Splitsville in the Democratic Party?

 

Wesley Knott

 

 

The dyspepsia in the Democratic Party is generational. I see the rising tide of younger, sharper, more confrontational candidates as the yeast producing the gas that makes the dough rise, and my sympathies are almost entirely with them. I was pretty yeasty myself in my youth and had Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy to inspire me (not that McCarthy was any spring chicken by then, but he didn't think like an old man).

So I'm fairly philosophical about the kerfuffle that's erupted in the Wake County Democratic Party over the party chair's open and public endorsement of the insurgent Nida Allam, the 32-year-old Durham County Commissioner, over the "safer" incumbent Congresswoman Valerie Foushee. Endorsements in party primaries are supposed to be off-limits for party officers, and some county parties adhere rigidly to that hands-off principle (like the Watauga County Democratic Party, sometimes to its actual detriment). What party officers are not supposed to indulge in, individual rank-and-file Democrats can. Any Democrat can advocate for whomever they favor, loudly and obnoxiously if necessary.

But here's the thing: that principle of non-interference by our party leaders is already in tatters. The Governor himself made very public endorsements in more than one primary for General Assembly seats (and his candidates all won), while the state party chair cut off campaign resources for several NC House members who had voted with Republicans on veto overrides (and all those candidates lost). So I'm almost amused to see a petition arise in Wake County to eject Wesley Knott from his position as party chair, because he endorsed Nida Allam over Valerie Foushee in the 4th Congressional District primary. When asked about his coloring outside the lines, Knott, a 29-year-old who just became party chair last year, articulated the generational judgment of Foushee, the 70-year-old political veteran with municipal, county, and General Assembly elected positions behind her and a history of taking AIPAC money (the Israeli lobby). Knott called Foushee “risk-averse,” a “carefully-calculated” friend of the status quo who has failed to inspire voters. 

"Risk aversion" cuts succinctly to the point. In the current situation of both the NC General Assembly and the US Congress, where Trump Republicans rule and in NC's case rule almost absolutely, some Democrats become hesitant to advance ideas or initiatives that they know can't win approval (because, math) and they become simultaneously resigned if not outright comfortable sitting on their small seats of advancement and doing nothing to raise hell for policies that make sense and that need public drum-beating. Wesley Knott is a drum-beater.

I wrote about the younger version of Wesley Knott in 2022 when he himself ran a primary against Democratic House incumbent Sarah Crawford in NC House Dist. 66 and came within 140 votes of actually beating her. I was impressed then by the way he put things:

"I’m a mixed-race progressive who grew up in the Deep South. Politics isn’t abstract to me. I didn’t need critical race theory to learn about racism, and I didn’t need a policy analysis to know the importance of Medicaid. So when I talk about policy, it’s from a place of shared experience. I know what’s on the line. That’s why I’m running."

 

To get rid of Wesley Knott, who by other accounts has been an effective ball of fire for the Wake County party, strikes me as a foolish cutting off of one's nose to spit one's face.

 

The Elections of March: Democratic Primary in NCH33

Reading The Indy Week's endorsements in Wake County races for the NC Senate and House has caused me to take a closer look at the Democratic primary race in the NCH33 between incumbent Democrat Rosa Gill and her insurgent challenger Antoine Marshall. The Indy endorsed Marshall, and I can see why.

Democrat Antoine Marshall is a 33-year-old Millennial and a lawyer trained at Wake Forest. He's clearly a rising star in the Wake County Democratic Party (serving on the Progressive Caucus, among many other party offices and activist roles). As an undergraduate student at Claflin University, an HBCU in Orangeburg, S.C., Marshall worked in the congressional office of then-Majority Whip Congressman James Clyburn. He returned to Washington as a Kaiser Family Foundation Health Policy Fellow in the office of Congresswoman Donna Christensen, and also interned with the Congressional Black Caucus of the South Carolina State Legislature.

