Laurie Venzon sets fundraising pace in Davidson mayoral race

Mid-year campaign finance reports were due at the end of July for transactions through June.  However, they are only due for campaigns that had opened committees and had begun fundraising prior to June month end.

According to those rules, in Davidson's race for mayor that means only Laurie Venzon had to file a report this reporting period.  As aShortChronicle told readers in February, Venzon opened her account late last year and began raising money.  That means she has to file paperwork on a going forward basis.  Incumbent John Woods has committed to spending less than the $1000 threshold meaning he does not have to file paperwork, and fellow challenger Rusty Knox didn't open his account until filing this July after the reporting deadline.

That leaves the Venzon campaign as the only mayoral campaign required to report at this point.  See reports here.

To date, this election cycle the Committee to Elect Laurie Venzon has raised a whopping $8,839.48.  The campaign has also spent $6,001.55.

So, where did this money come from and where did it go?

So far, Venzon has not committed significant personal funds to her campaign, less than $600 for "in kind" contributions.  In kind contributions are for things of value other than cash.  The bulk of the cash continuations have come from a relatively small number of higher dollar donors, $500 - $1000 each.  The campaign has snagged three $1,000 checks, two of which were from donors in Kanapolis and Concord.  Overall, cash contributions to date came from 18 different donors for an average of over $450 per contribution.

On the expenditure side of the equation, the Venzon campaign has spent $2500 on a website with a Huntersville firm named BNR Branding Solutions.  She has also spent money on paid campaign support, $800 with Savvy Strategies of Davidson and $1000 with April Byrd Consulting.

The money for Savvy Strategies went for something called  "campaign operations".  Savvy Strategies is operated by Tami Kincer of Davidson.

As for the other $1000 going for consulting, rumors had been floating around for quite a while that Venzon may use the same political consultant enlisted by Davidson Mayor Pro Tem Beth Cashion in her 2011 campaign, Neil Orr.  Orr is a popular consultant in local GOP circles.  However, going with April Byrd Consulting appears to be essentially the same thing. Orr and Byrd are partners in a venture called ABNO Group.  ABNO, April Byrd Consulting, and the website firm BNR Branding all share the same office building address in Huntersville.

Byrd appears to be well connected into the Republican establishment.  She is also affiliated with a political consulting outfit in Georgia called ConnectSouth.  Here's what her profile on that site says.

"In 2002 she had an opportunity to work in the Salisbury Campaign office for Elizabeth Dole’s successful US Senate Campaign. Two years later April worked in Lima, OH for the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign. In 2010 Republicans won the majority in both chambers of the NC General Assembly and in 2011 April was selected to be a preferred fundraising vendor for the NC House Republican Caucus. She stepped down from her family business and started April Byrd Consulting. April has raised money for over a dozen NC House Members including the former House Majority Leader, Rep. Mike Hager. In addition to successfully raising money for NC House Members she has been a fundraising consultant to a NC Supreme Court Justice, a NC Court of Appeals Judge, Three US Congressional Candidates, The Jesse Helms Center, and NC House Legislative Partners (an Independent Expenditure Committee). In 2016 April had the opportunity to work with Ed Broyhill, the Finance Committee Co-Chair for North Carolina to successfully raise $1 million plus for Trump for President/Trump Victory Fund."

While small in the grand scheme of politics, the dollars  Venzon has raised and spending them on these types of things and professional personnel are a big deal when it comes to Davidson.  Money and more formalized campaigns always changes the dynaimics of elections. Later in campaign season when Rusty Knox files and Venzon submits her next reports at the end of the next filing period, this is likely to be (if it already isn't) the most expensive race in Davidson history.

Multiple new candidates to vie for Davidson Mayor in 2017

One of the worst kept secrets around town became official this past week with the announcement in Business Today that Rusty Knox will run for Mayor of Davidson this November.  It was known that Knox was strongly considering a run, but with an official announcement Davidson will have its first contested mayoral election since 2011.

Interestingly, the linked article was apparently in the print edition last weekend, but it didn't get up on the web until Friday the 17th.  Word started to spread Thursday when a photo of the print article was posted to Facebook.  aShortChronicle spoke to Knox on Saturday and he says the response has been overwhelming and positive as people have heard the news.

Knox is looking to carry on the family tradition of service to the town.  As most readers will know, Rusty Knox is the son of long time former Davidson Mayor Russell Knox.  Several years ago a regular reader told aShortChronicle the last time they felt that town government truly represented the citizens was when Russell Knox was mayor.  That should be welcome news to those who cherish Davidson's small town character.

