Years ago sitting in a Republican convention I stared at a stranger standing at a microphone – I had no idea who he was but we were on opposite sides and when he finished speaking I had no doubt he’d handed us a problem.

Back then Bob Orr was what I called a Mountain Republican.  Reagan Republicans believed in their conservative ideology – walking down a different road Mountain Republicans believed in their ‘Party.’  Those two tribes fought for years.

I didn’t meet Bob until years later, when he was a justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court; we seldom saw eye-to-eye but, at the same time, he was straightforward and honest.

Somewhere along the way a Mountain Republican became an Independent voter without a party.  And last week I read a story on a news website: Bob Orr had filed a lawsuit to stop gerrymandering.

He said North Carolina is a swing state where either a Republican or Democrat could win a statewide election – that twice we elected Trump but in the same two elections elected a Democrat, Roy Cooper, governor. Bob then pointed out that when politicians draw the districts they run in, ‘swing elections’ disappear – he pointed out politicians drew, and stacked, 13 out of 14 Congressional Districts, leaving only one swing district that either a Republican or Democrat could win.

Like his speech years ago, Bob’s conclusion was straightforward: He said the State Constitution guarantees the right to fair elections and gerrymandering ends fair elections.  It’s hard to argue with that but it’s hard to see politicians in either party giving up the power to draw their own districts.  I wish Bob well – but he’s got a hard mountain to climb.