Otto says proposed Congressional lines move him out of 7th District

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — As state lawmakers returned to Raleigh today to consider an 11th hour plan to redraw the state’s Congressional districts to follow a federal court ruling, a man who hoped to represent southeastern North Carolina in Washington says the new lines impact him directly.

Mark Otto is challenging Rep. David Rouzer in the Republican primary for Rouzer’s 7th District seat in the US House. Both men live in Johnston County. The proposed plan to redraw districts unveiled yesterday splits Johnston County in half, moving the northern half into the 2nd District. Otto says the line is drawn between his home and Rouzer’s, which leaves the challenger out of the district where he filed to run, even though he says the two men live just a few miles apart.

“This is just nuts,” Otto said in a news release. “As a NCAA college baseball umpire, I have seen many curveballs, screwballs and changeups, but this takes the cake.  What a fiasco.”

A legislative committee came up with the new plan after a three-judge panel ruled the state’s current Congressional map unconstitutional earlier this month, because it determined two districts were illegally drawn based on race. Yesterday Gov. Pat McCrory called the General Assembly back to Raleigh to figure out a new plan by Friday in case the US Supreme Court does not grant a stay to leave the current map in place for the March 15 primary elections.

Earlier this week WWAY asked Rouzer why he and his campaign would not commit to an invitation from WWAY to debate Otto. Among his reasons, Rouzer pointed to the uncertainty over redistricting.

“We’ve got to see if we are going to have an election, and obviously that’s tied up in the courts right now, and we don’t know if we are going to have a primary March 15 nor do we know what the districts are going to look like,” Rouzer said.

In his news release, Otto said he believes that statement shows Rouzer had prior knowledge of the redistricting plan, while Otto did not know the details until after it was released yesterday afternoon. Rouzer’s campaign spokeswoman said they would not “have any official comment about redistricting until this issue is completely settled in the courts.”

While Otto may live outside the lines of the 7th District, that would not keep him from running. North Carolina law does not require a candidate to live within the district’s boundaries. Indeed, the current lines drawn before the 2012 election moved the western boundary of the 7th District just east of the Lumberton home of then incumbent Rep. Mike McIntyre, a Democrat, who had held the seat since 1997. It also extended the district north to Johnston County. McIntyre wound up defeating Rouzer in a race that came down to just a few hundred votes. McIntyre decided not to run for reelection in 2014.

As it stands at the moment, the winner of the primary between Rouzer and Otto would face Democrat J. Wesley Casteen, a Wilmington attorney, in November’s general election.