Marshall began his career as an attorney with Legal Aid of North Carolina, working with low income families in the areas of landlord/tenant law, government benefits, and mortgage foreclosures. This background has made Marshall especially focused on "access to legal justice," especially in this age of Trump when there seems to be different justice depending on wealth and influence:

...roughly 3 out of 4 low income households will have at least one civil legal problem in the upcoming year. These include problems with health care, housing conditions, disability access, veterans benefits, and domestic violence, the seriousness of which could be the difference between someone receiving medical assistance, being homeless, or in some cases protection from bodily harm or death. For many of those families North Carolina legal aid programs such as Legal Aid of North Carolina, Pigsah Legal Services and the Legal Services of Southern Piedmont provided lawyers at no charge to work on behalf of low income individuals, but these programs have been woefully underfunded. ["Antoine Marshall on the Issues"]

Noted: Marshall also challenged Rosa Gill for this seat in the Democratic primary of 2018, and only got 24.7% of the vote. It's still an uphill climb, but perhaps Marshall has organized better this year and has built a following to take on an intrenched incumbent.

Democratic incumbent Rosa Gill is 75 years old and is in her sixth term in the NC House. She was appointed to the District 33 seat in 2009 by Governor Bev Perdue when Rep. Dan Blue got moved up by appointment to the NC Senate. She earlier spent two decades as a public school math teacher and then a full decade as a government employee in the NC Division of Motor Vehicles.

She was elected to the Wake County Board of Education in 2009 and was reelected in 2003 and 2007. She was serving as chair of the school board when she was appointed to the General Assembly. She's also been chair of the Wake County Democratic Party and chair of the Wake County Board of Elections, so she's a powerhouse of political networking and has a formidable history of burying both Republican opponents and Democratic primary opponents.

She's been endorsed by Lillian's List and by the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association. She failed to win another endorsement from The Indy Week because "in our questionnaire this year, she told us that trans people should not be eligible for gender dysphoria treatments under the State Health Plan, and—while we appreciate her advocacy for schools—we can do better. Antoine Marshall has less experience, but he’s also passionate—and not quite as behind the times."

"Behind the times" is a serious indictment for a Democratic incumbent in 2020, but Antoine Marshall still has an awfully heavy "lift" to make his insurgency happen.

The North Carolina "Seven": New Black Sheriffs Elected Last Tuesday

Paula Dance, Pitt County

Paula Dance, Pitt County, became the first African-American female sheriff in the state of North Carolina and only the fifth in the entire country. She was already a major in the sheriff's office, running for an open seat. She has 28 years of law enforcement experience, 26 of those in the Pitt County department.

Quentin Miller, Buncombe County, 25-year veteran of the Asheville Police Dept., won with over 61% of the vote against both a Republican and a Libertarian. It too was an open seat, and the Libertarian had been jailed on a stalking charge in September.

Ennis Wright, Cumberland County, was already serving as an appointed sheriff following the retirement of a fellow Democrat. Wright won on Tuesday with more than 63% of the vote.

Bobby Kimbrough Jr., Forsyth County, defeated 5-term Republican incumbent Bill Schatzman with 53% of the vote. Kimbrough is a retired agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. “People are ready for change,” Kimbrough said. “This race wasn’t about me, and it wasn’t about him [Schatzman]. It’s about building some bridges.”

Gerald Baker, Wake County, "in a stunning upset," defeated 4-term Sheriff Donnie Harrison. The 55-45 winning margin made it doubly stunning. Baker had worked for the Wake County Sheriff's Department for 28 years, 15 of those under Harrison. Harrison had partnered in and defended a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program that meant transferring people to federal custody who have been arrested and were believed to be in the U.S. illegally. Baker was critical of the program.

Danny Rogers, in Guilford County, ended the 24-year reign of Sheriff B J Barnes, a politician so powerful he was considered unbeatable. (That was Monday. Wednesday, people were thinking otherwise.) Rogers took 53% of the vote.

Clarence Birkhead, in Durham County, had virtually won the office back in the primary, taking some 69% of the vote against an unpopular white incumbent, and faced only write-in votes last Tuesday.

What the State Board of Elections Did Yesterday

Stacy C "Four" Eggers, member NCSBE, voted "no"
on every early voting plan except two.
Photo Lonnie Webster

At a rare Sunday afternoon meeting, the North Carolina State Board of Elections met in Forsyth County yesterday to hear 15 contested cases for Early Voting plans. Results in every case favored more access to Early Voting, with most votes going 5-4 along partisan lines (two unanimous exceptions noted below). Grateful to Loretta Boniti for keeping us informed yesterday.

