Natasha Marcus Lets Fly on the Republican Incumbent

 

Natasha Marcus

The State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC), a venerable and actually pretty powerful state workers org (46,000 state employees and retirees), endorsed the incumbent Republican Mike Causey for Secretary of Insurance. (SEANC endorsed in all 2024 Council of State races, leaning decidedly Democratic in all contests except Insurance and Agriculture. Some can't imagine life without Steve Troxler. Most can't imagine life with Mark Robinson.)

I would have thought that Causey endorsement appropriate, given his Boy Scout reputation as the public official who wore a wire for the FBI to catch the CEO of an insurance empire in a case of bribery (bagged the Chair of the NCGOP at the time too, Robin Hayes). That move branded Causey something of a class traitor to the Republican hierarchy in the General Assembly. And there were new irritations. In April of 2023, Republican Causey came out publicly against "the corrupt deal that was pushed through the legislature this session to allow Blue Cross to raid its reserves and put the money in a new for-profit entity" (description, accurate enough, out of The Daily Haymaker). Bottomline: Phil Berger and Tim Moore make it possible for Blue Cross to transfer assets into a parent holding company able to move money with little oversight. Other Bottomline: HB 346 passed both chambers and was signed into law by Gov. Cooper. Causey's lone voice warning that permissive restructuring would be a time-bomb for policy-holders meant little. He was ignored, but as far as I'm concerned, he was the stand-up-to-tyranny fellow you want to see in public office, doing the honorable and ethical thing.

But that fellow, it turns out, is not all of that fellow.

Just bare minutes after he was elected in November 2016, he was playing games with Cannon Surety, a shady insurance company that underwrites bail bonds. A month after his election, December 2016, he was allegedly cooperating in a planned high-dollar fundraiser that Nick Ochsner uncovered for WBTV. A fundraiser, Ochsner conclusively demonstrated, that would have been illegal under NC law. After that exposure, said fundraiser dissolved like an Alka-seltzer in spring water, with everyone quickly denying knowledge or participation in any such fundraiser, legal or illegal.

In January of this year, a team of News & Observers reporters exposed a much darker portrait of Causey as an adept at cronyism. Democrat Natasha Marcus, the other candidate for Secretary of Insurance, is now using cronyism as an attack against Causey. I've reported on two of the crony examples below. Here's one. I've not heard before of Mendy Greenwood.

More Primary Results -- NC Council of State

 

Governor

Democrat Josh Stein crushed challenger Mike Morgan with almost 70% of the vote. Stein did considerably less well in Watauga, where almost 30% of voters preferred Morgan.

Republican Mark Robinson easily beat Dale Folwell and super-litigator Bill Graham, taking almost 65%. 

Rachel Hunt

Lieutenant Governor

On the Democratic side, Rachel Hunt (yes, of those Hunts) took 70% statewide (a whopping 86% in Watauga).

On the Republican side, Deanna Ballard was one of over a dozen contenders. She came in last night 3rd, just missing the opportunity to be in the runoff with top vote-getter Hal Weatherman by some 8,000 votes. So Weatherman will face instead former prosecutor Jim O'Neill in the runoff.  O'Neill came close to beating Josh Stein for A.G. in 2020.

Attorney General

Jeff Jackson took almost 55% of the vote statewide against two competitors. He took 77% in Watauga.

Commissioner of Insurance

On the Democratic ballot Natasha Marcus buried David Wheeler.

Republican incumbent Mike Causey, who's been tagged with controversy and scandal, took over 60% of the vote on the Republican ballot and will face Marcus in November. He's a ripe target for a negative campaign, which I think David Wheeler would have delivered with gusto. Marcus, not so much. Gives Causey a distinct advantage in November.

Commissioner of Labor

On the Republican ballot, Luke Farley, endorsed by yesteryear's horror story Cherie Berry, won outright with almost 37% of the vote against NC House honcho Jon Hardister. Hardister has been infamous in these precincts as a twerpy sort of snake in the General Assembly, so .... schadenfreude.

Superintendent of Public Education

On the Democratic side, Maurice (Mo) Green won with almost 66% of the vote.

