STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 2-13-20
HK ON J DRAWS 30,000, ORGANIZERS SAY
[RALEIGH] For the 14th year, demonstrators from across North Carolina came to Raleigh to march and rally during the Historic Thousands on Jones Street moral March and People’s Assembly in front of the State Capitol. Led by NCNAACP President Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, and featuring special remarks by former NCNAACP Pres. Rev. Dr. William Barber, the focus of last Saturday’s event was encouraging people to cast their ballots during One Stop-Early Voting beginning today, Feb. 13th. The theme of the march/rally, “When We Vote, We Win!”
NHC SCHOOLS SUPT. MARKLEY RESIGNS
[WILMINGTON] After ten years, Dr. Tim Markley, superintendent of New Hanover County Public School System has resigned. Markley, who was hired in 2010, submitted his resignation on February 7th. After a five hour session behind closed doors, the NHC School Board agreed to pay Dr. Markley $195,000 in severance pay, and $32,966.66 in benefits. Markley’s resignation comes amid a growing scandal in the system where teachers have been charged with sexually abusing students over the years.
COMMUNITY HELPS APEX MAN ONCE HUNG FROM TREE BY SHERIFF DEPUTIES
[APEX] It was 1952, and a black man named Lynn Council was falsely accused of stealing. Wake County sheriff’s deputies took Council and hung him from a tree to die. Except that Council lived. Today, he is 87 years old. In the past few months once his story was told, both the police chief of Apex and the black sheriff of Wake have apologized to him. And when word hit that Mr. Council would have to move out of his home because the state is putting a highway through his property, the community started a GoFundMe campaign to help raise the needed funds to move to another house with his daughter. “Everything y’all did, I appreciate it from my heart,” a grateful Mr. Council says, as he looks forward to spending his last years in peace.
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EARLY VOTING FOR MARCH 3RD
PRIMARY BEGINS TODAY
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
At long last, One Stop Early voting in North Carolina for the Super Tuesday March 3rd primary begins today, Feb. 13. By federal district court order, registered voters in North Carolina are not required to show photo identification at the polls between now and Tuesday, March 3rd, Primary Day.
The early voting period in North Carolina will ends on Saturday, February 29th, with most polls opening Monday through Friday at 8 a.m., with some polls will closing at 7:30 p.m. in some counties.
For those counties with Saturday early voting, polls will open at 8 a.m. and close at 3 p.m.. Counties with Sunday voting may open at 12 noon and close at 6 p.m..
All early voting ends on Saturday, February 29th, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m..
Check with your local county Board of Elections at confirm voting dates and times between now and Saturday, February 29th.
Local candidates for office have already begun campaigning with mailers, campaign commercials, and campaign events. Major candidates for president have also begun coming to North Carolina to campaign.
On the Republican side, President Donald Trump came to Charlotte last week, and though it was not officially deemed a reelection campaign stop, it is known that North Carolina is an important state in Trump’s reelection effort, especially with the 2020 Republican National Convention scheduled for August.
Billionaire and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is bringing his campaign for president back to North Carolina today, visiting Winston-Salem, Greensboro and Raleigh today.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is scheduled to be in Durham and Charlotte on Friday.
Sanders, who is currently leading in the national polls after the disastrous Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries, is, like Bloomberg, trying to up his profile in North Carolina and at least 14 other states that are part of the March 3rd Super Tuesday primaries.
Bloomberg has focused his candidacy on winning the lion’s share of those contests in his quest for the Democratic nomination.
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U.S. SEN. THOM TILLIS
GOP-CONNECTED GROUP
CREATED FAKE ERICA SMITH ADS
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
A Republican-connected super political action committee (PAC) out of Washington, D.C. called “Faith and Power,” is spending over $1.6 million in television and radio ads running in four North Carolina television markets promoting state Senator Erica Smith’s candidacy for the U.S. Senate in the 2020.
The goal, many observers are certain of, is to promote Smith’s cash-strapped campaign to the extent that she beats Democratic senatorial opponent Cal Cunningham in the March 3rd Democratic primary, thus pitting the black female Democrat, seen by Republicans as an easier candidate to beat, against first-term incumbent Tillis in November.
Smith, of state Senate District 3 representing Beaufort, Bertie, Martin, Northampton, Vance and Warren counties and her campaign, naturally “disavows and disassociates” the fake ads, even though they promote her as being a true progressive who supports Medicare for All and “The Green New Deal.”
“We reject the influence of special interest, corporate-PAC and dark money in politics,” Smith said. “I remain unbought, unbossed, and unapologetic in my 17 years of advocating for equity, opportunity, and fairness,” Sen. Smith’s campaign added.
The NC Democratic Party charged that “Republican ‘meddling’ in Democratic primary shows Republicans must be worried about Thom Tillis.”
“Faith and Power PAC” is the producer of the :30 second ad, according to published reports. Though the PAC itself was just created several weeks ago, some connected are listed as supporting Republican Carly Fiorina’s 2016 presidential bid. The only public name associated with the PAC in North Carolina is that of a Republican named Ezekiel Patterson of Monroe.
Trying to choose Tillis’ Democratic November opponent for him is one possibility. Another is to force Cunningham, who reportedly has a deep campaign war chest of $3.3 million on hand, to start spending some of it now to defend whatever lead he believes he has over Smith in the polls. Doing so depletes what he has to spend against Tillis in the fall.
Tillis, who is admittedly a strong supporter of Pres. Trump, is seen as one of the weakest GOP incumbent senators up for reelection in the nation, according to the most recent polls. So the election-year ploy is not a surprising one.
It is illegal for a super PAC to coordinate its activities with a campaign. In small writing at the end of the Faith and Power television ad, it states that it is not authorized by any candidate or political campaign. The TV ads are running up until just before the March 3rd primaries in the Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham and Greensboro markets, as well as online.
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