Never one to avoid procrastination, here is my handy scratchpad-o-research as I prepare to head to the polls later this evening.
Me: James R Berg, Durham County precinct 38. Bring utility bill & passport. Write-ins are usually discarded, so don't vote for me until I turn 35 proper.
President: Kerry. Anyone but Bush(tm).
Senate: Erskine Bowles (D). Burr is an archetypal puppet of lobbyists whose response to said challenges was to use his sister as a character witness. LOL. Bowles is campaigning dirty even on his website, but damn if this fucker isn't asking for it.
House: David Price (D). Feels sinful to vote a straight-Dem national ticket, and Price is indeed a bit on the tax-n-spend side. However, he's also a scholar and a gentleman. Batchelor meanwhile is a bozo whose qualification is "Public Relations Chair, Holly Springs Kiwanis Club;" who believes we should force individuals to be responsible but not the government ("I do not believe that the budget deficits are a threat to the nation's future security...If we had not gone into Iraq, we would have had to return down the road to face the sons of Saddam Hussein"); who supports the Defense of Marriage Amendment. His #1 campaign issue is to stop the proliferation of passenger rail services. (info in its entirety from his own website -- no removed context, I swear)
(where do the Repubs get these guys? too pussy to find real talent who might offend Southern sensibility, I presume...see Christine below for a Repub who's kicking ass without any party support)
NC Amendment I: can local governments issue bonds without a referendum? Hell no.
NC Amendment II: is the state government acting correctly in disbursing fines it collects to schools? Yes. The opposition seems to be based on an argument (presented in an ongoing lawsuit before the NC Supreme Court) that fine money should stay in the county it was collected in. That argument doesn't seem to follow from any general "fairness" principle I'm aware of. If anything, it provides an incentive for municipalities to collect more fines == hell no.
NC Amendment III: change magistrate terms from two years to four years (after their first term) even if an unfriendly clerk is elected? Sure.
Governor: Barbara Howe (L). Easely likes taxation a lot -- granted, showing some guts after poor campaign promises and budget problems beyond his control -- yet ends up making Ballentine look progressive by comparison on education and health care, where the latter's proposals actually aren't bad but are opposed for opposition's sake. Ballentine for his part comes off as a freaky god-n-country type, luckily unable to invade anyone from his desired post, but obviously no friend to gay and criminal rights. Then again, neither is Easely; the ever-opinionated Duke Chronicle did end up endorsing him, but with strong reservations regarding his weak post-Hunt leadership and unwillingness to tackle humanitarian/social issues. Fuck that shit.
Howe is direct ("civilized people don't kill their prisoners"). She is principled yet reasoned (having drafted an educational plan that's libertarian in flavor but not insanely impractical as you might expect from the LP). And despite the presence of countless opinionated men this year, she is the only candidate in the whole state with enough balls to defend free trade (with the nation and the world) in the face of job concerns.
Lt Governor: Jim Snyder (R). Wants to deregulate and cut taxes. Dem is a protectionist buzzword-thrower, Lib is an underqualified wackjob.
Secretary of State: Elain Marshall (D). Progressive activist who's been successful navigating and streamlining bureaucracy; endorsed by the Center for Digital Government. Repub is a populist into corporate welfare.
State Auditor: Ralph Campbell (D). No opinions, but challengers did not respond to surveys or get endorsements.
State Treasurer: Richard Moore (D). Ditto.
Supt. of Public Instruction: Bill Fletcher (R). An entrepreneur whose no-BS style has gotten great results at the local level and who has proposed concrete steps to do the same for North Carolina. He breaks with national Repub ranks in his honest, complex evaluation of NCLB; hopefully his sex ed platform isn't stuck in the Stone Age. June Atkinson was a longtime teacher -- experience it would be nice for a superintendent to have -- but has shown no administrative acumen.