On the Republican side, right-wing fright Michele Morrow beat incumbent Catherine Truitt by some 36,000 votes. Morrow has been quite an outspoken and outright enemy of public schools, calling them "indoctrination centers" and urging her followers not to send their children there. She's endorsed by Moms for Liberty. Truitt has been a target of the MAGA right for not being bullying enough to root out "diversity" and "inclusion" in all its demonic manifestations.

Treasurer

Democrat Wesley Harris easily beat his rival Gabe Esparza.

Too Much Drama, Such Low Stakes

 

I predicted back on Dec. 14, 2023, that a David Wheeler vs. Natasha Marcus primary for the Democratic nomination to run for Secretary of Insurance of North Carolina would not be something to celebrate but rather a unnecessarily personal and vitriolic negative campaign, primarily because of Wheeler's capacity for obnoxiousness. Wheeler has made accusations against Marcus, and Marcus operatives have fired back to the point of attracting Wheeler's litigious propensities, and he's threatening to sue for defamation.

What I dreaded happened fast and keeps getting worse.

Mike Causey Has a Mighty Expensive Chauffeur

 

Commish Mike Causey, left, with
Roger Blackwell
Photo Gene Galin, Chatham Journal

In the spring of 2020, after Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey wore a wire for the FBI and exposed the bribery attempt by billionaire Greg Lindberg, which sent both Lindberg and NCGOP Chair Robin Hayes to jail, I considered Causey a civic hero for his incorruptibility. Now naive was I?

Perhaps it happens to every politician who begins to feel invulnerable, though why Causey might feel entitled by invincibility seems a stretch, since he won the office of Insurance Commissioner by a very thin margin in 2016 and held on for reelection in 2020 by only very slightly better numbers, and he himself has a primary this year. His current scandal caused me to recall that he actually ran for this office some four times before he eventually won it. So why he would choose to become a poster child for corruption now seems passing strange.

The article by Dan Kane and Kyle Ingram appeared yesterday in the News and Observer with the headline, "Insurance Commissioner pays friend & donor a high wage to drive him on state business." That friend and donor, Roger Blackwell, 77, who's donated at least $10,000 to Causey's campaigns since 1995, drives Causey to and from his home to his office in Raleigh and around the state to various municipal fire departments to hand out checks, and on very long trips, like to Santa Fe, which took three days on the road (one way!) and for which the chauffeur was also paid $44 an hour for 8-hour do-nothing days while Causey attended a two-day conference. Blackwell is making up to $84,000 per annum, about $30,000 over the average wage for most state employees.

It gets worse from there.

David Wheeler

Especially worse, as the News&Observer reporters allege a "pattern" of Causey's cronyism. Blackwell is not the first to be paid over-well for what in some cases has been "make work" (according to another of those hires).

Democratic Insurance Commissioner candidate David Wheeler, an "American muckraker" of Expose Madison Cawthorn fame, is on the attack about Causey's pattern of behavior, demanding that the state auditor, state treasurer, and state budget director, all and severally, conduct a full investigation into Causey's abuse of state vehicle privileges. 

There are two Democratic candidates for Insurance Commish. Evidently slow on the uptake, Sen. Natasha Marcus, Wheeler's primary rival, has so far had nothing to say about Causey's corruption. Why not? If Morgan Jackson is running Josh Stein's campaign for governor, and if Josh Stein recruited Marcus to run for Causey's job (even after Wheeler had declared his intention of doing that very thing), then maybe someone would have the juice to recommend she speak out.

The Wheeler-Marcus Primary for Secretary of Insurance

 

Wheeler

I first knew David Wheeler in 2018 as a candidate for Ralph Hise's Senate seat in SD 47. From the beginning, Wheeler wasn't afraid of being obnoxious. He famously invaded the premises of the Word of Faith Church in Rutherford County, asking questions with a camera rolling about allegations of cult-like control inside the church. He got ushered out. It was a political stunt that in hindsight probably didn't yield a bunch of votes but it made him visible for a time. I noticed him.

Wheeler lost to Hise in 2018 by 26 points, ran again against Hise in 2020 and lost by 37 points.

