Election returns

Two years ago, Kevin, Michael, and i were in Alivia's, liveblogging a very exciting municipal election night. Mayor Bill Bell beat back a very strong challenge from former Councilman Thomas Stith, who had received a lot of backing from national right-wing groups; and the at-large race for Council went down to the wire, with just a couple of hundred votes separating Farad Ali and David Harris.

This year?

Not so much. So, with 0% of the vote tallied, and exactly 0 precincts reporting, i'm calling the election for all 4 incumbents.

Have a good night.

Continue reading Election returns

Please explain

From the comments:
Straight party voting is the worse thing ever.

Most of the democracies in the world are based on political parties. There are very few democracies where one could make this claim and expect to be taken seriously. I have a hard time getting my head around how straight party voting is worse than, say, slavery, or the war in Iraq, to name two top of the head examples.

But assuming that the commenter was merely indulging in some hyperbole and that he believes straight party voting is merely as bad as athlete's foot fungus, or MLB blackout areas, i still don't get it. Please explain the horror of determining which party's platform best expresses your desires for our society, and voting for all of the candidates of that party who are standing for election.

Continue reading Please explain

Shooting the Bull

Durham County Board of Elections Director Mike Ashe stops by tonight to discuss the election just passed. We'll talk about processes, ballots, "voter fraud" and whatever else comes up. Got a question for Mike? Send an email to ShootingTheBull AT gmail DOT com. Tune in to 88.7, WXDU, at 7:30 pm, or listen online.

Continue reading Shooting the Bull

Speaking of local bloggers

Good to see that Carl Kenney is publishing again.

Check out his piece on the upcoming County Commissioner's election.

Continue reading Speaking of local bloggers

Election question - followup

I wanted to followup yesterday's post with some of my thoughts about the 2008 elections. Like a number of commenters, i'm not terribly plugged into the 08 presidential campaign just yet. Part of that, i think, is the overall depressing quality of the candidates. Unlike 04, there's no Howard Dean-like figure* seeking to reclaim the Democratic Party for Democrats. The candidates who are currently holding office have often seemed reluctant to use their position to take leadership roles on Iraq, FISA, potential war with Iran, and other critical issues. On the Republican side, these guys would be amusing in a Friday the 13th kind of way if there wasn't the real potential for another poorly run Democratic campaign to actually put one of them in the White House.

In North Carolina, there's a couple of races that are on my radar. Here in Durham, David Price is probably in a safe seat for re-election to the House. Just down the road, though, in the 8th Congressional District, Democrat Larry Kissell is gearing up for a rematch with incumbent Republican Robin Hayes. This is a race that the DCCC has come to regret not getting behind in 06, as Kissel came up a scant few hundred votes short of an upset victory. they're not making that mistake again. Heath Shuler up in the 11th Congressional District has disappointed a lot of statewide Democrats with some of his votes. It'll be interesting to see if he is able to pick up suppport from Dems for his re-election campaign, or if he proves to be a one-hit wonder.

By far the most interesting race is for the Senate seat currently held by Republican Liddy Dole. Liddy's approval ratings are below 50%, which is a sign of vulnerability in an incumbent, even though no one on the Democratic side is polling above her. That's mostly because all of the big names have declined to enter the race. As a result of that, businessman Jim Neal, who's never held elected office, threw his hat in the ring. One of his first campaign appearances was a live-blogging question and answer session on BlueNC. At which the following exchange took place:

I've heard...
Submitted by omega_star on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 9:09am.

I've heard you're gay...

Gay

Submitted by JimNeal on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 9:18am.

I am indeed. No secret and no big deal to me-- I wouldn't be running if I didn't think otherwise



Do you...
Submitted by omega_star on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 9:21am.

...really think a gay man can be elected in North Carolina?



I'm not running this race to

Submitted by JimNeal on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 9:26am.

I'm not running this race to lose. I'm not running to make some social statement. I'm running to lead in the Senate for the voters in NC-- something Senator Dole has not done.

