This past week something came out of Davidson Town Hall that you don't often see, a public shot from one Commissioner aimed at another - or in this case two others.
Typically, in genteel Davidson that is unheard of - even when it would have been deserved. Remember the kid gloves former Mayor Woods was treated with when he went to Raleigh to push for the I77 tolls with Senator Berger? Senator Berger was and likely still is the most powerful politician in the state. Even in that case where asking for then Mayor Woods's resignation would have been justified (as was done in Cornelius with Chuck Travis over the same issue), Davidson's Board only gave Woods what can best be described as a slap on the wrist with a wet noodle.
Last week that predilection against public divisiveness between Board members changed over something it shouldn't have.
Newly minted Davidson Commissioner Jane Campbell launched the criticism from her campaign Facebook page at fellow newly minted Commissioners Matthew Fort and David Sitton over their names (and titles of Commissioner) being listed on campaign literature as endorsing State Senator Jeff Tarte of Cornelius in his reelection campaign for the NC Senate 41 seat. So far, Tarte faces Democrat Natasha Marcus of Davidson in filing for that race. Both Marcus and Campbell have previously run for state office against Republican John Bradford for the NC House 98 seat.
In her campaign site Facebook post, Campbell takes issue with Fort and Sitton endorsing because they were elected as "nonpartisan" candidates to the Board of Commissioners, and the NC Senate race is a "partisan" race. She takes particular issue with their names being posted along with their titles of Commissioner of Davidson. She also points out that Sitton and Fort made these endorsements without talking to Marcus who also happens to be a Davidson resident. Campbell says she discussed the issue of "endorsements" and her opposition to Commissioners endorsing at the Board's late January retreat.
aShortChronicle interviewed Campbell on a separate topic a couple weeks prior to the retreat. Campbell mentioned then that she was going to bring up the issue of endorsements at the 2-day meeting, so it wasn't something that she thought up on the fly. While Campbell is perfectly within her rights to have an opinion on the topic, that doesn't mean she's right to publicly criticize her fellow Commissioners over it.
Here's why...
First of all, there is nothing sacrosanct about nonpartisan office that should take away an elected official's right to endorse candidates in partisan races. There is no law against it, and it happens all the time.
In fact, in the same announcement from the Tarte Campaign that listed Fort and Sitton, four of five Cornelius Commissioners and all six Huntersville Commissioners are also listed as supporting Tarte. aShortChronicle also did a little historical research and found that when Tarte first ran for NC Senate back in 2012 he was endorsed by multiple nonpartisan elected officials from numerous towns including several Mayors (Tarte was himself Mayor of Cornelius at the time.) These endorsements occurred during the Republican primary, an intra-party partisan race. One of those endorsements even included Former Davidson Mayor John Woods. During that race there was no Democrat running, so the real race was in the Republican primary.
Partisan endorsements involving nonpartisan officeholders happen the other way too. Take for example judicial races. When those were nonpartisan, both political parties recommended candidates for these races on their partisan voter guides. If fact, if you've ever handed out partisan voter guides you'll know it was these judicial nonpartisan recommendations were often the only reason voters actually would take a voter guide. They wanted that information. You can be sure the Democratic Party and Republican Party partisan guides were picking nonpartisan judicial candidates that aligned most to their partisan ideologies.
A second reason Campbell's public critique was off base is the idea that the act of endorsing was somehow made worse because Fort and Sitton not only had their names but their official title of Commissioner included. Let's be clear. When an elected official does anything "political" they are implicitly doing it with their elected title attached. To pretend otherwise by leaving the title off is simply not credible.
Remember that example of former Mayor Woods going to Raleigh to advocate for the tolls? Nobody believed him when he said he didn't do that as "Mayor" but only as a private citizen. Somewhat ironically, Campbell tried the same gambit in her post calling out Fort and Sitton, saying that she never sought out endorsements from Davidson commissioners in her 2016 race against John Bradford. However, she did acknowledge accepting campaign donations from Davidson electeds. So while there wasn't an official "endorsement", most reasonable people would say donating money to a candidate is about the biggest "endorsement" one can give. The saying put your money where your mouth is comes to mind. Acting like there is any real difference is simply not believable and comes off as splitting hairs.
A third reason why this critique of Sitton and Fort didn't make any sense is that there is a very practical matter where local officials endorsing state candidates actually does make sense.
North Carolina is what's called a "Dillon Rule" state, meaning municipalities only have the authority explicitly granted to them by the State. Under those circumstances one can actually see it as a positive thing for local officials, nonpartisan or otherwise, to want to get candidates elected at the State level who they thought would be the most effective at helping them on issues having impact locally. Davidson has long had a history of not having the best relationship with Raleigh. If individual Commissioners endorsing candidates has the possibility of improving that in any way by building or strengthening relationships, then not doing so is potentially nothing but a lost opportunity.
The last thing that bugs aShortChronicle about this issue is the timing. The issue was discussed at the January 25-26 retreat. The endorsements in question were actually posted to Senator Tarte's campaign Facebook page also on January 25th. Why bring it up again nearly a month later? Well, filing is now underway, and people are starting to pay attention to these races. The timing of this and the fact that Campbell went beyond simply saying she doesn't plan to endorse candidates but used her statement to take a swipe at others who supported a candidate she likely would never would have endorsed herself, makes this whole tempest in a teapot look more political - partisanly political - than anything else.
Welcome to election 2018!
Rick, I can understand many of your points and will not argue them. However, I think Jane does bring up a valid point that needs to be addressed. The commissioners were elected in a non-paristan election where the intent is to pick the best people to protect your town regardless of their respective political beliefs. However, by tying the position of commissioner to the endorsement, it can quickly be implied that the candidate is being endorsed by the town. For all intents and purposes, the commissioners ARE the Town of Davidson and as such should keep politics to what is best for the town and not party lines. I am happy to concede that perhaps that is the case, but then both Mr. Fort and Mr. Sitton should immediately provide to the residents why they are supporting Tarte (i.e. why electing him would benefit Davidson directly) and not simply for partisan reasons. By being elected in a non-partisan election these individuals gave up their partisan rights and have to consider the towns best interest only in local elections. I would ask that you follow up this report with a quick interview of both to find out what Mr. Tarte would do for Davidson that made them endorse him and what their issues were with the other candidate who is a Davidson resident. For years we have persecuted the previous board for appearances that the Board was acting for personal agendas and not acting in the best interest of the town. This situation has the appearance of not being much different. For the record, I am a democrat, but for this local election I will be studying each candidate’s track record, campaign promises and how they will impact Davidson directly regardless of party. I hope our commissioners will do the same.
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