Wheeler's most famous obnoxiousness came in his year's long crusade that helped bring down Madison Cawthorn. With former Congressional candidate Moe Davis, the Democrat that Cawthorn beat in his initial race, Wheeler founded the American Muckrakers PAC specifically to go after Madison Cawthorn. And they did, releasing all sorts of damaging evidence of Cawthorn's juvenilia including a controversial video of Cawthorn cavorting naked with his cousin in bed. 

After Wheeler nailed Cawthorn's pelt to his barndoor, he turned his PAC on Lauren Boebert (timeline here) and is still in a Colorado court suing her for defamation.

Natasha Marcus

Wheeler announced months ago that he was a candidate for NC Commissioner of Insurance. A couple of days ago, Wheeler revealed on Twitter that Josh Stein had recruited ex-Senator Natasha Marcus to run for that office, and because of that, Wheeler would be removing himself from the ballot. An act of chivalry or a recognition that with establishment support Marcus would likely defeat him. 

With that news that he would drop out and clear the field for Marcus, many Democrats breathed a sigh, maybe of relief, to avoid a race that might get destructively mean. (The Republican incumbent, Mike Causey, has been my favorite Republican on the Council of State because he turned in those who offered him a bribe to favor one particularly shady insurance provider, Greg Lindberg. Causey wore a wire which sent Robin Hayes to jail.)

Just yesterday, and via Anderson Alerts, we learn that Wheeler has done a 180 and has decided that he'll stay in the race after all. In the explanation that Anderson prints, Wheeler is not shy is playing rough with Marcus. In a statement released by Wheeler, he lives up to his reputation as a pusher-and-shover:

“Marcus's self entitlement to this nomination is astounding,” Wheeler said. “One day she's running for the Senate, the next day it's DOI [Department of Insurance]. She clearly saw how I am going to beat Mike Causey and thought she'd be the ‘savior’ of the race. Not happening. I'm going to beat her and Causey to a pulp at the polls.”

Wheeler also took aim at Marcus’ background, referencing her time at Hamilton College in New York and subsequent legal work.

“I'm not a lawyer,” Wheeler said. “Does Raleigh really need another lawyer? I don't have New York roots and New York money. I'm a single dad of three kids of color and grew up in a rural town with farmers and wrestlers. I've worked for myself since I was 22 years old and didn't take a paycheck many times in order to ensure my employees were looked after when cash wasn't flowing. I'm not rich. But I do know the difference between right and wrong. Rate Hike Mike is wrong for North Carolina [and] must go in 2024. My Democratic opponent from Charlotte can't beat him.”

So that's a primary few people would want to celebrate. 

Sen. Natasha Marcus, Also Gerrymandered Out, Considers Moving

 

Lisa Grafstein is not the only female member of the NCSenate targeted for elimination in the new maps and willing to move her residence to fight back. Sen. Natasha Marcus in SD41 tells the tale herself of her own experience of being so specifically singled out that it would be comic if it weren't such a crap on fairness. In a press statement released last Friday (reproduced below), Marcus explains what the Republicans did to her:

“Republican map drawers cut a line through my hometown of Davidson, putting most of the town in a new district that is based in Iredell County, and leaving part of Davidson in a new district which is currently represented by [Dem] Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, who lives fairly far away in east Charlotte,”

[She said her current home is in a part of Davidson that’s moved to the district mostly in Iredell County represented by Republican Sen. Vickie Sawyer. The new district Marcus and Sawyer are drawn into leans Republican by a margin of 62% to 35%, according to analysis by Dave’s Redistricting, which analyzes data from previous elections.]

“The mapmakers knew exactly where my house is and seemingly did this on purpose to try to squeeze me out of the NC Senate,” Marcus said.

She's got all her options open and plenty of rage revving her engines. She says moving to another, fairer district is definitely an option, as is running for a different office altogether.

These Candidates Could Break the Republican Super-Majority in the NC Senate

Dems #ncga Candidates Catching Fire All Across the State

I wrote about Democratic NC House candidate Terri LeGrand showing some fundraising strength in Forsyth County yesterday. Today brings plenty more fundraising news in that same vein. If campaign fundraising is a barometer -- and it is -- then these General Assembly candidates below are looking gooder and gooder for this November.

