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Campaign Season

The Greensboro City Council race began in earnest Thursday night when 14 of the 17 district candidates showed for a Greensboro Neighborhood Congress forum.

So did a near-capacity audience, which confirms that this should be one of the liveliest and most competitive city elections in recent memory.

Among the highlights was incumbent District 4 Councilman Mike Barber's suggestion that the city dump its Minority and Women's Business Enterprise program to fund a police gang unit.

You almost could hear the jaws drop.

Meanwhile, former County Commissioner Trudy Wade continued her verbal assault on District 5 incumbent Sandy Carmany, questioning the city's handling of the resignation, under pressure, of former Police Chief David Wray. "Locking someone out of his office wasn't very professional," she said.

Wade also said in her opening statement that she had been asked to run by citizens whose concerns "aren't being addressed by the City Council."

The candidates were generally conversant on the issues, some less than others, and the rival candidates appeared to take pains to be polite. But it's early.

Corruption Runs Deep And Wide

North Carolina dealt itself a bad hand by ever allowing video poker. The money-making gaming machines, finally banned July 1, proved to be a source of corruption that may keep investigators busy for years.

Imprisoned former state House Speaker Jim Black protected the video-poker industry while he was in office, receiving large campaign donations from operators. Now his $500,000, interest-free loan from a video-game industry lobbyist is the subject of state and federal scrutiny.

Also under investigation are at least two Western North Carolina sheriffs alleged to have taken bribes to overlook illegal games. And activist Joe Sinsheimer has asked the State Board of Elections to probe whether video-poker interests funneled money to North Carolina politicians through donations to a national Democratic Party campaign committee.

These are sad times for North Carolina when an activity as insidious as video gambling can corrupt the political process.

A Trooper Walks Into A Bar ...

A North Carolina state trooper denies disproportionately targeting young women for traffic stops. But neither a Wake County Superior Court judge nor some of the women he stopped seemed to be buying any of that.

The trooper, Scott M. Harrison, allegedly asked a nurse he stopped why nurses date doctors. He also allegedly asked her not to be upset with him if she saw him later in a bar.

Such testimony is disputable but the numbers are not. Nearly half of Harrison's DWI arrests in 2006 were women, well above the state average of 18 percent.

The Highway Patrol is investigating Harrison, who has been in other trouble. He was ordered to do community service by a judge who accused him of lying to her, and he is being investigated for his rough treatment of a man he arrested.

If these allegations are true, they are intolerable. And Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens is right. Harrison is "not trooper material."