Keith Crisco was the last of a breed. He was a businessman who made his money the old fashioned way–by making stuff and selling it. He stayed in textiles when most the plants had long been shuttered and moved overseas. And he was a Democrat.
He believed that government could be a force for good and that the Democratic Party was the vehicle to deliver those benefits. When most of his colleagues switched to the Republican Party in the 1980s and ‘90s, Keith remained a Democrat. He served on the school board and town council in Asheboro, a town that’s been red since the Civil War and which produced our state’s first Republican speaker of the the house since Reconstruction.
I did not know Keith Crisco well. In 2008, we collaborated on an op-ed on behalf of Mary Fant Donnan, who was running for Labor Commissioner and who was my client. Throughout this latest campaign, he called me periodically to talk about the race. He never had a bad word to say about his opponent, but he had a firm belief that he was the candidate to take on Renee Ellmers.
Crisco believed that the very attributes that made him an outlier in the modern Democratic Party, made him competitive in the Second Congressional District. He was a job creator in a district that needed jobs. While he believed government could be a force for good, he also believed that it needed to be restrained. And while the Democratic Party is getting younger and browner, the voters in 2014 would likely still be older and whiter. And finally, he believed that he could steal votes in Randolph County that no other Democrat could get.
Thirty years ago, the North Carolina Democratic Party was filled with men like Keith Crisco. They came out of the service and got their educations through the GI Bill. They went back to small towns, built careers and got involved in their communities and politics. They drove to Charlotte or Raleigh or Greensboro or Greenville for certain things, but they lived their lives in close proximity to their neighbors of all races and backgrounds.
Those days are gone. Today, the small towns are shrinking and rising Democratic leaders are more likely to come from Charlotte, the Triangle or Asheville. As our young people leave small towns for more urban areas, our society has become more stratified and self-segregated by class as much as by race.
Keith Crisco came from an era when workers and executives sat side by side in greasy diners and church pews. Having grown up in one of those small towns and having left myself, I’ve long mourned the loss of that lifestyle and searched for a close approximation within the Triangle. For me, losing Keith Crisco is a reminder that we’re losing a way of life that once defined North Carolina and the leaders of the Democratic Party.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
The problem with our party lies with the outside interferrence of super groups throwing money, buying political positions, to ensure the protection of the right’s interests. Until we stop allowing our state offices to go to the highest bidder, we’ll be fighting an uphill battle, business minded or not.
Andy:
The folks who lead us in 2010 were business-minded folks. We had an activist before that from 2005-2009 – and he did a great job of keeping our majority, Even turning NC blue in 2008. When we let an Establishment guy back in there, he and his hire-lings blew a 112 year majority advantage. We tried to take it back under David Parker, but the consultants threw a hissy fit when they didn’t get their exclusive and expensive no-bid contracts.
Voller had NOTHING to do with Dems (and their consultants) getting their butts kicked in 2010 and 2012. But he did have some solid ideas on how to raise money, and build the party. Too bad the consultants pitched an even hissier fit when Voller won. You do realize that Randy Voller is a business-minded person – he owns a small business.
We activists know how to fix things. He tried to run Goodwin House like a business – and not a frat house were you get jobs based on connections and not your skills. It’s too bad some people can’t respect the results of an election and work with the folks who won to help build the Party back up again.
You have hit the nail on the head Thomas. If you don’t follow the national Democratic party you are considered not pure enough. Well all I can say is the folks in charge of our party in NC are very pure but are out of power and couldn’t buy a clue with a solid gold visa card how to fix things. Until business minded folks are welcomed back this party will continue to be a laughing stock.