In House District 52, Lowell Simon out-raised Republican incumbent Jamie Boles $11,987.68 to $8,450 during the Second Quarter of 2018. Those are low numbers on both sides but still interesting. Boles may be suffering from over-confidence, since he's had no opponent at all for ten years. But he's lugging some serious baggage -- evidence of self-dealing and other corruption.

Democrat Lowell Simon looks viable. He is a recently retired high school math teacher, a profession he came to late in his career after many years in business. First in New York state and then in North Carolina, he managed chains of convenience stores. He was vice president of operations for Quick Chek, a chain of about 30 convenience stores based in Troy, which brought him and his family to Seven Lakes to live. He later bought into Southern Pines based Fuel Mate, which had six BP stores. During his time teaching math at Union Pines High School, the superintendent tapped him to start an entrepreneurship program for students. "Simon has served on the boards of Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds and the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust. A political appointee of three different state House speakers from both parties, he has helped draft key legislation, including the formation of the NC Lottery .... He currently serves on the boards of Moore Regional Hospital and Moore Forward, and is president emeritus of the Sandhills Jewish Congregation" (ThePilot.com).

In Senate District 1, Democrat D. Cole Phelps raised $73,788.04 to Republican opponent Bob Steinburg's $48,417.50 during he Second Quarter. Senate District 1 hugs the coast in the northeastern corner of the state. Steinburg is currently a member of the NC House looking to move up in the world. Tea partiers consider him a cuck.

Democrat Cole Phelps is a young lawyer. How young? When he was elected to the county commission of Washington County at 24, he was the youngest member of any county commission in the state. He's serving his second term now at the age of 29. He was the first in his family to go to college, first to East Carolina for a degree in Family and Community Services and then to NC Central School of Law. He got a leg up to get that good education, and it says something about him that he immediately turned around and established a scholarship program for deserving first-generation, college-bound students in several east Carolina counties. From his very first campaign for county commission, he was pumping education and the need to keep kids in school and make college more possible. He's been named a William C. Friday Fellow. That's a prestigious group of 200 citizens deemed crucial leaders in their local communities. For the record (and this particular issue looks decisive on the coast), he's an outspoken opponent of Twitterman's scheme to drill for oil in North Carolina waters.

In Senate District 25, Democrat Helen Probst Mills outraised Republican incumbent Tom McInnis $87,933.80 to $64,642.52 in the Second Quarter. McInnis is propped up by PAC money. He was also propped up by the Republican leadership in the House during a destructive primary in May against Tea Party opposition. When you're propped up that much, you run the risk of becoming a prop.

Democrat Helen Probst Mills has been on our radar since the second week of February. She's an attorney from Pinehurst and entered politics this year, she says, in part to simply provide an option. “The reality is that I walk in on Election Day to the polling booth here in Pinehurst and there are no Democrats for me to check. We need a choice,” Mills said. “There needs to be an opportunity for an individual to stand up and to make him crystalize his position on issues and policies and to defend the votes he has taken.” Mills says she grew up a daughter to a single mother and is herself the mother of three and a cancer survivor who moved to North Carolina with her husband, Stuart, in 2006. She is licensed to practice law in Illinois. Last year, Mills was appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper to the Sandhills Community College Board of Trustees. She also serves on the college’s Foundation Board, where she helped develop a program allowing high school graduates to attend for two years tuition-free. She serves as development chair for the Northern Moore Family Resource Center in Robbins, which has opened a preschool and is developing a community center. She credits the overcoming of breast cancer to having health insurance: “Everyone, no matter their background or how much money they make, should have access to affordable, quality health care. Yet too many politicians in Raleigh put petty partisan politics over policies that would help thousands. That is wrong for my community and for North Carolina.” (Republican incumbent McInnis opposed, like most other Republicans in Phil Berger's senate, the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.)

In House District 36, Democrat Julie von Haefen outraised Republican incumbent and powerful chair of the House Budget Committee Nelson Dollar $70,281.64 to $38,800 in the Second Quarter. Rep. Dollar, in terms of what his pelt will fetch, is a rhino, a bull elephant, and a giraffe all in one. This is a Wake County district that was spitefully redrawn to cut out Democratic stars who had wanted to run against him, leaving the current Democratic challenger to screw up her courage and step forward to the challenge.

