicans filed a lawsuit charging that legislative maps violated a provision of the state constitution that prohibits counties from being split up.
A significant difference is that North Carolina is one of many Southern states subject to a section of the federal Voting Rights Act that requires the Justice Department or a federal court to approve redistricting decisions to ensure that the power of minority voters is not diluted. For decades, North Carolina has broken its own rules about county lines to comply with the federal statute, which generally trumps state law.
This year, though, the state's Republican-dominated Supreme Court sided with the GOP plaintiffs. Eventually, Superior Court Judge Knox V. Jenkins drew new maps, to Democrats' outrage.
His House map more or less coincided with what the Democrats sought to try to retain their 62-58 majority. But the Senate map Jenkins drew was based on a Republican model, and Democrats are worried that their 35-15 majority will evaporate. They talk darkly of conspiracy, charging that Jenkins, a supporter of conservative U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, met inappropriately with leading state Republicans and used GOP-owned computers to create the maps.
"My view is that it is so political, if Jesus Christ had drawn both these maps, [Jenkins] would have redrawn them," said Rep. Ronnie Sutton, the Democratic chairman of a redistricting committee.
The state now waits on approval for the maps from the Justice Department. Democrats asked a federal court Thursday to review them -- and hope it will reject them.
No one expected the fight, which began in the fall, to last this long. And Rep. Flossie Boyd-McIntyre, an African-American Democrat, did not expect to be excised from her majority-black district and put in an 82 percent white one. Like many candidates, she is in a holding pattern, unable to determine her next move until the maps are done.
More than for her career, she said, she worries for the future of politics and policy. "If it spreads to other states," she said of North Carolina's dilemma, "this whole nation will be in one hell of a mess."