When people meet me, they'll see beyond the labels and into my character.



Gay Marriage
Submitted by omega_star on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 9:28am.

Where do you stand on gay marriage?



It's okay if churches want

Submitted by JimNeal on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 10:05am.

It's okay if churches want to unite same-sex couples; it's okay if they don't. That's their Constitutional right which I support 100%.

But when it comes to the Government, I'm not in favor of any laws that discriminate against anyone for any reason.

This revelation inspired a fair amount of talk that, despite his resume, North Carolinians simply weren't ready to elect a gay man to a federal office, and that Democrats were going to shoot themselves in the foot again.

Following this, State Senator Kay Hagan, who had earlier declined to enter the race for the nomination to oppose Sen. Dole, had a change of heart. Word is that Chuck Schumer at the DSCC and Gov. Mike Easley helped to convince her to run.

Neal has also had a liveblogging question and answer session at Pam's this past weekend; Hagan's got a standing invitation to do a similar session at BlueNC, which she has not yet taken up.

So for me, what with holidays around the corner (Thanksgiving is next week!), the drought (water runs out around January 20th with no additional rain), worldwide financial turmoil, and various personal priorities, the 2008 elections are not my highest concern either. But, as the music industry gurus say, they're bubbling under. And 2008 promises to be The Most Important Elections Ever (until the next ones.)

----------------------------------------

* (meant to include this the first time around) Even Howard Dean is acting less Howard Dean-like these days.

You know what i really want? I want a political discussion sphere and media where political leaders are willing and able to say, "I'm not really concerned about the afterlife. I got into politics because too many people in this life are cold, hungry, overworked and underpaid, worried about whether or not they can pay the bills if their kids get sick. Your preacher can help you figure out what you have to do to go to heaven, assuming that's what your goal is. I'm too busy trying to make life a little bit better on earth to worry about that."

I know. I'm dreaming again.

Continue reading Election question - followup

Election question

Now that the municipal elections are over, i'm curious, how many of you are paying attention to the 2008 balloting?

North Carolinians figure to have competitive races for Governor, Senator, and a number of House seats, plus the General Assembly in Raleigh.

Oh, yeah, there's some folks running for President too.

Are you tuned in yet? Why, or why not? When do you start paying attention?

Continue reading Election question

Election dissection pt. 2

I had a chance to do a little number crunching myself.

There were 31,966 votes cast in the mayor's race yesterday. Each of those voters could have cast up to 3 votes for city council, making a total of 95,898 votes available. Only 82,286 votes were actually cast.

That's 13,360 votes that were left on the table.

Now, it's possible that there were 13,360 voters who all selected only two candidates for council. Equally, it's possible that there 4,543 voters who didn't bother to check off any of the candidates. But it's more likely, i think, given that most of the endorsers selected three candidates, except the Durham Committee, which only endorsed one candidate, that most of the missing votes came from ballots in which Farad Ali was the sole candidate selected.

Which would mean there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,680 voters who did so.

Given that Ali finished just over a thousand votes ahead of David Harris, i'm rethinking my earlier contention that the lack of endorsement by the Committee was not the critical factor in the election. It's certainly possible that had Harris run a different campaign and finished higher in the primary, the "split progressive vote" factor would not have worked against him.

But it's clear that, with so many missing votes in the final tally, the Committee's endorsement of just a single candidate was a major factor in how things played out.

So put me back in the camp of those who say that not getting the Committee's endorsment cost David Harris a seat on council.

Continue reading Election dissection pt. 2

Election dissection

For starters, Kevin's got a good crunching of the numbers up at BCR. If you're interested in Durham politics, you should bookmark it.

I'm going to eventually disagree with some of his conclusions because if i didn't, well, i'd have nothing to say, right?

The Easy Races

Dianne Catotti and Eugene Brown were the only council candidates to be named on over 50% of the ballots. That makes sense. They both enjoyed broad support from across the political spectrum, they're both incumbents whose tenure on the council has been commendable. The council race was always going to be about who landed the third seat, and we'll talk about that more later.