Democrat Julie von Haefen is president of the Wake County PTA Council and has three school-age children in the Wake County public schools. She scorched Dollar in her filing announcement for what his state budgets have done to public education: "From the expansion of school vouchers and charter schools to the failure to pay our teachers and principals what they deserve, Representative Dollar and his legislature have harmed our students and our schools. Most recently, their reckless and unfunded K-3 class size mandate caused unnecessary stress for school districts across the state. It is time to put our teachers and our children ahead of partisan politics. North Carolina's students deserve better than they are getting from our legislature. They deserve increased funding for school counselors and nurses. And they deserve a public school system with the funding and resources it needs to prepare them for the future. We owe it to our students, and to the economy, and to the state." Von Haefen is married to an NC State professor, and they have lived in Apex for the last 13 years. She trained as a lawyer and practiced law for 10 years.

In House District 51, Democrat Lisa Mathis has seriously outraised Republican incumbent John Sauls during both quarters of 2018 -- $24,963.53 to $3,500 in the First Quarter, and $49,495.26 to $5,050 in the Second Quarter.

Lisa Mathis was a "military kid" who says that repeatedly moving all over the country taught her "courage, adaptability, and a deep respect for the sacrifices of our service members and their families." She trained as an artist and graphic designer and opened a small graphic design business in Sanford, N.C. Deeply involved in community and profoundly appreciative of putting down deep roots in a single place, she started a second small business in 2003, ArtStudio in downtown Sanford, "a place for children and adults to explore their creativity." Especially children. She is a strong advocate for education spending and for expanding Medicaid. She talks on her website about helping working families and encouraging small businesses, especially in areas previously devastated by the Bush recession. She's got boots on the ground -- a good following of willing volunteers -- and a field organizer. Always a good sign.

In Senate District 9, Democrat Harper Peterson raised $52,316.03 to Republican incumbent Mike Lee's $36,300 in the Second Quarter. Lee had 20 Second Quarter donors, 11 of which were special interest PACs.

Democrat Harper Peterson has been a leader in the reaction to the GenX pollution crisis and helped start the community watchdog group Clean Cape Fear. He's also a former mayor of Wilmington and city councilman. He announced that he was running for this seat back last September. He says, "Unfortunately, in recent years, the basic needs and guaranteed rights of North Carolinians have taken a backseat to the interests of politicians and their big donors. Specifically, they have spread distrust among North Carolinians while trading to their donors our excellent public schools, quality healthcare and natural resources for tax giveaways. The games at our expense have to stop. I now have the time and energy and the full support of my family and friends to serve and be a voice for common sense in our state legislature." Peterson is critical of current Republican legislative priorities: "Too many of our representatives ignored the governor’s request for $2.6 million in emergency funds for the Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Health and Human Services to vigorously address GenX and other cancer-causing compounds that have been dumped into our river. Additionally, tax giveaways to corporate interests have been paid for through slashed budgets and staffing for the state agencies who could have been proactive in defending us from this poison in our water." He also wants to bring back the film industry, which the General Assembly essentially ran out of North Carolina in one of its budget bills.

In Senate District 41, Democrat Natasha Marcus raised $113,802.53 from 375 donors during the First Quarter, while the Republican incumbent Jeff Tarte raised $35,456.34 from 53 donors. In the Second Quarter, Tarte went ahead of Marcus by $7,300, but for the year Marcus is still ahead of Tarte. She has hundreds of donors. Tarte has far fewer, many of which are special interest PACs.

Democrat Natasha Marcus has been on my radar since early in February. She made an unsuccessful bid for the state House in her Cornelius neighborhood in 2014, when Republican John Bradford III defeated her 55 to 45 percent. “The policies that touch our lives most closely often come from the state level,” Marcus told WUNC. “Federal politics is important, but what happens at the General Assembly in Raleigh – from public school funding, to healthcare, to whether we’re going to have to pay tolls here in the North Mecklenburg area is also important." According to Ballotpedia, Marcus earned her B.A. in public policy from Hamilton College and her J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 1994. Her professional experience includes working as a lawyer for Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard; as Judicial Clerk for the Honorable Frank W. Bullock, Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Greensboro; and as a founding member of DavidsonLearns, a non-profit providing senior citizen learning and enrichment. Marcus intends a fight for the seat: “Cuts to public pre-K through higher education, unconstitutional laws, politicians who put polluters over our clean air and water, policies that make healthcare more expensive and less accessible, and expensive toll lanes on I-77 have taken us backwards. Like many people in our community, I am fed up with being ignored by Raleigh Republicans and am ready to take a stand.”