Buncombe -- gets additional early voting site in black community

Dare -- gets Sunday voting

Durham -- keeps Sunday voting

Brunswick -- gets Sunday voting

Gaston -- gets Sunday voting (unanimous)

Gates -- gets expanded hours

Henderson -- gets Sunday voting

Lincoln -- gets expanded hours (unanimous)

Orange -- gets Sunday voting

Pender -- gets 25 Saturday hours and 20 Sunday hours

Pitt -- gets 80 Saturday hours and 20 Sunday hours

Randolph -- gets 4 early voting sites and 45 Saturday hours

Robeson -- gets more Saturday voting at more sites

Rockingham -- gets more sites

Wake -- gets early voting restored on NCSU campus

Little Watauga, Running With the Big Dogs

Hattip to Gerry Cohen, who keeps up with this stuff:

New voter registrations in various NC counties the past month (generally Aug 3 - Sept 2)

Wake 11,236
D 30.1%
L 1.0%
R 15.8%
U 53.2%

Orange 3,442
D 36.3%
L 1.1%
R 8.1%
U 54.5%

Durham 3,508
D 45.8%
L 0.6%
R 8.4%
U 45.3%

Mecklenburg 7,690
D 41.0%
L 1.3%
R 17.1%
U 40.5%

Buncombe 1,984
D 35.1%
L 1.8%
R 13.6%
U 49.5%

Guilford 3,532
D 40.4%
L 1.1%
R 14.1%
U 44.4%

Forsyth 2,383
D 39.2%
L 1.1%
R 17.1%
U 42.6%

Watauga 2,363
D 24.7%
L 2.1%
R 21.6%
U 51.5%

The NC General Assembly Has Gone Home, Thank the Good Lord!

They adjourned sine die last night. Here's what they didn't do:

1. They didn't redistrict city commish races in Asheville, as Sen. Apodaca wanted -- presumably his parting stab-in-the-back for "sin city" as he retires from the General Assembly. Apodaca was the only Buncombe legislator favoring this supposedly "local bill," which under the rules (?) rendered it unpassable, though there were some willing to bend those rules. Redistricting for Asheville failed, and it failed because some of Apodaca's fellow Republicans found it an unethical power grab. Imagine that.

2. They didn't repeal HB2, that odious piece of crap that has made North Carolina about as attractive to economic development as a toxic waste dump. They repealed one small provision, the right to sue for wrongful termination in state court. Otherwise, the rest of that pile of right-wing dung is still in place and under the wrinkling nose of the rest of the nation.

3. They didn't pass the trio of constitutional amendments, including their version of TABOR (Taxpayer's Bill of Rights), which has caused such problems in Colorado.

4. They didn't pass "regulatory reform" bills that would have curtailed wind farms and the construction of solar farms.

5. They didn't pass "background checks" for public school employees which would have criminalized and stigmatized teachers who participate in acts of civil disobedience.

6. They didn't manage to redraw Wake County commish and school board districts following the decision by the Fourth Circuit, which means that the old districts remain in place, sans Republican power-grabbing.

Hattip: Mark Binker. His excellent reporting enumerates other controversial bills that died the good death last night.

BREAKING NEWS: 4th Circuit Rules Redistricting of Wake Co Commish Unconstitutional

You may be forgiven for not remembering -- who can keep up with the power-trip nuttery coming out of Raleigh? -- that the Republicans in the General Assembly redistricted Wake County commission districts in an attempt to make them more winnable by Republican candidates.

News just came over the wire that the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that redistricting unconstitutional.

The ruling "proves that the Assembly’s continued relentless aggression against municipalities across NC has now been proven to be unwarranted, unprovoked, and officially unconstitutional,"said Brian Fitzsimmons, chair of the Wake County Democratic Party.

We can't keep up any longer with how many laws enacted by the NC General Assembly since 2011 have been ruled unconstitutional. The number's high. The number should be an embarrassment. But this bunch is never embarrassed.

Lawsuit Over Gerrymandering of Wake County Commissioner Districts

The Republicans in the General Assembly jammed through their rewriting of Wake County commissioner elections last week -- a naked power grab, after losing the commissioner elections last fall -- but there's already a federal lawsuit aimed at overturning it.

