Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston, working with fellow commissioners and state legislators, has drawn a new, county commissioner district map that the Board of Commissioners is expected to adopt at its Thursday, Nov. 4 meeting. 

The map (pictured above) will be used for county commissioner and school board races beginning in 2022 and should be good until after the 2030 Census.

Alston said that, for the past two weeks, he had been in talks with county, school and state leaders. The chairman said that, though it was extremely tough to hash out all the details with so many interested parties from both sides of the political spectrum involved, the final result was a map that nearly everyone could agree to and vote to approve.

He said the map will get a unanimous or near-unanimous vote of approval from the Board of Commissioners on Nov. 4 and he said state legislators were also on board.

Alston, a Democrat, said that the input and help of Republican District 59 State Rep. Jon Hardister was invaluable in arriving at the finished product.

“I really, really want to thank Jon Hardister,” Alston said.

He said Hardister had worked extremely hard – and very closely with him – to come up with a map that the vast majority of the players could agree on. 

“I gave a little more than I wanted, but he gave some too,” Alston said, noting that his district, District 8, would have more white voters under the new map.

Alston also had a great deal of positive things to say about the role that Democrat District 57 state Rep. Ashton Clemmons played. 

Alston said Hardister and Clemmons – as well as others involved in the process – had really been focused on what was best for the citizens of the county.

“There are Democrats and Republicans,” Alston said, “but we are all one Guilford.”

Alston has been preaching the “One Guilford” theme since being elected chairman of the Board of Commissioners last December. 

Alston, who was in a very good mood Wednesday night, Nov. 3 – while the ink was still drying on the new map – said it was highly refreshing the way that local and state leaders worked together.

“We checked our egos at the door,” Alston said.

He has used the analogy of “making sausage” before as a commissioner – usually using it to refer to getting a county budget passed while chairing the board.  The process is really ugly, but the end result is terrific.

However, this time Alston said that this had been like making “Deluxe sausage.” He continued the sausage analogy: He said that, by the end, there was some sausage stuck to the machinery, some spilled out all over the floor and there was a giant mess all throughout the sausage factory  – but, in the end, he said, everyone agreed on a map that should benefit all the citizens and will have lines that create fair representation.

Alston said that, since Hardister and other state legislators representing Guilford County had taken part in the map-making process, he was convinced the new map would get approved by the NC General Assembly.  

The Guilford County commissioners had about two more weeks to go before the drop-dead date to send a proposed new district map to the state, but now the commissioners can use that time to select Thanksgiving turkeys and make other holiday plans.

Alston said that, based on conversations he’d had with the Board of Commissioners’ two Republicans – Justin Conrad and Alan Perdue – he expected the two to vote to approve the new map along with most if not all of the Democrats on the board.

If you would like a more detailed version of this map go to: https://www.guilfordcountync.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/12465/637704954311770000 and scroll to the bottom of the document.  This map is “Proposed Redistricting Map F” and the final map in the document.