Two of the candidates above -- Lisa Mathis and Cole Phelps -- are new to this blog. I've written about the others before and -- full disclosure -- I have cannibilized those earlier postings for the one above.

New Constitution Party Will Make Some NCGA Races More Interesting

The Constitution Party was certified for the North Carolina ballot on June 6th (along with the Green Party). It's further right than the NC GOP, attracts nationalist kamikazes (Forsyth County roman candle Vernon Robinson immediately changed his registration), and may cause some Republican incumbents a little peptic ulceration this November. For example, in NC Senate District 41, which the NC Free Enterprise Foundation rates "competitive," there's already a real race going on between a credible Democrat challenger and a "nice guy" Republican incumbent. Depending on how attractive the Constitution Party candidate proves to be (see below), she might help swing this district to the Democrat. Who happens to be...

Natasha Marcus -- Democratic Challenger 

Marcus made an unsuccessful bid for the state House in the Cornelius neighborhood in 2014, when Republican John Bradford III defeated her 55 to 45 percent. “The policies that touch our lives most closely often come from the state level,” Marcus told WUNC. “Federal politics is important, but what happens at the General Assembly in Raleigh – from public school funding, to healthcare, to whether we’re going to have to pay tolls here in the North Mecklenburg area is also important." According to Ballotpedia, Marcus earned her B.A. in public policy from Hamilton College and her J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 1994. Her professional experience includes working as a lawyer for Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard; as Judicial Clerk for the Honorable Frank W. Bullock, Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Greensboro; and as a founding member of DavidsonLearns, a non-profit providing senior citizen learning and enrichment. Marcus is putting up a fight for the seat: “Cuts to public pre-K through higher education, unconstitutional laws, politicians who put polluters over our clean air and water, policies that make healthcare more expensive and less accessible, and expensive toll lanes on I-77 have taken us backwards. Like many people in our community, I am fed up with being ignored by Raleigh Republicans and am ready to take a stand.”

Jeff Tarte -- Republican Incumbent (Flavor: Vanilla) 

Tarte won by a 21 percent margin in his last non-presidential election. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor's degree in econ and has worked as a top-level exec for a number of multimillion-dollar companies. He has served as the mayor of Cornelius. (Civic office in Cornelius has been a repeat springboard for many prominent Republicans including Thom Tillis.) Tarte first ran for the senate in 2012, narrowly winning the Republican primary but running unopposed that November. He did have Democratic opponents in 2014 and 2016. In the latter, Tarte's winning percentage (54.48%) looked a little soft compared to 2014. On some topics, Tarte has at least sounded moderate. On the disruption to the state erupting out of HB2 (the bathroom bill), he told the Charlotte Observer: "Transgenders in bathrooms were not a problem." He opposed the transfer of tax revenues from urban to rural counties, but he is also a cheerleader for shifting the tax burden increasingly onto "consumers." He openly opposed his Republican Gov. McCrory over the I-77 toll lanes.

Sharon Hudson -- Constitution Party Insurgent (Flavor: Rhubard)

Sharon Hudson was until recently a Republican political activist in North Mecklenburg County, working her way from the Young Republicans into the party structure of MeckGOP to leadership of the North Mecklenburg Republican Women to various political campaigns and conservative causes. She joined a Tea Party group, Lake Norman Conservatives, which has drawn her away from establishment GOP activity. She graduated from UNCC with a B.A. in English and has written for PunditHouse, a Tea Party inspired conservative website focused on Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

She became the Constitution Party's official nominee for this office just this past weekend, and as yet she has no campaign infrastructure to speak of. But she has a history of running for office. 

