WITH CANDIDATE FILING
MONDAY
NEW COURT DECISIONS
LOOM LARGE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Monday, Feb. 12th, is the beginning of the filing
period for candidates for public office in North Carolina. Technically, that’s
when Democrats and Republicans, hoping to compete in their respective party
primaries for a chance to be ultimately selected to run in the fall 2018
midterm elections, commit themselves for either statewide or congressional
office.
But
thanks to an unceasing plethora of
court cases involving legislative, congressional and judicial
redistricting, confusion has been the buzzword as to whether even the filing
period would be allowed to commence.
At
press time Tuesday, there was no official word of any delays that would disrupt
the filing period. In fact, at least one court ruling last week cleared the way
for several judicial candidates who originally were off the ballot.
U.S.
District Court Judge Catherine Eagles partially granted a preliminary
injunction against Senate Bill 656, which, when passed by the Republican-led NC
General Assembly last year, eliminated judicial primary races. In her order,
Judge Eagles said it made no sense to do away with primaries for statewide
races for the state Court of Appeals and the NC Supreme Court (currently there
are races for both) because neither post are depended on voting districts.
However,
because district and superior court cases do involve voting districts, and the
legislature is currently considering a new judicial redistricting map (expected
to be debated and voted on this week, according to reports) Judge Eagles
decided to allow the elimination of primaries in those races, until she can
decide whether the law was completely unconstitutional.
“The defendants have offered a
legitimate governmental interest in this change as to elections of superior and
district court judges, as the legislature plans to redistrict these seats this
year and primaries using current district lines may be unnecessary and will
cause confusion if and when the redistricting is complete,” Judge Eagles wrote
in her opinion. “The defendants have made no showing of any governmental
interest supporting the abolishment of a mechanism to narrow the field in
partisan appellate judicial races, as those judges are elected statewide and
are not subject to redistricting.”
Meanwhile,
in the legislative redistricting case where a federal three-judge panel ruled
that the maps drawn by a court-appointed special master should be used to
correct the racially gerrymandered voting districts drawn by GOP lawmakers, the
U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday temporarily blocked a special master’s maps for Wake
and Mecklenburg counties, while allowing maps for six other redrawn counties to
stand. Republican legislative leaders petitioned for an emergency stay, as well
as a notice of appeal.
It
is not known why the Wake and Mecklenburg county maps were blocked.
In
all, there are five redistricting cases pending in the both federal and state
courts in North Carolina, and most observers expect that because these cases
deal with how voting districts are drawn, while the filing for office may not
be delayed, the May primaries may be for at least a month.
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ADAMS, BUTTERFIELD BLAST TRUMP
ON BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT
RATE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
During
his speech in Cincinnati Monday, Pres. Donald Trump attacked members of the
Congressional Black Caucus who, while Republicans were loudly applauding, refused
to clap while African kente’ cloth draped their all-black attire, or
acknowledge the president’s announcement that black unemployment had dropped to
an historic 45-year low during his first State of the Union address to Congress
and the nation.
“You’re up there. You got half the room going totally
crazy, wild, loved everything,” Trump said in his remarks Monday. “They want to
do something great for our country, and you have the other side, even on
positive news — really positive news — like that, they were like death,
un-American. Somebody said treasonous. Yeah, I guess, why not? Can we call that
treason? Why not? I mean they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very
much.”
Even
before the Republican president accused them of “treason” for not applauding
him, two prominent members of the CBC – Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC-12) and Rep. G.K.
Butterfield (D-NC-1) – had pretty much had their fill of Trump, especially
after his infamous “s---hole” reference to Haiti and Africa.
So
his subsequent taking credit for black unemployment going down to just single
digits for the first time in a long time, didn’t help.
“African
American unemployment has been going down for a decade, yet it’s still double
white unemployment,” Rep. Adams tweeted Jan. 30th. “Would POTUS be
celebrating if this stat were the other way around?”
The
morning of the SOTU, when the Black Press called Rep. Butterfield at his
office, and asked how Washington was doing, the North Carolina congressman
replied tongue–in-cheek, “Not well, not well! I don’t think this president is
going to say anything constructive.”