Attorney General: Joe Knott (R). Gave no survey answers, but the incumbent's were thin and canned. Most shockingly, said Dem didn't get the Independent Weekly's nod; in order for them to endorse a Repub + a challenger + a legal position (Indy being in this regard a good ACLU litmus test) = the Dem must be really bad or the newcomer really good.
Commissioner of Agriculture: Britt Cobb (D). Consumer advocate in Terry Sanford's mold. Challenger did not respond.
Commissioner of Labor: Wayne Goodwin (D). Longtime small businessman. Poignant criticisms of Repub encumbent (who did not respond). Endorsed by everyone on both sides of the aisle.
Commissioner of Insurance: James Long (D). Incumbent since 1985; NC insurance rates are good right now and he seems poised to continue. Repub pimps his website constantly, but unfortunately it sucks bad (poor qualifications, weak-ass endorsements).
NC Senate 18: Christine Mumma (R). Sees limited value in corporate welfare (vs. the Dem's professed support for it), instead strong on workforce education and tax burden; supports equal rights and Full Faith & Credit; not morally opposed to the death penalty but supports the moratorium (her nonprofit experience is in wrongful inprisonment advocacy); opposes minimum wage increases with some qualified exceptions. Thinks No Child Left Behind is high on fluff, low on substance, and shameful in its not-really-optional-ness. On health care, she parrots the usual Repub malpractice-cap line but not before some innovative ideas like creating pools for small businesses and large tax exemptions for the self-employed. My kind of gal, even if she went to UNC.
[In fairness Bob Atwater seems like a good candidate -- views aren't too dissimilar; solid local experience backed up by a few good newspaper quotes, although the Indy did not endorse him. His design staff sucks at HTML tables ;) ]
NC House 29: Paul Miller (D) is unopposed.
NC Superior Court: Orland Hudson is unopposed.
NC Supreme Court (Orr seat): James Wynn. The other 7 (!) candidates mostly suck. No, that's unfair -- even aside from their failings, Judge Wynn is the man. Cool yet professional, cognizant of the skin-based labels given by others but not beholden to them.
NC Supreme Court (Parker seat): Sarah Parker. Parker is a WWW no-show. Tyson is a principled conservative, but on his survery chooses instead to present wholly unconvincing arguments about Parker's tardiness. I like a lot of his "common sense" case law WRT workers comp and annexation, but the existing Supreme Court has already affirmed the most important of his Appellate dissents; I fear how much farther away from rational jurisprudence they'd swing were his style a more direct influence, and more importantly were he given a forum to have his dangerous ideas about "family values" become actually relevant. At least he's qualified, disciplined, and frankly wouldn't be a terrible choice.
NC Appeals Court (Bryant seat): Wanda Bryant. Highly respected justice with a sense of humor.
NC Appeals Court (
McGee seat): Linda
McGee. Unexciting, but opponent Parker is a joke; search reveals support for the 2nd Amendment++, but unfortunately his lead endorsements are from "author" Dr. Dobson and "athlete" Richard Petty.
NC Appeals Court (Thornburg seat): Alan Thornburg. Everyone likes him, myself included, though Bryant's opinions are a better read. Barbara Jackson has never held office.
Durham County Commissioners: Lewis Cheek, D; Becky Heron, D; Michael D. Page, D; Ellen Reckhow, D. Since I don't follow local politics, I have no qualms turning my vote over to the endorsements of newspapers (Herald-Sun and Independent agree here). Even the staid H-S is wont to track down / expose embezzlers and firebrands while rewarding effective leadership. Incumbent Cousin is absent for a reason, I presume; lone Republican Carolina James-Rivera is an interesting candidate but ultimately unqualified.
(She is a hair stylist whose writing reflects much passion but little underlying sophistication. She periodically runs for office, trying to articulate populist frustration -- having many bureaucratic horror stories herself -- but I'm pretty certain she is not strong or educated enough to avoid replaying distopic transformations like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.)
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