Elections

Guest post by Will Raymond

Here's a last bit of business from the 2003 Council campaign.

A little background. Before attending Daily Tarheel forum, I went to the Board of Elections to check out all the candidates' campaign reports. I was looking for one thing, but was completely surprised to find another.

The surprise? The pattern of contributions to Candidate Bachman was unlike any other of the candidates. She was receiving most of her money via large contributions from a few in the development community. This was unlike her fellow candidates whose contributions varied across the spectrum and came from a broad range of residents.

Based on this anomalous pattern, I decided to ask Candidate Bachman two questions at that night's forum.

One, given that she was seeking to correct an image problem - that she was unduly influenced by outside interests � how could taking 60% of her funds from this group of contributors possibly help her rework that image? Two, was this very unusual pattern of contributions continuing?

She ducked the first question. On the second question, she told me I could wait until January to take a look.

With the state redistricting in limbo, the NC Dem Party has posted a contingency plan just in case the primaries can't be held on time www.ncdp.org. Everyone needs to check out this plan and comment before the public review process is over. If the primaries don't happen (likely at this point) then caucuses would be held by county. Since the caucuses are county caucuses and the final delegate selection is by senate district (I think), then Orange and Durham votes will be added to create a grand total for the 4th district. This makes it important that Dems (registered independents won't be able to vote) show up for the caucuses if they are held. Whichever candidate -Dean- turns out the people -Dean- will win the nomi-Dean-nation.

Any thoughts on the contingency plan and its effects on our local input into the process?