In 2014, the same year Natasha Marcus also ran for the NC House seat vacated by Thom Tillis, Sharon Hudson ran in the Republican primary against the eventual winner of that House seat, John Bradford III. Her big issue was opposition to Tillis's plan for North Mecklenburg toll lanes, but she's a thorough-going and doctrinaire conservative, which is why the Constitution Party blessed her campaign.

Four Strong Women Running Against Four Republican Men for NC Senate

Natasha Marcus, running in the NC Senate District 41

District 41 is in suburban north Mecklenburg County and is considered the "swingy-est" of the four Senate seats covered by this post.

Incumbent Republican: Jeff Tarte won by a 21 percent margin in his last non-presidential election. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor's degree in econ and has worked as a top-level exec for a number of multimillion-dollar companies. He has served as the mayor of Cornelius. (Civic office in Cornelius has been a repeat springboard for many prominent Republicans.) Tarte first ran for the senate in 2012, narrowly winning the Republican primary but running unopposed that November. He did have Democratic opponents in 2014 and 2016. In the latter, Tarte's winning percentage (54.48%) looked a little soft compared to 2014. On some topics, Tarte has at least sounded moderate. On the disruption to the state erupting out of HB2 (the bathroom bill), he told the Charlotte Observer: "Transgenders in bathrooms were not a problem." He opposed the transfer of tax

Natasha Marcus

revenues from urban to rural counties, but he is also a cheerleader for shifting the tax burden increasingly onto "consumers." He openly opposed his Republican Gov. McCrory over the I-77 toll lanes.

Democrat Natasha Marcus made an unsuccessful bid for the state House in the Cornelius neighborhood in 2014, when Republican John Bradford III defeated her 55 to 45 percent. “The policies that touch our lives most closely often come from the state level,” Marcus told WUNC. “Federal politics is important, but what happens at the General Assembly in Raleigh – from public school funding, to healthcare, to whether we’re going to have to pay tolls here in the North Mecklenburg area is also important." According to Ballotpedia, Marcus earned her B.A. in public policy from Hamilton College and her J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 1994. Her professional experience includes working as a lawyer for Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard; as Judicial Clerk for the Honorable Frank W. Bullock, Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Greensboro; and as a founding member of DavidsonLearns, a non-profit providing senior citizen learning and enrichment. Marcus intends a fight for the seat: “Cuts to public pre-K through higher education, unconstitutional laws, politicians who put polluters over our clean air and water, policies that make healthcare more expensive and less accessible, and expensive toll lanes on I-77 have taken us backwards. Like many people in our community, I am fed up with being ignored by Raleigh Republicans and am ready to take a stand.”


Eleanor Erickson, running in the NC Senate District 8

District 8 is coastal and includes parts of New Hanover, Brunwsick, Pender, and Bladen counties.

Incumbent Republican: Bill Rabon is considered Senate leader Phil Berger’s right-hand man. Rabon first entered the chamber in the Tea Party wave of 2010 and by the 2016 General Election, he was unopposed by any Democrat. He succeeded the retiring Rules Committee dictator Tom Apodaca as the master controller of legislation entering and exiting the senate. He is a Southport veterinarian and a partner in several animal hospitals. He is said to have been mentored by former Senator Bob Rucho, so there's an air of conservative toxicity about Rabon, though some of that may be emanating from capo dei capi Phil Berger. Rabon reportedly cussed Governor McCrory's wife Ann and her goddamn "puppy mill" ban bill in 2014, saying over his dead body would it ever pass the senate. (Remember, he's the owner of animal hospitals.) He publicly criticized Ann McCrory for lobbying the General Assembly for the bill, saying at the time that she was breaking "all kinds of laws." But Rabon himself is not above steering taxpayer money to powerful business interests, particularly those that also

funnel campaign cash his way. Rabon filed the bill that would limit all judges, from the district level on up, to two-year terms in office. That jolly piece of horseshit would turn every judgeship into a partisan circus, with judges having to raise money and run every two years.