Most interesting fact that emerged from the lawsuit: the new Wake commissioner districts are very unequal as to population, varying as much as 9.8 percent, which certainly flies in the face of "one person, one vote."

This Week in "Eff You!" Government

Yes, the honorables convened in Raleigh right now are still pursuing what we've come to think of as "eff you" government ... "eff you!" teachers and schools! "Eff you!" cities and towns! "Eff you!" you mother-effing environmentalists!

It's hard to keep up:

1. The last small protection for homeowners -- protest petitions in zoning cases -- is about to be eliminated from North Carolina law, where it's provided a tiny last-ditch shield for some neighborhoods encroached on by high-dollar, big-muscle bullies. "Eff you! neighborhoods."

2. On Monday Governor Squishy signed a law repealing a statutory requirement for air pollution rules for fracking operations, opening the door for the immediate issuance of licenses to gas exploration in the state. "Eff you! water-drinkers."

3. Also on Monday, after a three-judge panel ruled in favor of McCrory in his separation-of-powers lawsuit against the legislature, that same legislature (well, its Republican overlords) decided in retaliation that it will confirm no executive branch appointments until it gets its way. "Eff you! Governor Squishy." (It's unusual that I'm taking up for our sadly befuddled chief executive, but these are unusual times.)

4. The scheme to steal Wake County commissioner elections back for Republicans is now in the NC House, after the NC Senate passed it in record time. "Eff you! Wake County voters."

5. Sen. Bill Rabon introduced a "local bill" to eliminate the office of Coroner in Brunswick County, an elected official who has somehow offended Sen. Rabon. “My position is a county position, elected by the people of Brunswick County,” Coroner Greg White said. “What I have learned is that Mr. Rabon did not have any conversation with county officials, the county manager or the county attorney. County officials had no say, had no input into this matter, which I think is disrespectful to them.” "Eff you! Brunswick County voters."

GOP Lost Wake County in 2014. Their Outrageous Plan To Get It Back

Chad Barefoot

Trudy Wade-ism is now coming to Wake County.

To recap, Guildford County Republican Senator Trudy Wade recently introduced a "local bill" to rewrite local election rules in Greensboro so that Republicans can win elections there (because otherwise they weren't winning elections there).

Now comes Republican Chad Barefoot of Wake County. He introduced S181 to rewrite election rules in Wake County so that Republicans can take back the County Commission, which they lost overwhelmingly in last fall's election.

I don't know why Republicans in the General Assembly don't just save time and declare that Democrats are ineligible for any office anywhere. Could that possibly be any more blatant and transparent than these constant manipulations of ballot access and voter suppression?

That Was Not Our Last Calf-Roping

That was not our first rodeo. Won't be our last, either. We know the taste of arena-floor dirt. Improves your perspective and adds nutriments that are otherwise rare to the diet. You know the old saying: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

2016 won't be the same for either party. Turn-out for Democrats and the unaffiliated is bound to be much stronger, even if all the voter suppression practiced by our General Assembly and The Guv stands up in court.

Locally, progressives held their own and even improved their situation. Sheriff Hagaman buried Randy Townsend, despite an early voting site in Deep Gap generously provided by our partisan Board of Elections.

It's steady-state on the county's Board of Commissioners, two Democrats and three Republicans. But at least the Nathan Miller Era will be over come the first of December. He has no more public office to abuse the power of. Republican Commissioner David Blust will have to run again in 2016 along with Republican Perry Yates. Without Miller pulling their strings, what will they do for direction? Will they put Democrat-turned-Republican Jimmy Hodges in as their Chair?

Democrats will now dominate the Watauga County Board of Education, first time in a long time. Republican Ron Henries, who got thrown under the party bus back in May because he voted not to ban books, is now being celebrated on the local conservative blog as one of their wins on Tuesday, as though we all don't remember how he was treated months ago. Bottomline: Wataugans have only one book-banner left on the school board, and that took a good deal of "single-shotting" by the conservatives.

NC House member Jonathan Jordan lost Watauga County, and state Senator Dan Soucek came within 226 votes of losing his home county too. If voters want more backwardness and bullshit, they'll certainly get it from Jordan and Soucek. But 2016 is coming.

