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Editorial: Partisan tinkering

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Comments (7)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

(Updated 3:00 am)

Memo from the voters to the people who keep trying to inject partisan politics into City Council elections: Sit down and shut up.

This time the culprits were Democrats, who funded a mailer to endorse (sort of) candidates in the nonpartisan Greensboro City Council races. The splashy, red-white-and-blue mailer, paid for by the N.C. Democratic Party, declared: "Greensboro Democrats are Working for Our Future." It went on to list and picture all Democrats running for council, even in two district races in which Democrats opposed one another.

Former Guilford County GOP Chairman Marcus Kindley, who tried to recruit a slate of Republican council candidates in 2003, was fit to be tied.

Where, he asked, was the outrage now that Democrats were doing the tinkering?

Apparently at the voting booth.

As with other attempts to render partisan what isn't, this one was an abject failure. Every single candidate listed on the mailer lost, except in District 1 and District 2 , in which Democrats were the only choices, aside from write-ins.

For what it is worth, only two of the nine newly elected council members are Democrats, none of the three at-large members in a city that is majority-Democrat. Said local campaign strategist Bill Burckley, who has worked with Democrats and Republicans, and who organized a counter campaign with flyers and signs that said, "Just say NO to Partisan City Council Elections": "Stupid is as stupid does."

Even stupider, and more than a little bit awkward, was the cold shoulder the Democrats' mailer gave Nancy Vaughan, who is unaffiliated, but who is also married to a Democratic state senator, Don Vaughan.

This may have bruised both Vaughans' feelings, but it didn't hurt Nancy Vaughan at the polls. She went on to total more votes than anyone on the ballot, including Mayor-elect Bill Knight.

Whether this partisan gambit hurt any of the listed candidates is not certain. Many factors separated the victors from the vanquished last week. But it definitely didn't help.

If there were some evidence that partisan races would result in better government, that would be another matter. There isn't. Exhibit A: The sharply partisan Guilford County commissioners, for whom party affiliation is not merely the most important thing; all too often it is the only thing.

Further, it would be highly unlikely, if not downright impossible, for someone like Nancy Vaughan to win as an unaffiliated candidate if the council race had been partisan.

We'll say what we said when Republicans were trying to inject partisan politics into council races six years ago: Don't.

Leave well enough alone. Let these candidates run on the issues.

And let the new council govern on the issues, not on the contrived dictates of tribal politics.

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Interested

November 12, 2009 - 6:45 am EST

One can only wonder if leadership in the local Democrat party believes in karma.

tonymo

November 12, 2009 - 11:08 am EST

Do we have to wait until November 2010!

marcusk

November 12, 2009 - 9:35 pm EST

I find it interesting that this "paper" waited until AFTER the elections to give it's sage advice, WHEN it knew for a fact about the Democrat Party was Injecting itself into this election with paid advertising and paid operatives at the polls before election day. As I remember in 2003 this "paper" took me to task BEFORE the elections! Can we say Hypocrisy
Interesting also, we see the name of Marcus Kindley who called the paper but was not responded to, except here where he cannot react except to those who read these blogs, and we do not see the names of those in the Democrat Party who initiated their participation in these actions. Just more examples of the Bias of this paper. Had the Dems won, you would not have heard a peep, yet this is written a week after election night and two weeks after the paper knew of the Democrat Party's actions. Biased reporting at its best, to bad the public does not know the real truth!
|I asked to be allowed to respond to this situation in an article on this page but was never contacted, ah the power of a paper that participates in character Assassination

unknown

November 13, 2009 - 12:56 am EST

Marcusk, Marcusk ..... Didn't the Guilford County Chairman of the Republican party make his own e-mail pitch for Republicans in non-partisan races? Yes we can say hipocracy!!!!!

marcusk

November 13, 2009 - 3:51 pm EST

You may see my full response at www.informedvotersofnc.com

Unaffiliated

November 20, 2009 - 1:04 pm EST

From an e-mail from Bill Wright on October 18,2009 sent to @ least 100 on his address book list:
County Republican Headquarters in Asheboro. Training topics will include Precinct Organization; Finance 101; and/or Candidate Recruitment Media. Please contact me at: for additional details. Whether you are from Randolph, Guilford or other surrounding counties, you are invited and encouraged to attend.
Early voting has already begun for our local municipal elections in Greensboro,Pleasant Garden and Summerfield. We have Republican candidates on the ballot in each of these cities/towns and they could all use your help. Please let me know if you would be willing to work an hour or two at the Early Voting polls or on election day, November 3rd. We often get caught up in the state and national issues, but local politics affects our lives on a daily basis and electing Republicans at the local level sets the stage for electing Republicans at the state and national level. I hope you will be able to help our local Republicans get elected. " We've been blessed with the opportunity to stand for something-for liberty and freedom and fairness. And these things are worth devoting our lives to." Ronald Reagan
Note: all above mentioned municipal elections were non-partisian!!!!

