The Esquire Network just finished running the 4-hour documentary on American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken's congressional run against Republican Renee Ellmers in a very gerrymandered North Carolina district. The documentary was cut up into episodes and shown as a series. It wasn't very good... but I kept watching anyway. There's a piece of one of the last episodes above.
North Carolina's second congressional district was carefully drawn to skirt Fayetteville in the south and Greensboro in the north and to stay clear of Chapel Hill and Raleigh. Democrats live in those cities and Art Pope's bought and paid for legislature was determined to make sure this Piedmont swing district would be safe territory for a conservative Republican who could vote for any unpopular, crackpot legislation Pope deemed important without worrying about reelection.
