North Carolina has become the latest battleground for congressional map redistricting. Eric Holder is the chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which formed to draw congressional districts favorable to Democrats.
The former attorney general's nonproft affiliate, National Redistricting Foundation, has financial ties to a North Carolina judge who could soon cast the decisive vote in a legal battle over the state’s congressional maps, The Washington Free Beacon reported.
The judge, Anita Earls, serves on the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court, which will likely have the final say over which congressional maps the state adopts.
The court earlier this month rejected maps drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature and is expected to reject a revised proposal Republicans submitted on Feb. 16, The Free Beacon reported.
National Redistricting Foundation, endorsed and contributed $200,000 to elect the judge in 2018.
"Monied interests appear to have bought a Supreme Court justice to decide this redistricting case," state Sen. Amy Galey, a Republican, said to the Washington Free Beacon.
"Eric Holder paid six figures to elect Earls so she could decide this case," said Galey, who added that Earls should have recused herself from the redistricting case.
Republicans say Earls' ties to Holder are a conflict of interest and warrant her recusal from the redistricting case. Holder endorsed Earls in 2018 amid his push to elect state judges for the purpose of adopting Democrat-friendly congressional maps.
Holder has claimed the groups seek "fair maps" across the country, but tax filings for Holder’s National Democratic Redistricting Committee say its goal is "to build a comprehensive plan to favorably position Democrats for the redistricting process through 2022."
To aid the cause, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee's PAC gave maximum donations of $5,200 directly to Earls' campaign, and appears to have funneled another $200,000 to her through the North Carolina Democratic Party.
While Holder has accused Republicans of illegally gerrymandering maps in North Carolina and other states, he has stayed silent on the redistricting in New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, approved a map that could create a seven-seat House swing in favor of Democrats.