Unaffiliated

November 20, 2009 - 1:18 pm EST

Bill Wright, Chapter 2
PRESS RELEASE
GUILFORD COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY
DATE: OCTOBER 30, 2009

RE: NC Democrat Party intervention into non-partisan Greensboro City Council races

The Greensboro City Council operates under a non-partisan form of election of its council members…or do they? Historically the council races have been non-partisan, with local political parties supporting their candidates of choice, while avoiding an overt public intervention into the races. While such intervention is legal, there has typically been an unwritten understanding that the local and state political parties would avoid direct public support, thus promoting and maintaining the long standing non-partisan status. Apparently the North Carolina Democrat Party has decided to change this tradition and intervene directly with little regard to past accepted principals and campaign customs. This is an unprecedented and dangerous assault on our election process in Greensboro.

Political mailers, paid for by the NC Democrat Party, began hitting the mail boxes of Greensboro voters this week. The mailers endorsed candidates for the Greensboro City Council races that are registered Democrats. One question is why are these races generating the attention of the state Democrat Party? The second question is who pressured the state Democrat Party to intervene into Greensboro’s non-partisan races?

One could surmise that the answer to the second question is that the Democrat members of the Guilford Legislative Delegation requested that the state Democrat Party intervene and send direct mailers to registered Democrat voters in Greensboro. It would take some pressure from local Democrat leaders to draw the state Democrat Party into the process and I don’t believe any Democrat candidate on the ballot has that much influence with the state party. It appears that the Legislative Delegation, or some members of the Delegation, has become directly involved in turning Greensboro’s election into a partisan battle.

The answer to the first question is much clearer and definable. The voters of Greensboro are looking for new leadership that actually listens to the people who elect them. They are tired of the continuing embarrassing saga of the Greensboro Police Department. Strong leadership is necessary to return the once highly effective and efficient police department back to the excellent level of service and protection that was once provided to its citizens. The convoluted removal process of the former City Manager illustrates “how not to handle a personnel situation”, again a cry for new and effective leadership. Greensboro continues to assess one of the highest property tax rates on its citizens in the state at a time when Greensboro’s unemployment rate hovers around ten percent. It has also become all too clear that little regard is given to individual property rights on land use issues, often discounting the rights of individual tax paying property owners.

There is however, a parallel between the lack of leadership in Greensboro and the Democrat controlled Legislature in Raleigh. In June the Democrat Legislature raised taxes on North Carolina citizens one billion dollars, including a one cent sales tax. They continue to display an arrogance of superiority, while practicing fiduciary irresponsibility with taxpayer’s money. The ongoing investigations of corruption at the highest levels of state government, including the former Democrat Governor, are an embarrassment to all North Carolina citizens. And without question, the Democrat controlled Legislature has been anything but a champion of individual property rights.

Greensboro voters are tired of the status quo and the “business as usual” mentality that continue to sweep problems under the rug, rather than dealing with them upfront and directly. Voters have awakened to the fact that unless the leadership is changed, problems will persist, spending will increase (at a time when citizens are tightening their belts), taxes will rise and property rights will continue to be eroded. The current leadership has simply lost touch with the voters of Greensboro and its past time they were held accountable.

The Democrat controlled City Council and Legislature operate under the same ideals of an ever expanding role of government, higher taxes and more infringement into individual freedom and property rights. Yes, the awakened voters of Greensboro have sent a chill rushing through the Democrat council candidates and the prospect of losing control of the Greensboro City Council is real and frightening to the Democrat establishment with their feeling of entitlement.

I trust that Democrat voters in Greensboro will reject the intervention of the NC Democrat Party into the non-partisan election next Tuesday. The voters of Greensboro can well choose their next leaders without turning the election into a partisan battle. I would hope that the Democrat Party will avoid intervening again and stay out of Greensboro politics. However, if they choose to continue to interfere, rest assured that the Guilford County Republican Party will not sit on the sidelines and be silent.

Bill Wright, Chairman
Guilford County Republican Party