The bond issues were similarly supported and all passed by wide margins, the Life and Science Museum bond the only one failing to attract 70% support. That probably reflects a lack of familiarity with the museum among parts of the population. Basically, if you don't have kids or grandchildren under the age of twelve, the Museum is probably not even on your radar.

I want to also add my .02 about the city's road repair bond.

Durham has not, in the time i've lived here, had any difficulty in getting bond issues passed. (The stadium bond/COPs plan was just before my time.) The problem has been actually spending that money. Much of the 1996 park bond monies weren't spent until 2001 or later, and i think it was Kevin who pointed out that some of the 96 money was still being spent. Unfortunately, the longer you wait to spend bond funds, the less you can buy with them. This is especially true when it comes to construction, as prices for steel and concrete have increased at rates much higher than overall inflation the past decade. It's also a problem that so much of the revenue raised in Durham bond issues goes to maintenance and repair. Infrastructure maintenance, repair, and even incremental upgrades to systems are items that should be budgeted for out of general revenues. Borrowing needs to be confined to capital investment and new infrastructure. If Durham continues to fund repairs by borrowing, two things will eventually happen. First, voters will stop rubberstamping new bonds. And second, new projects will be put on hold even longer than they are now, increasing citizen dissatisfaction with the government. This isn't inevitable, but the city really needs to shift gears with the way it deals with bond monies.

The Harder Races

The two contested races, for mayor and for the third council seat, especially the latter, were where all the action was. Let's start there.

Here's the primary results for the candidates who finished third through sixth:
Farad Ali . . . . . . . . . . 4,962 13.74
Laney Funderburk . . . . . . . . 3,775 10.45
David Harris . . . . . . . . . 3,414 9.45
Steve Monks. . . . . . . . . . 3,225 8.93

Ali's strong showing in the primary was the result, i think, of his early backing by key members of the progressive community who were, to a greater or lesser extent, affiliated with the Democratic Party. Steve Schewel, former publisher of the Independent Weekly comes to mind as one of the most prominent. David Harris, on the other hand, had to wait until after the primary reduced the field to three Democrats before he was able to benefit from party GOTV efforts.*

The order of the primary finish, in which Republican Laney Funderburk actually edged ahead of Harris for fourth place, created a dilemma in the minds of some voters, namely that if progressives split their votes between Harris and Ali, would that create an opening for Funderburk to sneak in and grab a seat on council? One local activist sent an email out yesterday alluding to precisely that scenario in encouraging votes for Ali:

I prefer David Harris for that third seat. I've seen a candidate forum and talked to folks and I remain lukewarm on Ali. Since Harris and Ali are in direct competition for that third seat, I considered voting ONLY for Catotti and Harris. However, Funderburk is also a serious contender. He's a conservative with no real strong sense of city functioning -- it's basically a protest campaign and he's running so that Stith will have some conservatives on council.
So withholding my vote for Ali (to help Harris) might contribute to Funderburk getting in, and I don't want that.

Finally, toward the end of the campaign, Ali started picking up financial support from some of Thomas Stith's backers, and there were rumors that Stith himself was encouraging his supporters to vote for Ali.

Kevin is of the opinion that Farad Ali's endorsement by the Durham Comittee on the Affairs of Black People, and their lack of endorsement of David Harris, was the contributing factor in determining the outcome of the race. Here's where we disagree. I think that Ali's early progressive backing and strong showing in the primary were significant contributing factors. Without those, i don't think the Committee's endorsement alone would have been enough to put Ali on the Council.

The question now, for Ali, is having won a seat, what will he bring to the table? Will he show why so many progressives backed him early, or will he lean towards those conservatives who contributed heavily to his campaign in the stretch run?

