"More and Better Democrats" is or at least used to be a core value of dKos (I haven't checked the founding documents lately). There is also a great deal of verbiage regarding downticket races, grassroots organizing, and "all politics is local". In the normal haphazard course that my online reading takes me, I came across this race. Paul Newby (R) vs. Sam Ervin IV (D) for North Carolina Supreme Court. The "attention grabber" for me, of course, was the name, Sam Ervin because I remember watching him as a young lad during those lovely days of the Nixon administration when important events were still featured on the TV box. In a remarkable coincidence, someone I follow on twitter (WeywerdSun) had a link to a separate article featuring Mr. Newby. So I came over here to the Orange pages to see what I could find, and I didn't find anything in the last year (which probably just means I don't search the database well but anyway . . . ). I thought I write a little diary about it, and if I must, suffer whatever slings and arrows my poor search practices yield me.
A gentleman named Scott Sexton has an article Newby-Ervin race has far-reaching implications in the Winston-Salem Journal detailing the race and its import.
"With the exception of the governor's race, it's the most important (statewide) political campaign in North Carolina this year and it's hardly on anybody's radar screen," Tom Fetzer, a former head of the N.C. Republican Party, said earlier this summer. "The philosophical fulcrum of the court could shift."
Apparently in North Carolina, the Supreme Court is 4-3 in the Republican favor, and this election could change the balance. Secondly there are redistricting issues that are going to come before the Court, so the ability to control the redistricting is up for grabs as well. Thirdly, Newby is also getting tons of PAC money for his race from the usual suspects (I'd love to start a PAC; I'd call it the Keyser Soze PAC). The NC Judicial Coalition is the tax-exempt group that has "unlimited spending" rights and is the group that gets the most vitriol in my reading. From the
North Carolina, Meet Citizens United New York Times editorial
The North Carolina Judicial Coalition is a new tax-exempt organization, known as a super PAC, supported by wealthy conservative Republicans who are determined to make this year’s race for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court ideological and expensive.
and
As of last week, each candidate had collected about $82,000 and each had qualified for public financing of $240,100. Now, because the state is prohibited from reducing the spending gap with public funds, Judge Ervin’s supporters may have to form a super PAC of their own to keep up with the unlimited spending of the conservative super PAC. This is yet another example of the devastating harm caused by Citizens United.
The "names" associated with it are: Bob Luddy, Tom Fetzer, and I. Beverley Lake. I don't know who they are in the NC political panoply, but I'm sure the NC folks here will. I'll continue to do some reading. To be fair, Ervin is getting some PAC money from the NC Trial Lawyers as well, but it seems pretty clear that Newby is getting the preponderance of PAC funding.
I haven't done any review of Judge Newby's rulings but some of the provocative hot button issues they highlight is that he has ruled against same-sex couple adoption and dismissed a lawsuit concerning predatory lending. The Maddow Blog has it covered.
"So if Newby, Republicans in the (state) House and the Senate keep their districts … the way they see it, (they will take) control of the legislature for the next decade," wrote Carter Wrenn, a longtime Republican strategist in his blog "Talking About Politics." "The Democrats have figured out the same thing in reverse — Ervin winning and throwing out those Republican districts may be their last hope of winning the state House or Senate for years."
Judge Newby has also gotten some PAC money from the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce, an "unusual" move as they state in their
press release (caution pdf file).
“North Carolina Chamber PAC strongly supports Paul Newby for the State Supreme Court,” said Lew Ebert, president and CEO of the North Carolina Chamber and a director of North Carolina Chamber PAC. “While North Carolina Chamber PAC has not endorsed candidates for statewide office historically, in this nonpartisan race it is backing Justice Paul Newby because of his reputation for listening impartially to all sides before making a decision. Paul Newby understands the economic impact of cases involving North Carolina’s job creators.”
Straight from the GOP style guide for press releases, I don't know whether to laugh or to vomit: "nonpartisan race", "listening impartially", "job creators", "economic impact". Let me see if I can apply the deOrwellian filter,
"While NC Chamber PAC doesn't usually give money to statewide candidates, this race is for political control of the State Supreme Court. We're giving money to Judge Newby because he is most likely to keep the Court corporation friendly."
Of course, I may be getting a little jaded as I age.
Now I'm not from North Carolina, and I do not have the encyclopedic knowledge of politics like the majority of the folks posting here do. I did think this was worthy of attention though, and I'm hoping that at least a few North Carolina denizens will see the diary and chime in, even if its just to say how off the mark I am (I don't think I deserve recipes though). I have checked for polling on this race, but haven't found any, although on a PPP request page (9/4/2012) somebody did mention the race. There's also some noise about Newby's campaign finance filings, but I haven't found a solid enough source to include anything here yet.
I did want to include the link that my Twitter-friend sent regarding Mr. Newby however: North Carolina Supreme Court Justice To Speak To Nullificationist Group That Compared Obama To Hitler where the Asheville Tea Party is hosting Mr. Newby's speech. The link is to ThinkProgress which I use carefully, but in this case they have a .jpg of the flyer to see along with their usual colorful explanations.
Asheville Tea Party flyer
So again, I don't mean to pretend that I have any firm grasp on the dKos group gestalt. I have always seen myself as a fringe member and contributor, but I did think this particular race might be of interest to the North Carolina folks as well as some of the political mavens here. As Mr. Sexton writes:
Think none of this applies to you? If you have any interest whatsoever in the direction and philosophy of taxation, spending, education, environmental rules or crime and punishment in this state, then you ought to be paying attention to this one down-ballot nonpartisan race.