Former attorney general blasts NC district maps

RALEIGH, NC (WTVD) -- NC State's Talley Student Union became a blue-colored ballroom for Democrats Saturday evening.

During their annual Unity Dinner, former US Attorney General Eric Holder said Republicans racially gerrymandered North Carolina's voting districts.

"They fear the very people they say they want to represent," Holder said. "They want the ballot in the hands of those they know will support them. By so grossly gerrymandering this state, Republicans have really revealed their true colors."

North Carolina's pattern of dividing voting districts drew concern from the Supreme Court, which threw out 28 House and Senate districts as illegal racial gerrymanders and unconstitutional.

Holder and other Democrats say the 2011 district maps have suppressed and weakened the black vote while strengthening Republicans super majority in the House and Senate.

Governor Cooper says an independent redistricting commission is needed.

Republicans say Holder is part of the redistricting problem.

Dallas Woodhouse with the NC GOP says during Holder's tenure with the Justice Department, he pre-certified the state's voting maps before they went into effect.

"It would be more productive if Eric Holder and leading Democrats adopt policies which attract voters in North Carolina," Woodhouse said. "And if they did, perhaps they wouldn't continue to lose elections. It's not the maps that are their problem. It's their message and their policies."

Holder says the Democrats are responsible for the nation's Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act and the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

As for the voting districts, Republicans say the new maps will likely be drawn by the legislature this fall for 2018 elections.