The North Carolina Democratic Party has focused a campaign against Republicans in the state, claiming that the GOP-controlled state legislature is “waging a war on women” due to the way new legislative districts have been re-drawn.
In a Web video, female Democratic state legislators decried the new districts and blamed a Republican vendetta against women for the district lines, which have created a situation in which several Democratic women have been moved into another lawmaker’s district.
“The Republican redistricting plan was another assault on women,” said state Rep. Deborah Ross in the video. “More women were put in a double bunking situation — which means either they were put with another Democrat or they were put in with a Republican — than we’ve ever seen.”
“There’s six women who serve in the Senate, three of us have been double-bunked,” said state Sen. Linda Garrou. In the House, of the 20 Democratic women, six were “double-bunked.”
“We’re losing half of the women who represent us,” bemoaned state Rep. Susan Fisher.
“All of these women were targeted and that’s disturbing,” added state Rep. Earline Parmon.
Sonja Eddings Brown, president and founder of conservative women’s group The Kitchen Cabinet, told The Daily Caller that this is all politics — not gender warfare.
“The Democrats are just whining about redistricting because they are not in control,” retorted Brown. “The GOP is absolutely in favor of women, the majority whip is a woman and they have lots of representation there.”
“I think the redistricting is more between Republicans and Democrats than it is between men and woman,” said Brown.
North Carolina Democratic Party spokesman Walton Robinson told TheDC that it isn’t merely a partisan issue. These legislators, he said, were targeted because of their gender.
“I suspect [they have been targeted] because Democratic women are the most passionate and the most active voices for things like public education, women’s health issues, child care subsidies, all the things we are seeing the Republicans in the General Assembly slash and burn,” Robinson said.
Karin Agness, senior fellow at the conservative Independent Women’s Forum, told TheDC that Republicans and Democrats are just looking for ways to gain the upper hand in the redistricting process.
“I do not think that the GOP has it out for women,” said Agness. “I think that the Republican and Democratic parties have different visions as to what is good for Americans and women. Those are being fought out. Redistricting is a fight that is going on all over the country… This is part of the fight.”
The North Carolina Democratic Party will be releasing a second similarly-themed video Tuesday.
Watch:
[dcvideo videoid=”24779484″ name=”ndnPlayer_24779484″ type=”ndn” /]
Update: Tuesday the North Carolina Democratic Party released a second installment of the “GOP War on Women.” See it here.