Republican Gov. Pat McCrory on Tuesday responded to a letter from Democratic Congressmen David Price and G.K. Butterfield that criticized his choice to delay a special election filling a vacancy in North Carolina’s 12th congressional district. Last week, Democratic Rep. Mel Watt formally resigned his seat in the district after being confirmed as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. On the same day, McCrory announced that the special election to complete the remainder of Watt’s term will follow the same schedule as this year’s regular elections, leaving the seat open until after a Nov. 4 vote. That decision would mean the 700,000 residents in the Democratic-leaning district, which winds narrowly up I-85 from Charlotte to Winston-Salem and Greensboro, would be without a representative in Congress for most of 2014. Price and Butterfield called the 300-day vacancy “indefensible” in their joint letter to McCrory.
“Such a delay is unacceptable; indeed, it is unprecedented in recent congressional history,” the letter, cosigned by Price and Butterfield, said. “Of the seven other vacancies in the 113th Congress, six were filled in an average of 126 days.”
On Tuesday, McCrory replied to Price and Butterfield, defending his decision on the special election schedule and calling the congressmen to task for making their criticisms public before speaking directly with the governor.
“Unfortunately, you decided that the best way to inform me of your concerns was via press release instead of a simple phone call,” McCrory wrote. “Had you called me prior, I would have gladly spoken with you and cleared up the many misconceptions in your letter about the special election.”
Full Article: The Voter Update | On the Trail.