The other contested race on yesterday's ballot was the mayor's race. Incumbent Bill Bell ended up with a solid 58 - 42 victory over Councilman Thomas Stith, whose Republican star would appear to be fading. There are two ways to look at this race. One is that despite a 1-4 disadvantage in voter registration, the Republican Stith managed to achieve a respectable showing. I don't think that's a serious analysis though, for a couple of reasons. First is that Stith essentially ran away from his Republican base. He didn't trumpet his conservative bona fides on the campaign trail, especially after his initial foray into conservative hot-button issues like illegal immigration blew up in his face. I think he achieved his 42% by denying his affiliation, not embracing it. That's not going to be a model for Republicans to run on in future elections, especially those in which partisanship actually counts. The second reason is that when all the receipts are finally tallied up, we'll find that Stith outspent Bell by somewhere around 5-1. He ran an extremely well financed campaign, and raised the bar for Durham elections in years to come. And still only attracted 42% of the vote. So maybe not so respectable after all.

The other way to look at the race is that Bill Bell faced his strongest challenger since defeating Nick Tennyson by a relative handful of votes 6 years ago, and put together a winning coalition. Thomas Stith raised serious issues of Durham's problems, and attempted to lay them at the feet of the incumbent. A majority of Durham's voters understand that our problems are community based, and that one man or woman can neither bring them to pass nor solve them by force of will. These election results show that at least a strong segment of the citizenry is willing to work together to fix our problems, rather than cast about for a scapegoat to blame. That's good news, as far as i'm concerned.

Finally, what Durham voters did last night was swap Thomas Stith for Farad Ali on the city council. While i would have preferred that David Harris would be sitting in that seat come December, i'm hopeful that the trade will at least prove an upgrade.

=====================

* One of the consequences of a "non-partisan" municpal election is that the political parties do not hold primaries, and therefore cannot run official candidates. There were four registered Democrats in the council primary, and the Democratic Party would have been unable to endorse only three of them had all four survived the primary. The Republicans, on the other hand, essentially ran a slate of three candidates (remember those red signs with "Funderburk, Parrish, Monks?" That was the Republican slate.) Makes you wonder exactly why Victoria Peterson changed her registration from Republican to Democrat earlier this year.

Continue reading Election dissection

Place your bets

Now that Bill Bell has sent Thomas Stith into early retirement from public life, how long will it be before Stith is re-employed by one of Art Pope's think tanks?

Place your bets in the comments. Whoever comes closest wins a $20 gift certificate to the Regulator Book Shop, a fine locally owned establishment.

UPDATE: I should have noted that entries into this contest will be accepted until midnight, Friday, November 9. Also, since blogger does not capture email addresses when you post, you should also email me at DependableErection AT gmail DOT com and let me know how to reach you in case you win. In the event the winning entry does not provide me with contact information, the prize will be awarded to whoever is the next closest entrant that i can get in touch with.

Oh, and by the way, a really heartfelt thanks to everyone who stopped by over the past few days, especially to all of you who commented on various threads. Traffic on the site over the last two days was almost 4 times greater than any previous two day period, and i'm both astonished and humbled that so many of you take the time to read my rantings.

Thank you all.

Continue reading Place your bets

Liveblogging election returns

I'm at the Federal with Kevin and Michaelwaiting for election results We'll all be posting our thoughts as the returns come in. Kevin's got a spreadsheet up ready to plug in the numbers, so we're just waiting now.

Turnout in precinct 19, where i vote, was 23%, more than double the primary. I'm taking that as a good sign.

Bell with 14256 and Stith 11,256 in the first returns. That's with 87% of the precincts reporting. Looks like Bell will win.

Ali and Harris are neck and neck at around 10,000 votes each.

UPDATE: With 49 out of 57 precincts reporting, Bell has essentially wrapped the election up. David Harris has pulled ahead of Ali by 37 votes.

UPDATE: Kevin's analyzing the precincts remaining to report inthe election. In those precincts, Democrats hold an approximate 5-1 registration edge over Republicans. Based on that, he's calling the mayor's race for Bell.

He's right.

Looks like all the bonds are passing by a large margin as well.