For those without love for the North Carolina General Assembly -- which means those who've been paying attention to the extremist agenda in Raleigh -- the brightest spots on Tuesday night were in Buncombe and in Wake counties.

Tim Moffitt, the smug Buncombe County representative who engineered the seizing of Asheville's water system without compensation to the city, was defeated by Democrat Brian Turner. Moffitt thought he might be in line to succeed Thom Tillis as Speaker of the NC House. Oops.

Another Buncombe County Republican House member, freshman Nathan Ramsey, also lost to John Ager.

But Wake County was the real stand-out for a local slaughter of Republican office-holders. Another Republican NC House member, Tom Murry, used an election-day stunt to try to fool pro-education voters. The Murry campaign paid temp workers to hand out fake endorsement cards from the NC Association of Educators. The NCAE had actually endorsed Murry’s opponent, Gale Adcock. The fake endorsement cards were exposed on local television, and Adcock went on to beat the faker.

All four incumbent Republican county commissioners in Wake County, including Jesse Helms's nephew Paul Coble, were swept out of office by four Democrats.

Perhaps most significant of all races statewide, Democratic Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges won all their races, except for that 19-candidate race for the Court of Appeals, where Republican John Tyson won because all Democrats did not unite behind one candidate.

Another, Higher Court Finds Moral Monday Arrest Unconstitutional

Judge Donald Stephens, the chief resident Superior Court judge of Wake County, has now joined two lower Wake County District Court judges in throwing out the arrests of Moral Monday protesters from last summer.

The Wake County prosecutor will probably soon see this writing on the wall and dismiss all the remaining 900 arrests.

The
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/09/15/4153798/first-moral-monday-case-heard.html?sp=/99/100/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy

Two Ways NC Republicans Are Hurting Our Citizens

1. Failure to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which would have cost the state nothing for the first two years and only 10% after that.

Next door in Wilkes County, 512 citizens could not get health insurance coverage because they make less than $11,490 a year ($23,550, for a family of four). They could be covered by Medicaid, but Governor McCrory and the Clown College cut off that option in their spite against President Obama.

2. Yesterday in Wake County, we found out that over 600 public school teachers have resigned since last July, many of them in frustration and in mid-stream, because of the way the Governor and the General Assembly have exhibited their spite toward public education.

Probably many of you reading this personally know a school teacher who has quit in the last nine months and moved on. I do. She's now working in Tennessee for substantially more money.

The Wake County resignations are 41% higher than last school year, an "alarming" statistic that has school administrators across the state concerned about the "brain drain" and a resulting teacher shortage.

Congratulations, NC Republicans! Your rancid and reckless ideology is driving North Carolina into a hole that will take decades to get out of.

Dan Soucek and Jonathan Jordan: You have direct responsibility for this pain, all of it!

The Attack on Early Voting in North Carolina

Conservatives don't like Early Voting, and their hand-maidens in the North Carolina Republican Party are doing what they can to curtail it. The Republican-controlled NC General Assembly refused to "match" a $4 million grant from the Federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) -- a "match" of $660,000 -- because Sen. Andrew Brock of Mocksville decided, against all evidence to the contrary, that the state's election machinery just didn't need it.

Every local Board of Elections in the state is now facing decisions about cutting off Early Voting sites, or limiting their hours, or both. In Wake County, where some 57% of registered voters voted early in 2008 (and you know whom the majority voted for, right? which explains the conservative hostility), the County Commission gave the Board of Elections about half of what it needs to fund and maintain just the early voting sites that were open four years ago. We're watching their struggle to maintain ballot access rather than cave to the Republican grand scheme of making the act of voting as difficult as possible.

"Grand scheme"? You betcha! It's national in scope, and it's organized, right down to our local stop-ASU-students-from-voting campaign organized by Deborah Greene. Ari Berman has done outstanding reporting on the whole sorry chapter in our recent history.

How the Republicans Play in Wake County

The Republican take-over of the Wake County school board has already been chronicled.

Now add the Wake County Commission, where one Democrat is sick (and hence absent) from the 4-3 Democratic majority, and another commissioner had to go to the bathroom, so in her absence down the hall in the crapper (so to speak) the Republican commissioners elected one of their own as chair.

Maybe you'd better read about it for yourself. Wasn't this the plot of a bad Dick Van Dyke comedy in 1967?