Knox has not officially filed with the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections but tells aShortChronicle that will be happening soon.

Speaking of filing for office...

In researching this post, we came across another candidate who has made it official by filing but has not officially announced.  Apparently, former Davidson Commissioner Laurie Venzon filed back in November and has been raising money ever since.

According to this Statement of Organization, "The Committee to Elect Laurie Venzon" was formed on November 1st.  The Organizational Report shows the campaign has purchased a domain name for a website.  Finally, the 2016 Year End Report filed at the end January shows Venzon has been raising money, over $2500 by the end of 2016.

Venzon was elected as Commissioner in 2007 and served through 2013 when she and her family moved to Kansas City.  They returned to Davidson last year.

Davidson politics appears to be entering uncharted territory.  It may be unprecedented to have multiple candidates vying for office this early in the election cycle.  Also, Davidson campaigns have historically been very low budget affairs with candidates often committing to raise little to no money to avoid the campaign finance paperwork.

With new candidates in the mix and significant money already being raised, 2017 is shaping up to be an eventful year.  Mayor John Woods will have quite a race on his hands, one could say it would be the Mt Everest of uphill battles, if he decides to run for reelection.

Endorsers and Ensorsees Everywhere this Election

Endorsements are pretty standard fare when it comes to elections, but in Davidson they tend to be mostly person to person conversations or maybe an email sent from someone to their list of close friends.  As a candidate, when it comes to getting the word out about your campaign there is nothing better than having the "neighborhood politico" put in a good word on your behalf.  While those types of endorsements certainly were a big part of the process for all candidates this year, this past election also saw several "official" endorsements from organized groups and local politicians.  That was definitely something new.

Here are the big ones.   Some of these made the news, others did not.  All of them had some impact.

 

The North Mecklenburg Chapter of the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) endorses candidates in the local towns every election season.  In the past, they have endorsed people of all political stripes from one end of the spectrum to the other.  This year they endorsed myself and Vince Winegardner. 

If there was anything unusual about this endorsement, it was that not a single incumbent even agreed to meet with the group.  That struck me as odd considering that their only question this season was around improving communication.  That's it.  It was in the invite, and there was not anything controversial about the interviews. Why incumbent commissioners would not want to even sit down with a group to talk about issues seems strange to me, but then again maybe that's why the only question on their list involved improved communication.

The endorsement came with some adds in local media including the Huntersville Herald, Lake Norman Citizen, and DavidsonNews.net. 

After the PBA endorsement which was expected.  The rest of the endorsements this season all fall into the "unprecedented" category.  That's where things get interesting.

The first one that made a big splash was the TollFreeNC/Widen I77 endorsement.  These activists have been fighting the plan to add HOT lanes to I-77.  Fortunately for us here in Davidson, the splash was mostly in Cornelius and Huntersville where the group went negative and posted signs asking voters to "fire" some candidates while posting other signs asking them to vote others into office.  In Davidson, we only got the endorsement signs. Personally, I am glad about that.

The results here were definitely a mixed bag though.  Two endorsed candidates won and two lost.  Interestingly, the two who lost were also the two who were most vocal in their opposition to HOT lanes.  The two who won included the candidate who got the most votes - Beth Cashion.  Read into that what you will, but it would seem to mean that the HOT lanes issue just did not resonate with voters as much as many people thought it would - myself included.

Then came the "politicians"...

As early voting started, former Commissioner Laurie Venzon endorsed three non-incumbent candidates.  The near immediate response was Mayor John Woods endorsing all of the incumbents. 

Mayor Woods's endorsement definitely got more attention with both DavidsonNew.net and the Huntersville Herald actually publishing the Mayor's endorsement message.  But which one carried more weight? 

Beth Cashion came in a strong first.  Stacey Anderson became the first challenger to knock-off an incumbent since 1997 when she came in fifth edging out incumbent Connie Wessner.  I started with arguably the lowest name recognition and came in seventh, but only a few dozen votes behind the pack. 

All of the incumbents received less votes than they did in the last election - some received considerably less.

While not a true apples-to-apples comparison because there was one more candidate this election season, it would appear that a former commissioner's endorsement may have influenced more people than the sitting mayor's.  That says something.

Then finally, there was the "endorsement" that may have had more actual impact than any other.  On November 1st just days before the election, the River Run Property Owner's Association encouraged residents to "learn" about the two neighborhood candidates - Stacey Anderson and Vince Winegardner.  This received basically no publicity, but it made a difference.

Why was this possibly the most influential?  Find out in the next post on polling.

Big Shoes to Fill in Davidson

With the news that the Venzon family of River Run will be moving out of the area, Davidson has big shoes to fill - not just one pair, but two.