UPDATE III: With 51 precincts reporting, Farad Ali has pulled ahead of David Harris by 400 votes in the race for the last remaining seat.

UPDATE IV: 53 precincts reporting. Ali has opened up an 800 vote lead.

DE is calling this election for Bell, Catotti, Brown, and Ali. Congratulations to everyone. We'll be back in a little while with some more discussion about the results.

Continue reading Liveblogging election returns

Election day thread

Have you voted yet? What was the turnout like in your precinct?

I voted at 7:10am, and was voter number 29. That's about 5 times as many voters as for the primary in my precinct at an equivalent time.

Supporters of Farad Ali and of the Democratic Party endorsed candidates were out at my precinct.

Share your stories in the comments.

UPDATE: i see in the comments at Kevin's place that Liddy Dole was making calls urging people to vote for Thomas Stith today. So much for the man's claims of beng above partisanship.

UPDATE: Thoughtful comments from Carl Kenney (whose blog i need to read more regularly) on the Stith/Bell race.

Continue reading Election day thread

Guest editorial: Laney Funderburk has a lot of nerve

Durham activist and writer John Schelp has long been involved with town/gown issues, working to weave Duke into the greater Durham community, encouraging the University to shed its fortress-like attitude by arguing against self-contained commercial development deep within University property, among other issues. Laney Funderburk, an administrator at the University, is also a candidate for City Council on today's ballot. His recent op-ed piece in the Herald-Sun (not available online, as far as i can tell) A recent profile of the candidate by Ray Gronberg in the Herald-Sun drew Schelp's ire. This piece circulated via email yesterday, and is posted here with the permission of the writer.

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw
stones. In the 11/02 Herald-Sun, longtime Duke
University administrator Laney Funderburk describes:

"a city government that spends its time 'careening
from one crisis to another,' that's overly
image-conscious and that sometimes makes decisions
that 'smack of cronyism.'"

Funny, that's a pretty darn good description of Duke.

** "careening from one crisis to another"...

Jesica Santillan getting the wrong organs, Duke pushing
drinking off-campus and then blaming Durham Police for
out-of-control student parties, hydraulic fluid
scandal, l'Affaire Lacrosse, multiple out-of-court
settlements, senior administrators getting sued and/or
stepping down, etc.

** "overly image-conscious"...

Duke puts out hundreds of press releases a year and
manufactures its own self-serving puff pieces for
publication in the local media. The university has a
whole building dedicated to protecting its image.

** decisions that "smack of cronyism"...

Duke's $2 million dollar bribe for Central Campus that
both the Herald-Sun and the News & Observer called
quid pro quo -- which is illegal in North Carolina.
(By the way, Duke's blunder backfired.) :)


This longtime Duke University administrator has a lot
of nerve criticizing local government -- when Duke has
taken specific steps to avoid paying both property
taxes and sales taxes.

Duke officials fought for more than three years to
build unlimited retail shops on campus that wouldn't
have to pay property taxes -- and the university
systematically avoids paying sales taxes by not
allowing the DukeCard to be used off-campus.

Fortunately, we've been able to stop much of this
nonsense. And Duke is finally showing some signs of
progress, like hiring Phail Wynn.

Like any small city, Durham has its challenges and
mistakes have been made. But, this is a great town.
People care passionately about this town. Durham is a
place where people can roll up their sleeves and get
things done.

The last thing we need is some Duke administrator
sitting on the sidelines throwing stones. I'd suggest
that Laney clean up his own house before throwing
rocks at Durham.

have a good day,
John Schelp

Don't forget to vote today. Polls are now open, and will remain open till 7:30 pm.

DE will be voting for Bill Bell for mayor, and Diane Catotti, Eugene Brown, and David Harris for City Council

Continue reading Guest editorial: Laney Funderburk has a lot of nerve

That's one way to look at it

Matt's got an interesting post over at the Bull's Eye blog about some fliers handed out by the Durham Democratic party this weekend. (Full disclosure - I handed these out in my neighborhood, along with a David Harris info piece this weekend.)

Matt notes that "Stith has strong ties to the Republican Party but has not emphasized his political affiliation, for obvious reasons. He thinks his Republican status should be irrelevant in a non-partisan race."

There's two ways to read that, i think. One is that there are reasons why Stith has remained silent about his party affiliation, and discerning readers know what they are. The other is that "the obvious reason" why Stith has not played up his Republican credentials is that he thinks it "should be irrelevant in a non-partisan race." I think the latter is what Matt is saying.

But i think the former is the case. Stith's initial foray in the race played on one of the favorite hot-button issues of Republicans nationwide - illegal immigrants. That didn't pan out so well for the candidate, and he quickly switched gears to a series of personal attacks against incumbent mayor Bill Bell. But Stith's conservative agenda, his Republican credentials (he sought the Republican nomination for Lt. Governor in 2004), his ties to Art Pope's reactionary Civitas Institute are all issues in the campaign, whether Mr. Stith wants them to be or not. His tactics in this campaign, borrowed heavily from Republican strategists, are issues in the campaign. It's a bit disingenuous of him to try to claim the high road at this point in time.

Continue reading That's one way to look at it

Campaign sign theft update

From the comments below, Kevin Farmer, chair of the Durham County Democratic Party writes:

the Durham County Democratic Party paid for the signs in question and was responsible for their placement throughout Durham. We purchased a grand total of 250 signs at the approximate cost of $541.00--a mere pittance compared to the amount of money Thomas $tith has paid to lie to the City of Durham about Bill Bell's record, and his own. Of the approximately 70 or so signs I myself participated in putting out, 39 are now missing and 3 were vandalized. Another 36 signs from other routes have also gone missing, and I fully expect more to go missing by Monday.

I guess the truth hurts. I guess the Republican Right doesn't really want the voters to know that their candidate was, until only recently, the VP of an organization that considers global warming to be a hoax, publicly-financed elections to be a communist plot, zoning to be the same thing as taking away property rights, or gay people to be second-class citizens.

We already have the license plate # of one potential offender, and a description of two vehicles, and that will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law. As for the anyone else, the Durham County Democratic Party is prepared to offer a $250 reward for the arrest and conviction of anyone tied to the illegal removal of our campaign signs. That amount will increase as donors agree to chip in, insofar as the amount they donate is paid out for apprehending the suspects in question. In other words, this is not a fundraising effort--money donated will be returned if no suspects are apprehended as the result of our efforts.

Continue reading Campaign sign theft update

The strange case of the disappearing campaign signs

So, sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning a couple of hundred signs appeared around Durham proclaiming "STITH: Right Wing REPUBLICAN Don't Be Fooled!"


Corner of Avondale and Trinity, Durham, NC


The signs were not attributed, but there's no reason to think that Kevin's supposition in the commentsthat local Democrats had something to do with it is incorrect. Surprisingly, North Carolina law does not require that campaign signs indicate who paid for them. You probably can't tell in the jpeg above, but neither of the two signs in the photo contains a "Paid for by . . . " disclosure statement. It would make sense that the Stith campaign, which has made little mention of Stith's conservative bona fides as a Civitas Institute VP, would not be happy to see this information becoming a campaign issue at a late date in the campaign.

But does that explain the disappearance of a large number of these signs between Saturday night and Sunday morning? Does the Stith campaign really want to keep his conservative, right-wing, Republican credentials a secret from Durham voters?

This is, after all, the same candidate who appeared in the following video, promoting a Civitas Institute conference by using the word "conservative" or the phrase "conservative movement" 11 times in just over a minute.



Who's trying to fool who?

Continue reading The strange case of the disappearing campaign signs

Exclusive: Stith campaign actually a tool of Bill Bell!

