Elections 2004

I am excited to release our first-ever Orange Politics Voter Guide! This is not intended to endorse any candidate or issue, although readers may feel free to post their own endorsements in the comments with the caveat that you may not refer to any other candidates that you are not endorsing (same rules as this primary thread).

A lot of this inforation is available from the Orange County Board of Elections or the N.C Board of Elections.

We tried to find candidate web sites when available, please contact us if you have more information. Also, we would like to add columns listing which endorsements each candidate has received, but we need volunteers to do the research... hint hint. Basically, this is a work in progress, so wait until closer to the election before you print it out for November 2.

Here they are listed in the exact same order they will be in on the ballot. Asterisks (*) indicate incumbents. We have included judges' party affiliation although that will not be listed on the ballot.

Partisan Offices Candidate names (& web sites) Notes & endorsements OP Links
President & Vice President of the United States John Kerry & John Edwards [Democrat] Indy, PP, OCDP NC is a battleground state
George Bush & Dick Cheney*[Republican]  
Michael Badnarik & Richard Campagna [Libertarian]    
Straight party ticket choice This covers U.S. Senate to County Comissioners. NOT president, judicial races, or constititional amendments.
U.S. Senate Erskine Bowles [D] Indy, PP, OCDP  
Richard Burr [R]    
Tom Bailey [L]    
U. S. Congress, 4th district David Price* [D] Indy, PP, OCDP  
Todd A. Batchelor [R]    
N. C. Governor Mike Easley* [D] Indy, OCDP  
Patrick J. Ballantine [R]   Ballantine opposes regional rail
Barbara Howe [L]    
N.C. Lieutenant Governor Beverly Eaves Perdue* [D] Indy, EqualityNC, OCDP  
Jim Snyder [R]    
Chistopher Cole [L]    
N. C. Attorney General Roy Cooper* [D] EqualityNC, OCDP  
Joe Knott [R] Indy  
N.C. State Auditor Ralph Campbell [D] Indy, EqualityNC, OCDP  
Leslie Merrit [R]    
N. C. Commissioner of Agriculture Britt Cobb* [D] Indy, OCDP  
Steve Troxler [R]    
N. C. Commissioner of Insurance Jim Long* [D] Indy, EqualityNC, OCDP  
C. Robert Brawley [R]    
N. C. Commissioner of Labor Wayne Goodwin [D] Indy, EqualityNC, OCDP  
Cherie Berry* [R]    
N. C. Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall* [D] Indy, EqualityNC, OCDP  
Jay Rao [R]    
N. C. Superintendent of Public Instruction June S. Atkinson [D] PP, EqualityNC, OCDP
Supports sex ed.
 
Bill Fletcher [R] Indy  
N. C. Treasurer Richard H. Moore* [D] Indy, EqualityNC, OCDP  
Edwards A. Meyer [R]    
N.C State Senate, district 23 Ellie Kinnaird* [D] Indy, PP, EqualityNC,OCDP, DTH West House
Robert E. (Whit) Whitfield [R]    
N.C State House, district 50/54/56
50: northern OC
54: south of CH
56: CH & Carrboro
50: Bill Faison [D]
54: Joe Hackney *[D]
56: Verla Insko *[D]
PP (all 3), OCDP (all 3), EqualityNC (Joe & Verla)
Uncontested races.

 

50: What Happenned to Barry Jacobs?
Orange County Commmissioners
(choose two candiates)
Moses Carey, Jr. *[D] Indy, OCDP, DTH Breakfast Club endorses Carey and Foushee
Valerie Foushee [D] Indy, OCDP
Jamie Daniel [R]   Commissioner Race Gets Going
Artie L. Franklin [L] DTH  
"Nonpartisan" Offices Candidate names (& web sites) Notes OP Links
N. C. Supreme Court, Associate Justice, seat 1 Sarah Parker* [D] Indy, EqualityNC, OCDP “Wherever two or three are gathered in the Democratic name, there Justice Parker will be among them.” The Other Stuff on the Ballot
John M. Tyson [R] Campbell Law School
N. C. Supreme Court, Associate Justice, seat 2 Ronnie Ansley [D]  
Rachel Lea Hunter [R]  
Howard E. Manning Jr. [R] Decided the Leandro case.
Betsy McCrodden [D]  
Fred Morrison, Jr. [D]  
Paul Martin Newby [R] