Woman of Note, Ellie Kinnaird: What's Going On in North Carolina?
Former North Carolina Senator Ellie Kinnaird is a woman of considerable accomplishment. At 81 years of age, she seems to be going stronger than ever. Her major in college was music, but by the 1980’s, she was serving as mayor of Carrboro, NC and pursuing a law degree at North Carolina Central University. Having achieved that, she practiced law for awhile, and then ran (as a Democrat) for the State Senate. She won her seat, and has won reelection 9 consecutive times. She served for nearly 18 years.
On August 19th of this year, however, she posted a letter to her constituents announcing her resignation from the Senate.
SeniorWomenWeb, aware that what is happening in North Carolina is relevant beyond the borders of North Carolina, has asked Senator Kinnaird to explain for the rest of the country exactly what caused her to resign.
Herewith, Ellie Kinnaird, in her own words:
"In 2010, Republicans captured the North Carolina legislature after 104 years of Democratic rule (albeit some Democrats were as conservative as Republicans for much of that time.) The takeover was possible thanks to an infusion of money from out of the state, in particular from Americans for Prosperity, the billionaire Koch brothers’ Political Action Committee (PAC).
"Following the US Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case, PAC’s are allowed to spend unlimited money on election campaigns and candidates as long as they do not coordinate directly with the candidate. This is of course a fiction, since campaign workers often leave the campaign staff to go to work for the PAC. Other national organizations also poured money into North Carolina knowing that if they won the legislature, they would control the decennial redistricting that would draw the congressional and legislative seats.
"The scale of campaign money was breathtaking: the Republicans spent $1,000,000 to win a seat in a sparsely populated mountain district against a very popular former district court judge. After winning in 2010, the Republicans created gerrymandered, heavily Republican districts, assuring their winning the legislature. To assure victory, they placed Democratic incumbents in the same district so only one could survive. They forced eleven Democratic women to run against each other, greatly reducing the number of women in the legislature. They packed African Americans into a few districts, thereby diluting their influence outside those black districts. (The Obama Judiciary didn’t help by approving the maps under the Voting Rights Act.)
"To lock in their lopsided victory, more outside money infused $2.32 million to defeat a Democratic judge who would hear the redistricting case, thus assuring the gerrymandered districts would not be overturned by the North Carolina Supreme Court.
"Equipped with the fruits of their monetary gains, the Republican legislature began to enact their goals. Their first term they repaid their far-right base with culture wars legislation. They passed a Constitutional ban on gay marriage, which passed easily in a religiously conservative state (including African-American churches that oppose gay marriage). They passed a restrictive abortion bill, which is still being contested in the courts.
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