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GREENSBORO — In the coming days, Greensboro’s black voters will receive the list of City Council candidates endorsed by the George C. Simkins Jr. Memorial Political Action Committee, the city’s long-standing African American political group.

But this year, a new PAC hopes to sway black voters in a different direction.

The Guilford County Community Political Action Committee, formed last Friday, has made its own set of endorsements. The new committee — which is led by the Rev. Cardes Brown, local NAACP president and New Light Missionary Baptist Church leader  — has questioned whether the candidates endorsed by the Simkins PAC have served African Americans’ interests.

Brown said George Simkins Jr.’s goal of getting people of color elected to office has been realized.

“Now the issue, it seems to me, is to make sure those who are elected to those offices are accountable to the constituents,” Brown said.

Simkins PAC members say their group still represents the needs of black voters.

“The endorsements the PAC makes are credible, and we play no favorites,” Vice Chairwoman Dianne Munden said.

The Simkins PAC began more than a half century ago. Simkins, a local dentist, longtime local NAACP president and active civil rights activist, was a founding member. The committee was named for him after he died in 2001.

This year’s Simkins PAC City Council endorsements re-enforce that history, promoting its role in desegregation efforts. “We are still here in 2009 researching the candidates so that you can know which candidates have your best interest at heart,” the endorsement letter reads.

City Council candidates have stressed the importance of the Simkins PAC endorsement to get black voters’ support.

After losing the Simkins endorsement, at-large candidate Sandra Anderson Groat took out an advertisement in The Carolina Peacemaker, Greensboro’s African American newspaper, with letters of support from two prominent black religious leaders.

But over the past decade or so, political observers say the Simkins PAC’s endorsements have not carried the same clout as the political landscape changed.

“Then, we felt more like everybody was together. Things have changed a whole lot,” said Councilwoman Goldie Wells, a Simkins PAC member. “We don’t have a single voice. We don’t have anybody who speaks for everybody anymore.”

Some community members now chafe at the idea of someone telling them how to vote.

“Some young black voters kind of take it offensively that you have this group that is trying to wield power over the black vote,” said D. J. Hardy, who ran at-large for a council seat but did not survive the primary.

Others, including Brown, who left his seat on the Simkins PAC this year, have questioned why elected officials are allowed to sit on the committee.

“Is it fair of an elected official to stand in judgment of another elected official?” asked Ralph Johnson, who has worked with the Guilford County Unity Effort, a group that hosted candidate forums and produced voter guides to offer Greensboro residents an alternative to endorsements.

According to its endorsement letter that will run in the Peacemaker this week, the Guilford County Community PAC questions how the Simkins PAC makes its endorsements.

Simkins PAC members defend their candidate-review process as sound. Elected officials on the PAC said they do not participate in endorsements for their own races.
“No member of the PAC has their own agenda,” Munden said. “The PAC members are not about that. The PAC members care about this whole city.”

Brown said the Guilford County Community PAC will be in tune to the needs of the community and make sure elected leaders meet those needs.

Endorsements by the two PACs diverge in the districts with the most black voters. And the new PAC’s endorsements include fewer conservative candidates.

The Guilford County Community PAC is asking voters to cast only two votes in the at-large race, for Robbie Perkins and Marikay Abuzuaiter. The Simkins PAC, which interviews all the candidates, supported Perkins, Abuzuaiter and Nancy Vaughan.

In Districts 1 and 2 — the city’s majority African American council districts — the new PAC says either candidate is worth a vote. The Simkins PAC endorsed Luther Falls Jr. and Jim Kee in those districts.

In Districts 3 and 5, the Simkins PAC endorsed incumbents Trudy Wade and Zack Matheny. The new PAC chose neither candidate in District 3 and challenger Art Boyett in District 5.

In addition to Brown, the Guilford County Community endorsements are signed by 11 people, including religious leaders the Rev. Gregory Headen, the Rev. Howard Chubbs, Brother Willie Muhammad, Bishop George Brooks and the Rev. James Woodson; Samuel Moseley, chairman of N.C. A&T’s political science and criminal justice department; and former Mayor Carolyn Allen.

The Guilford County Community PAC is still organizing, and it is not clear who will eventually sit on its board, Brown said.

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda. lehmert@news-record.com