From the comments:

My god, this is not a Republican rightwing conspiracy at all, it is a clever double-blind of Bell and or the upper income black class of this town seeking to make even more bucks on the backs of their lower class brethren. Bell's people somehow infiltrated the republican ranks and led them to choose the one person in this entire town more lame as than Bell, this giving bell a better shot at re-election.

I tell you , it's a privilege to publish this blog sometimes.

If anybody has any more special insight into this election, please, post in the comments or drop me a line at DependableErection AT gmail DOT com. At this rate, I'll be scooping the Herald-Sun, the N&O and Bull City Rising for the next month.

Mwa-ha-ha!

Continue reading Exclusive: Stith campaign actually a tool of Bill Bell!

Last chance to win

Kevin at BCR is having a mayor's race prediction contest. Entries are accepted until midnight. The person who comes closest to the actual outcome wins a $25 gift card to a local dining establishment.

No, i have no idea which local dining establishment. There are two dozen entires so far, so your odds are pretty good.

Will Thomas Stith's negative campaign resonate with Durham voters, especially in high growth suburban south Durham, or will Bill Bell's incumbency give him the edge? Step up and make your prediction.

Then back it up by going out to vote on Tuesday.

Continue reading Last chance to win

More thoughts on the mayor's contest

Election Day is just over a week away. This year's race between incumbent Bill Bell and City Councilman Thomas Stith verifies at least one point i've been making in private conversation for a while now: Durham isn't a small town anymore.

Read the latest campaign finance reports, filed this week, to see what i mean. It's clear that the developers and real estate lobby, not to mention folks from Art Pope's empire, many of whom hail from Raleigh and Charlotte, have a favorite candidate. And they're dropping contibutions between $1,000 and $4,000 Thomas Stith's way.

Bill Bell is listing a handful of contributions, totalling a little over $2,000, from employees of the Marcum and Kliegman accounting firm, which is based in new York, and about $3,000 from a couple of other New York residents affiliated with the Sprung Monument Company. No idea what their connection with Bill Bell might be, but it's unlikely they'll be angling for any favors from the Durham mayor's office.

There's no doubt that the mayor's race is the most partisan seen in Durham since Bell first defeated Nick Tennyson 6 years ago, and probably for quite some time before that. Stith plays down his Republican and Art Pope ties on the campaign trail, but it's important to recognize that his campaign is in many ways a petri dish for testing out 2008 themes in other Democratic strongholds in North Carolina. If he does win, expect to see a lot more mud in next year's campaigns. Not to mention another attempt at a statewide run.

UPDATE: Two things i should have noted in the post. First, i'm a contributor to the Bill Bell campaign. After this weekend, i'm in for a total of $140. I don't show up in any of the campaign filings as of yet, though.

Second, Kevin's running a contest. Whoever comes closest to picking the results of the mayor's ection race next Tuesday gets a $25 certificate to a "local restaurant." Don't know if that means you pick the restaurant or he's already got the gift card, but why not give it a shot?

Continue reading More thoughts on the mayor's contest

Elections

My free time is somewhat constrained, what with having to earn a living and all, and a lot of that has been spent on the upcoming local elections. But that doesn't mean i'm unaware of the larger elections on the table for next year.

In addition to electing helping elect a new president, North Carolinians will be voting to either retain or replace Liddy Dole in the US Senate.

Couple of developments recently in both of those races are worth noting.

Chris Dodd, (D-CT) who has long been my dark horse presidential candidate, has really stepped it up in the past week when it comes to the issue of retroactive immunity for telecoms that may have provided information about their customers to the federal government in violation of the law. Here's an email he sent out earlier:

Dear Barry,

Let's get right to it and talk about how we stop retroactive telecommunications immunity from becoming law.

The way I see it, there are three ways to get this provision stripped from the final bill:

1.) The first step would be to make sure the idea doesn't make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee -- where it will be considered shortly.

If we can get it stripped there, it will have to be offered as an amendment to the overall bill where it will be a lot easier to get 41 votes against retroactive immunity than 41 to sustain my filibuster if necessary.

