NATIONAL NAACP
DISMISSES NC NAACP
ELECTION COMPLAINT
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The national office of the NAACP has dismissed an Article 10 Election Challenge from concerned members of the North Carolina State Conference of Branches about its October elections, and specifically a complaint to remove State NAACP Administrator Gloria Sweet-Love “…for actions pertaining to the NC election.”
The December 14th, 2021 NAACP missive, on letterhead, addressed to “Pastor Cardes Brown Jr., Religious Affairs Chair” of the NC NAACP, was signed by national NAACP Pres./CEO Derrick Johnson.
Rev. Dr. Brown is also a Life member of the NAACP, and leader of the Justice Coalition - the group of NCNAACP complainants who filed the Article 10 Election and Administrator Sweet-Love challenges.
The letter indicated that the complaint “…was presented to the entire Committee of Units and was dismissed …pending a final vote of the appropriate body.”
The NAACP letter to Rev. Dr. Brown went on to state that “In October 2020, the National Board of Directors (of the NAACP) voted to approve Ms. Gloria Sweet-Love along with Ms. Hazel Dukes as Co-Administrators of the North Carolina State Conference. By that vote, the Administrator has the authority to determine the timelines for elections and make other decisions for the state conference.”
Ms. Sweet-Love is also an NAACP Board member, and president of the Tennessee NAACP State Conference of Branches, who has been the subject of alleged election manipulation before.
However, in a NC Black Press story dated October 17, 2019 titled “Rev. Gatewood, NAACP Mum on His Hearing Date,” it was noted that because Article 10 complaints had been filed by Gatewood alleging fiscal mismanagement in the NC NAACP, “…an administrator from the national office has been put in place to oversee conference operations.”
So the NAACP letter’s timeline on when Administrator Sweet-Love came is off by a year.
The letter continued, “…not only was the process of conducting all state elections via “Election Buddy” authorized by the Board of Directors in May 2021 for State Conferences across the Association, it was also determined that the National staff would oversee the election process.”
Continuing, “In 2019 the Board of Directors made the following ruling regarding elections conducted by national staff - Elections conducted by the National Office cannot be appealed.”
The letter goes on to state that “…if the National office is requested or has to intervene in a local or state election process, the Unit {conference or chapter] shall be charged for the travel and/or hotel expenses for staff and/or appointed persons who have been selected by the National office to conduct the election in question and the election cannot be appealed.”
Finally, the letter concluded, “…the issues raised in your Article [10] challenge would not change the outcome of the election.”
“Your [Article 10] against the Administrator [Gloria Sweet-Love] for election planning and process is also summarily dismissed.”
In a brief interview to confirm receipt of the national NAACP letter, Rev. Dr. Brown indicated that he and his Justice Coalition group of concerned NC NAACP members filed their Article 10 complaint by the process strictly outlined in the NAACP Constitution, and it troubled him that leadership at the national office would only follow the NAACP Constitution and Bylaws when it suited them.
Another source that’s fully aware of the Justice Coalition’s Article 10 complaint about how the October 23rd NC NAACP executive committee elections were allegedly mismanaged by Administrator Sweet-Love, said this situation “is not over.”
A copy of the NAACP letter was sent to this reporter at 11:18 p.m. on December 14th, not by the national NAACP office - which had not responded to a December 9th request for comment - but from a woman named “Roberta Penn” who lives in Wilmington.
Though there is no association with the NAACP indicated on the email carrying the attached missive, Ms. Penn has apparently done some public relations work in the past for Deborah Dicks-Maxwell, the newly elected president of the NC NAACP State Conference of Branches, and previously the president of the New Hanover County NAACP chapter.
A full reaction from Rev. Dr. Brown in the followup to this story next week.
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****CORRECTED****
GOP REVS UP PLANS TO
TAKE OVER STATE
SUPREME COURT
By Cash Michaels
an analysis
By this time next year, state Republicans plan to takeover the NC Supreme Court, in their drive to hold majorities in all of North Carolina elected state government.
Thus far, their path seems unimpeded.
Last week, for a brief while on December 6th, North Carolina Democrats were celebrating when a three-judge appellate panel of the NC Court of Appeals ordered a delay of candidate filing for the March 2022 elections in races for the U.S. House, NC House and NC Senate.
The panel, rumored to consist of two Democrats and one Republican, indicated that because of two pending lawsuits seeking to have the most recent Republican redistricting maps reviewed by a court before they go into effect, candidates for office in the effected districts should not file.
Democrats were pleased with that…until the full 15 - member state appellate court, later that same day, stayed the earlier order, and instead ruled that candidate filing commence the following morning, December 7th, with court review of the voting maps to begin on an undisclosed date.
Democrats frowned… Republicans boasted that the full appellate court of ten Republicans and only five Democrats got it right.
On that Tuesday morning, candidate filing did indeed commence.
On Wednesday, December 8th, however, Democrats had reason to smile again, as the State Supreme Court - consisting of four Democrats and three Republican justices, unexpectedly countermanded the NC Court of Appeals, ruling that all candidate filings be suspended, and the 2022 primaries pushed back to May, in order for the courts to properly review the maps that Democrats complained cheated black Democratic incumbents, and if necessary, redraw them.
If the courts deemed the GOP maps fair for 2022, those maps would stay in force until the 2030 legislative and congressional elections. Democrat were desperate to stop that.
While Republicans fumed at the state Supreme Court ruling, Democrats celebrated again that they had won an important first step.
The GOP were particularly upset because even though they knew Democrats had a 4-3 majority on the state’s High Court, no information was issued confirming how many justices in fact voted to overturn the state appellate court, or who.
So now, a top mission for the 2022 elections is to target Democratic justices on the state Supreme Court on their way out, and replace them with Republicans to gain a GOP judicial majority.
Associate Justice Robin Hudson, a registered Democrat, has announced that she won’t seek reelection in 2022, primarily because she will turn 70 in February, but must legally retire at age 72. Since state justices serve eight-year terms, Hudson knows if she won reelection, she could only serve for a brief period before being forced to retire.
Two Court of Appeals Republican judges - Richard Dietz and April Wood - have announced that they will run for Hudson’s vacated seat.
Another High Court seat up for election in November 2022 belongs to Democratic Associate Justice Sam Ervin. Republicans are salivating at the thought of taking his seat in addition to running a hard partisan race for Justice Hudson’s spot.
Winning both would give Republicans a 5-3 majority in 2022, and they’ve made clear that they have every intention of winning that majority so that they have full control of the state’s appellate and Supreme courts, just as they’ve had the majority in the state’s House and Senate chambers since 2011.
That leaves the NC Governor’s Mansion, which controversial Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has already said he’s “95%” certain he’s running for in 2024.
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