McCrory asks US Supreme Court to pause court-ordered 2017 elections [View all]

RALEIGH — With just one day to go before he leaves office, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory threw a legal hail mary to the U.S. Supreme Court in another apparent effort to undermine his Democratic successor’s ability to govern.

McCrory filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court asking the justices to pause court-ordered special elections for more than two dozen state legislative districts in 2017 — special elections in which Democrats could have an opportunity to pick up seats in North Carolina’s GOP-dominated legislature.

A federal court found this summer that 28 state House and Senate districts were racially gerrymandered, but the three-judge panel made the unusual decision to let the election go forward in those districts because they decided it was too late to redraw the maps. After the election, the court ordered the legislature to redraw the lines by March and hold special elections later in 2017.

Republicans have a veto-proof supermajority in both North Carolina chambers. Democrats, who seized the governor’s mansion this fall, were excited at the prospect of having a rare second chance to pick up state House and Senate seats in 2017. If the Supreme Court grants McCrory’s request for a stay, though, Democrats could have to wait until the 2018 midterm elections to try to win more seats under a new electoral map.

Read more: http://www.greensboro.com/washingtonpost/news/mccrory-asks-us-supreme-court-to-pause-court-ordered-elections/article_98dfcb6b-f46e-50c9-bff7-d7fb633528d3.html