Wake County is the county with the most voters and a plurality of the readership here, so the following is an overview of some of the important recent news stories going on there:
Democrats Swarm Stein Seat
Josh Stein is going to vacate his seat to run for Attorney General. He represents the state’s 16th Senate District, which is so Democratic that winning that party’s primary is tantamount to election. Because of this, expect a very crowded primary.
Already two candidates have announced: Jay Chaudhuri, a former aide to Treasurer Janet Cowell and Attorney General Roy Cooper; and Ellis Hankins, former head of the NC League of Municipalities who is so disgusted with the GOP legislature’s treatment of cities that he’s decided he wants to change the General Assembly’s policies from within. There are also reports that Rep. Duane Hall, who represents large portions of this district in the State House, is considering, and there may yet be more candidates on the way.
Chaudhuri and Hankins are both credible candidates. Chaudhuri, if elected, would probably be the first Indian to be elected to the State Senate. There is a large and growing Indian community in the Morrisville area and their staunch support would be a boon for his campaign.
Another potential candidate is freshman Rep. Gale Adcock of Cary, but most of her district lies outside the 16th and her voting record indicates that she’s preparing for a tough reelection for her House seat. On the Republican side, filmmaker and 2014 candidate Molotov Mitchell could run again, but he has not indicated any interest so far.
Independent-Turned-Democrat Challenges Dollar
Brian Tribble, a businessman who served in Operation Enduring Freedom in the Horn of Africa, has announced his campaign for the seat held by Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican. As head budget writer, Dollar is one of the most powerful members of the legislature. Still, this could be a competitive race. Dollar has gotten a lot of flack from conservatives and may face a primary challenge, and his last two general election victories were single-digit ones against an underfunded opponent.
To win, Tribble is going to have to cut Dollar’s margins in the outlying, more rural precincts of the district, while relying on the more blue Cary precincts as a base. Interestingly, voter registration records indicate that Tribble voted a Republican ballot in the May 2012 primary, so he’s only a recent convert to the Democrats. Dollar will be well-funded, so Tribble is going to have to get a lot of support from the state party to win.
Wake Transit Tax Can Go Forward
A provision in the Senate budget would have made it impossible for the county to have a one-half cent sales tax referendum to pay for transit. But thanks to the efforts of Sen. John Alexander (R-Raleigh), the county got a reprieve. A couple of conditions apply, though: such a referendum would have to be held in December 2016, and state funds cannot be used for light rail funds.
Light rail appears to be off the table, ruled out by Wake County transit planners. Instead, they’re looking at “rail rapid transit” trains, which they consider to be more practical and less expensive. The enactment of any transit plan would be dependent on the December 2016 referendum, which obviously will see lower turnout than a general election. The result of that referendum will be determined by which side – the transit people or the conservative taxpayers’ groups – is more effective about motivating their supporters to go to the polls.
John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.
Side note: THE SHORT SESSION IS NOT EVEN OVER YET. Tribble is taking the “permanent campaign” to wild new extremes.
The statement that “voter registration records indicate that Tribble voted a Republican ballot in the May 2012 primary, so he’s only a recent convert to the Democrats” is not a fair one. Tribble apparently is a recently-registered Democrat, but a registered independent voting in a Republican primary just means he thought his vote mattered more there than in the Democratic primary. It doesn’t mean his ideology was more Republican than Democratic. Possibly his ideology was Democratic but he didn’t have a strong favorite in the Democratic race(s) yet he had someone in the Republican primary he feared, so he voted against a Republican rather than for a Democrat. I don’t know his ideology. My point is that which primary a registered independent votes in does not indicate his or her ideology.
That’s just ridiculous. If you think your vote matters AT ALL in a Republican primary then you are NOT a Democrat — unless you’re trying to do something completely unethical by voting for the Republican you think is LESS likely to be decent or winning if he makes it to November. That sort of thing just OUGHT to be illegal to begin with.
Are you arguing for a Closed Primary in both Parties?
This is naive. It is not even a little bit unethical to pick your primary in which to vote, given the gerrymandering that exists in NC today. In Cabarrus county, our 2014 local election offered no Democrats to consider, but there were right-wing nut-Republicans running the county into the ground that needed to be ousted, and Republican alternatives available that were screaming liberals by comparison.