Take a moment and call up members of the committee, let me know what they said, and join others in tracking our progress in stopping the provision right there.

http://chrisdodd.com/immunity

The other two ways:

2.) If retroactive immunity does make it out of committee, Senate leadership can honor the hold I've placed on any legislation that includes retroactive immunity.

3.) If leadership does not honor my hold, I remain committed to filibustering, and working to get the 41 votes necessary to maintain it.

This has the potential to be a long fight -- so let's build a solid foundation for our effort today by asking members of the Judiciary Committee to vote against any FISA bill that includes retroactive amnesty.

http://chrisdodd.com/immunity

I'd like to see a little more spine, frankly, on these issues. People tell us they want to lead, but a little leadership right now would certainly be welcomed on these questions.

I don't want to, but I'm not afraid to do this alone.

Chris

This may not be The Most Important Issue of Our Times, but it is pretty major, and goes to the heart of the attempted transformation of the US from a democracy to a banana republic.

In the NC Senate race, Jim Neal, who is the only declared Democratic candidate for the seat, joined in a live discussion over at BlueNC the other day. Read the transcript here.

Now, Jim had a lot of good things to say about his candidacy. But as it turns out, the only thing people are really interested in talking about is that he's gay.

For lots of folks, that seems to be an impediment to being elected. Even some of Pam's commenters think it's a problem.

Let's get real, folks. We ran that perfect "moderate" candidate against Liddy in 2002. In fact, he was so perfect, we ran him again in 2004, when he couldn't lose. But Richard Burr is our junior Senator, and Erskine Bowles is running our University system, hopefully not into the ground.

As i said elsewhere, Liddy Dole can be beaten by a candidate who is smart, committed, and passionate, and who can articulate and stand for core Democratic values. I don't know if Jim Neal is that candidate or not just yet, but first reports are promising. If Democrats stand with him, why can't he win?

Continue reading Elections

Memo to Farad Ali

I understand your reasoning behind running as an unaffiliated candidate for City Council. But i think you're misinterpreting what "non-partisan" means in terms of municipal elections:

City Council elections are deemed “non-partisan”, meaning it is the responsibility of the candidates to represent themselves without the bias of political party affiliation, explaining their own individual merits and qualifications and demonstrating why they should be elected to represent and serve the citizens of Durham.

I don't consider political party affiliation to represent a "bias," and i have to say it's a bit of an affront to encounter someone running for office who does. I've been a voter for over 25 years, a party member for about 15, and an active member for about the last 6. It's not a question of "bias" that led me to the Democratic party. Rather, it has been a combination of factors, on the one hand, the relentless fear-mongering tactics practiced by Republicans at all levels of government (see, for instance, the Kansas school board elections of the past decade, as well as our own current mayoral elections, if you don't want to look at elections at the national level), on the other the general disingenuousness of those claiming to be "above the fray" and looking to find some sort of "middle ground" between the two extremes of partisanship.

Non-partisan, as it relates to our municipal elections, means that party activists do not get to select the candidates in a party primary. It means that there's no straight ticket voting option available at the polls. But it doesn't mean that not being a party member is, or should be, considered advantageous by the voters of Durham.

I've been able to develop a vision of what i think civic life and good citizenship, not to mention a thriving community and a just society, might look like. That vision doesn't fall "somewhere in between" the visions espoused by the two major parties. But the Democratic party vision comes the closest to my own. So choosing to work with people who, as much as can reasonably be expected in the real world, share my vision, is not an indicator of bias on my part. It's a commitment to working together with like-minded folks to implement and bring to fruition a common goal.

I don't see "being able to work with Republicans" as a benefit at this point in time. The vision articulated by the Republican party, especially by its mayoral candidate Thomas Stith in the current Durham campaign, is anathema to me. And, i suspect, to a great many members of the community. There has been nothing in Mr. Stith's campaign or agenda that i'd wish to see enacted in this community.

And that's why i'll be voting for David Harris on November 6.

Continue reading Memo to Farad Ali