Democrat Eleanor Erickson Erickson is a long-time resident of Brunswick who works as the general manager of a local hotel. She is so new at this "candidate thing" that she doesn't yet have web
infrastructure, but it's clear that she's planning to make the pollution of the Cape Fear River an issue along with the deterioration of support for public education in the Republican dominated General Assembly. (Republicans say they love education and have lavished billions at least on the public schools, but their love looks a lot more like involuntary suffocation.) Erickson has some local renown in Brunswick County as "a pillar of the community who took initiative and built a new playground at a local park instead of waiting around for others." She is co-founder of the nonprofit group Where We Live, which raised the money for the playground and which has branched out into organizing music and arts events around Bolivia, NC, and Southport, along with regular weekly activities for working families. Through Where We Live, social media, and the Rotary Club, Erickson has become a leader among younger professionals in the county.


Ginger Garner, running in the NC Senate District 2

District 2 = Carteret, Craven, and Pamlico counties on the coast.

Republican incumbent: Norm Sanderson is a three-term senator, first elected in 2012. In 2014 and 2016, Sanderson won with about 60 percent of the vote. According to Ballotpedia, Sanderson received a B.A. in Christian education from Logos University in 2002. Logos is an on-line, Bible-based, "interdenominational" education-dispensary based in Jacksonville, Florida. Sanderson's professional experience includes working as a sheriff's deputy and a real estate business owner. He currently owns Kids Heaven School Age Care Center. In 2017, Sanderson proposed a poisonous anti-

Ginger Garner

immigrant sanctuary city law to punish the state's cities if they won't participate in rounding up brown people. Sanderson is a conservative true believer in Phil Bergerism. He has said that North Carolina is a much better place now and ever since Republican took over in Raleigh in 2011.

Democrat Ginger Garner is a doctor of physical therapy and a longtime orthopaedic clinician serving the healthcare needs of new mothers and the military (Cherry Point is in her district). She says she was born in Asheboro "to teenage parents," hardworking Republicans who instilled in her the values of hard work and thriftiness which she brings with her into running for office as a Democrat. She received her Doctor of Physical Therapy and Master of Physical Therapy degrees from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She is the founder of the Professional Yoga Therapy Institute (2000), the first interdisciplinary, medical yoga program in the world. Also established the first doctoral level medical yoga curricula, now adopted by medical schools throughout the US and Canada. She says on her website, "My story speaks for itself: for 20 years I have served our coastal community as a physical therapist, as an aid and Christian mission worker, as a volunteer, as a CEO and small business owner, and as a wife and mother of three." She mentions the opioid epidemic as a major concern of hers along with protection of the North Carolina coast from offshore drilling. 

 

Helen Probst Mills, running in the NC Senate District 25

District 25 takes in a swath of Moore, Richmond, Anson, and Scotland counties and two dozen little towns including Hamlet and Laurinberg.

Republican incumbent: Tom McInnis was first elected to the senate in 2014 by the skin of his teeth (50.4%). In 2016 he did considerably better against Democrat Dannie Montgomery, taking almost 64% of the vote. He makes his living as an auctioneer (Iron Horse Auction Company), real estate

Helen Probst Mills

broker, and used automobile dealer. He previously served eight years on the Richmond County Board of Education. A standard-issue conservative.

 

Democrat Helen Probst Mills is an attorney from Pinehurst and enters the race, she says, in part to simply provide an option.“The reality is that I walk in on Election Day to the polling booth here in Pinehurst and there are no Democrats for me to check. We need a choice,” Mills said. “There needs to be an opportunity for an individual to stand up and to make him crystalize his position on issues and policies and to defend the votes he has taken.” Mills says she grew up a daughter to a single mother and is herself the mother of three and a cancer survivor who moved to North Carolina with her husband, Stuart, in 2006. She is licensed to practice law in Illinois. Last year, Mills was appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper to the Sandhills Community College Board of Trustees. She also serves on the college’s Foundation Board, where she helped develop a program allowing high school graduates to attend for two years without having to pay tuition. She serves as development chair for the Northern Moore Family Resource Center in Robbins, which has opened a preschool and is developing a community center. She credits the overcoming of breast cancer to having health insurance:  “Everyone, no matter their background or how much money they make, should have access to affordable, quality health care. Yet too many politicians in Raleigh put petty partisan politics over policies that would help thousands. That is wrong for my community and for North Carolina.” (Republican incumbent McInnis has opposed, like most other Republicans in Phil Berger's senate, the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act because he's afraid of catching Obama cooties.)