Top 5 tidbits and stories from North Carolina's primary
1. Women won: While Obama trounced Clinton at the top of the ticket, the day belonged in many ways to Democratic women. The Party's nominee for the Governor will be Bev Perdue, a long time legislator and the current Lt. Governor. The party selected state Senator Kay Hagen to take on Elizabeth Dole in the fall as well. Both Hagen are moderate to conservative Democrats who in fact are well connected to the good ol boys and lobbyists of Raleigh.
In addition to Perdue and Hagen, a number of other women won their primaries for statewide office. These included progressive state Senator and rising Democratic star Janet Cowell, who was selected to run for state Treasurer. Beth Wood won her primary to run for state Auditor. June Atkinson fended off a tough primary opponent for the State Superintendent of schools. Mary Fant Donnan got the most votes and will be in a runoff election to be the nominee for the Commissioner of Labor.
In November, women will be well represented on North Carolina's ballot.
2. Democratic Turnout: As has been the case across the country, it was historic (over 36% turnout for a primary, over 2 million ballots cast, and over 1.5 million asked for the Democratic ballot). More people cast a Democratic ballot on Tuesday than voted for John Kerry in the 2004 General Election. Thousands of people switched to Democratic registration leading up to the primary.
When 400 people are waiting in line to vote at 7:30 at night when the poll has closed, you've got a lot of excitement in the primary. There were also nearly a half million votes cast early and around 50,000 who registered at the early voting sites (a new law that effectively changed the registration deadline to 3 days before the election instead of 25).
3. Those weird "women's voices" robo-calls: I could write pages and pages about this little episode. For folks who are interested in the story, check out Facing South or Democracy North Carolina's website.
I think we need to learn more about the details of Women Voices Women Votes actions before deciding whether they were incompetent on a Titanic scale or whether there was something more sinister at work. This is not some shady 527 organization, they are funded by the usual foundations who promote totally above board and progressive non-partisan civic engagement activities. But it's also possible that staff or consultants for the organization took liberties and made tactical decisions that they knew would benefit a particular candidate in the primary process.
I don't know if we'll ever know the truth. My hunch is that the big scandal will be one of fraud: apparently their major expenditures went to consulting contracts to the husband of the organization's President. His firm made the robo-calls and did the mailings and you have to wonder how this was allowed to happen. It is hard to overcome the fact though that they told the Virginia police that the deceptive and anonymous calls would stop back in early February and yet continued into North Carolina in late April. The connections to the Clinton family raise troubling questions but at this point I doubt a direct campaign link because if they wanted to help her there are so many other legal ways that they could have picked.
4. North Carolina is in play in November: There has been some polling to back this up but I'm not going to link to anything. I'm just going to say that it's a feeling that the combination of many colleges, growing educated population, strong African American registration rates, and a solid Democratic political machine (compared to a routinely divided and inept state GOP), puts the state in play for Obama. He doesn't need to win, just make McCain spend time and money here.
5. I missed my chance to have a beer with Barack Obama: It's election day on Tuesday and it's about 5:30pm (an hour an half until the polls closed). I'd been knocking on doors since noon making sure that people get out and vote for Obama. At that moment, I get a text message from a friend who says she got a tip that Obama is going to be at a Raleigh bar in 5 minutes and if I want to meet him face to face, now is my chance.
Dilemma time. Do I leave my post, stop canvassing and go meet the next President of the United States? I thought about it for about 10 seconds and went back to knocking on doors. Meanwhile, my friend got to shake Obama's hand as he ordered a Pabst Blue Ribbon (leaving the bartender an $18 tip).
If I'd have known he would win by over 200,000 votes I totally would have been at the bar.
Thanks to the Obama staff and volunteers for helping to make sure that North Carolina played a big role in choosing the next President.
For the other North Carolinians on TPM, please share your experiences and thoughts as well.
In addition to Perdue and Hagen, a number of other women won their primaries for statewide office. These included progressive state Senator and rising Democratic star Janet Cowell, who was selected to run for state Treasurer. Beth Wood won her primary to run for state Auditor. June Atkinson fended off a tough primary opponent for the State Superintendent of schools. Mary Fant Donnan got the most votes and will be in a runoff election to be the nominee for the Commissioner of Labor.
In November, women will be well represented on North Carolina's ballot.
2. Democratic Turnout: As has been the case across the country, it was historic (over 36% turnout for a primary, over 2 million ballots cast, and over 1.5 million asked for the Democratic ballot). More people cast a Democratic ballot on Tuesday than voted for John Kerry in the 2004 General Election. Thousands of people switched to Democratic registration leading up to the primary.
When 400 people are waiting in line to vote at 7:30 at night when the poll has closed, you've got a lot of excitement in the primary. There were also nearly a half million votes cast early and around 50,000 who registered at the early voting sites (a new law that effectively changed the registration deadline to 3 days before the election instead of 25).
3. Those weird "women's voices" robo-calls: I could write pages and pages about this little episode. For folks who are interested in the story, check out Facing South or Democracy North Carolina's website.
I think we need to learn more about the details of Women Voices Women Votes actions before deciding whether they were incompetent on a Titanic scale or whether there was something more sinister at work. This is not some shady 527 organization, they are funded by the usual foundations who promote totally above board and progressive non-partisan civic engagement activities. But it's also possible that staff or consultants for the organization took liberties and made tactical decisions that they knew would benefit a particular candidate in the primary process.
I don't know if we'll ever know the truth. My hunch is that the big scandal will be one of fraud: apparently their major expenditures went to consulting contracts to the husband of the organization's President. His firm made the robo-calls and did the mailings and you have to wonder how this was allowed to happen. It is hard to overcome the fact though that they told the Virginia police that the deceptive and anonymous calls would stop back in early February and yet continued into North Carolina in late April. The connections to the Clinton family raise troubling questions but at this point I doubt a direct campaign link because if they wanted to help her there are so many other legal ways that they could have picked.
4. North Carolina is in play in November: There has been some polling to back this up but I'm not going to link to anything. I'm just going to say that it's a feeling that the combination of many colleges, growing educated population, strong African American registration rates, and a solid Democratic political machine (compared to a routinely divided and inept state GOP), puts the state in play for Obama. He doesn't need to win, just make McCain spend time and money here.
5. I missed my chance to have a beer with Barack Obama: It's election day on Tuesday and it's about 5:30pm (an hour an half until the polls closed). I'd been knocking on doors since noon making sure that people get out and vote for Obama. At that moment, I get a text message from a friend who says she got a tip that Obama is going to be at a Raleigh bar in 5 minutes and if I want to meet him face to face, now is my chance.
Dilemma time. Do I leave my post, stop canvassing and go meet the next President of the United States? I thought about it for about 10 seconds and went back to knocking on doors. Meanwhile, my friend got to shake Obama's hand as he ordered a Pabst Blue Ribbon (leaving the bartender an $18 tip).
If I'd have known he would win by over 200,000 votes I totally would have been at the bar.
Thanks to the Obama staff and volunteers for helping to make sure that North Carolina played a big role in choosing the next President.
For the other North Carolinians on TPM, please share your experiences and thoughts as well.