When
asked about the decline in black unemployment (which was 6.8, a fall from a
high of over 15.2 years earlier), Butterfield echoed his North Carolina
colleague’s sentiment.
“Pres.
Barack Obama worked very hard to get the economy under control,” Rep.
Butterfield said. “When Obama stepped into the Oval office, he inherited a
terrible economy. We were bleeding 700,00-800,000 jobs per month, the
automotive industry was about to shut down, the stock market was plummeting,
consumer confidence was at an all-time low…things were not good.”
“He
inherited a Trillion-and-a-half dollar deficit. So for eight years, he very
painfully, tried to get the unemployment rate down…so what Donald trump is
experiencing now is simply a continuation of a trend that began during the
Obama years,” Congressman Butterfield continued.
‘There’s
no question the black unemployment rate is down. But what get’s overlooked in
that conversation is black under-employment. I know a lot of people who are
employed, but are very unhappy, because they’re making minimum wage or near
minimum wage. So we have to talk about black under-employment as well.”
Butterfield
went on to say that that black unemployment was 6.8 percent, but the overall
jobless rate was 4.1 percent, meaning it was still high compared to the
national average.
That
was Tuesday, Jan. 30th, the night of Pres. Trump’s SOTU.
Three
days later, black unemployment was reported at 7.7 percent, up almost a full point.
Tweeting
a frowning face she had during the SOTU, Congresswoman Adams wrote, “That face
you make when you learn that the Black unemployment rate has one of the largest
increases in years to 7.7%.
Adams
ended the Feb. 2nd tweet, ‘#ThingsTrumpWontTalkAbout #SOTU.”
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR
02-08-18
THOUSANDS EXPECTED
FOR SATURDAY’S MORAL MARCH ON RALEIGH & HK ON J PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY
[RALEIGH]
All roads lead to Raleigh Saturday for the 12th Annual Moral March
on Raleigh & Historic Thousands on Jones Street People’ Assembly, sponsored
by the NC NAACP, it’s 125 local branches, and it’s over 200 social justice
coalition partners. This year’s theme is “Taking the Resistance Straight to the
Ballot Box,” and thousands of demonstrators from across the state are expected
to converge on downtown Raleigh early Saturday morning at 8:30 am for the
pre-rally which begins at 9 am at the corner of Wilmington and South Streets
near Shaw University. At 10 am, the march/people’s Assembly begins to the state
Capitol. For more information, go to naacpnc.org, or hkonj.com.
QUIET “POOR PEOPLE’S
CAMPAIGN” PRE-KICKOFF
[RALEIGH]
The official national kickoff of the 2018 Poor People’s Campaign isn’t supposed
to begin until May, but last Tuesday, 30 cities across the nation, including
here in Raleigh, started pre-kickoff marches with small, but determined groups
of protesters. At least 30 gathered on the Halifax Mall across from the NC
legislature, and rallied to demand that state and federal governments do much
more to help the poor. Then they marched over to the Legislative Building, and
delivered letters to the offices of Republican leaders Senate President Phil
Berger, and House Speaker Tim Moore. The leaders of the national Poor People’s
Campaign are Bishop William Barber, former president of the NC NAACP, and Rev.
Liz Theoharis.
US CIVIL RIGHTS
COMMISSION HOLDS HEARINGS IN RALEIGH
[RALEIGH]
Touring the nation, gathering testimony and evidence pertaining to the status
of voting rights, the US Commission on Civil Rights came to Raleigh Feb. 2nd, hearing testimony, and allowing the
public to speak to the issue. Throughout the daylong session, various panelists
told the commission about why North Carolina is considered Ground Zero in the
national battle over voter redistricting and voting rights. The state has
repeatedly been chastised by state, federal courts, and even the US Supreme
Court, for implementing unconstitutional laws and redistricting maps to gain
partisan advantage come election time. The commission is expected to use the
information gathered for an ongoing assessment of federal enforcement of the
1965 Voting Rights Act.
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