Losing John Venzon as Chairman of  the Mi-Connection Board of Directors and Laurie Venzon on the Davidson Town Board removes the two people who have done more than any others to stabilize Davidson's financial situation and repair the damage done by the creation of the locally owned cable company.  It is hard to overstate the potential impact of this dual loss. 

While neither of them has given an exact date for their departures from their respective boards, those dates are surely coming.  Davidson needs to prepare.

On the Mi-Connection side of the equation, John Venzon's eventual departure as Chairman of the Board removes a significant amount of big business experience from an organization competing in on of the biggest and most cutthroat of big business industries.  It comes at a time where Mi-Connection appears to be turning the corner or at least no longer sliding backwards.   His leadership directly helped push through the interlocal agreement renegotiation which encourages Mooresville to more aggressively promote the company, and he deserves credit for bringing in more experienced executives to run the company's day-to-day operations.

It's safe to say that without John Venzon's leadership, Mi-Connection would be in a much worse situation than it is today.

If you ever attended a Mi-Connection Board meeting you would immediately recognize that the questions John Venzon asks helped guide the company in the right direction.  You would also recognize in years past that the answers received were often not complete or were along the lines of "we'll get back to you".  The changes implemented in the past year should remedy that, and John deserves the credit for making it happen.

A similar loss will be felt by the Town of Davidson.

In recent years Laurie Venzon worked diligently with Town staff to transform the Town budgeting process into something more transparent and organized - making it possible to compare year to year numbers.  Whenever asked she provides citizens clarifications and detailed explanations around where the money comes from and where it goes.  If you are interested in "numbers" Laurie is the person to speak with on the Board.  She played a leading role in last year's renegotiation of the interlocal agreement with Mooresville on Mi-Connection - greatly improving Davidson's cash-flow situation.  She is often the lone voice on the Board expressing the financially conservative position on any given subject.

In fact, as recently as this past Tuesday she played that role.

During the budget discussion at the Tuesday work session, the idea was floated that Davidson might consider issuing some bonds to speed along some additional spending projects.  Commissioner Venzon immediately spoke up that the State's Local Government Commission (LGC) would likely frown on that  - in light of the Town's debt burden due to Mi-Connection.

Commissioner Venzon understands that tax dollars are your dollars.  Losing that "voice of reason" on the Davidson Board will have an impact.

So how should Davidson proceed?

The decision to select a new Chairman for Mi-Connection requires agreement from Mooresville on the replacement of John Venzon in his at-large seat on the board if and when that becomes vacant.  The rules are set out in this amendment to the interlocal agreement.  Davidson was fortunate to have a town resident fill that position.  However, going forward what the company needs most is solid business experience and a tremendous amount of dedication.  Finding someone with strong industry experience would also be a big plus.  Chief executive David Augur brings that to the table, but it would be great to have a second industry expert on the Mi-Connection Board in addition to Steven Miller

Regardless of who is selected, whether the person comes from Davidson, Mooresville or from somewhere else, the replacement needs to be committed to the goal of getting Mi-Connection to the point where it can be sold.  John Venzon stated this goal very clearly last year.

"This is our singular focus," Venzon says. "To grow the system and prepare for an exit that protects the towns and the citizens."

A change in leadership here should not result in a change in direction.

As for filling the vacancy on the Davidson Town Board...

The need to replace a member of the Town Board makes last year's decision to abandon efforts to create 4-year terms seem almost prescient.  If the Town had moved to 4-year terms, it is highly likely that Laurie Venzon would have been one of the two Board members receiving those longer terms.  Since joining the Board she has always been one of the top two vote getters.  In a way, her leaving the Board validates that decision and proves the point that longer terms does not ensure less turnover.

See here for the General Statute governing the subject of vacancies on municipal governing boards.  The Town Board could appoint a successor.  However, just like during the 4-year terms debate, just because the Board can do something unilaterally, does not mean they should do something unilaterally.

With filing for the 2013 elections taking place in July, the appropriate decision is to leave the seat unfilled until this year's vote.  The voters should be allowed to decide without the existing Board handing someone de facto incumbency by appointing a replacement mere months before the scheduled election. 

Doing otherwise could and should be seen by voters as an effort by the Town to stack the deck in favor of one candidate over any potential others.  It would discourage qualified individuals from filing if they believed the "fix is in" prior to the campaign season even starting.

As the next few months unfold, there will be much discussion on how these two vacancies will affect the town.  Who the replacements are and how they are chosen will set the tone for Davidson's immediate future.  Let's hope our leaders choose wisely.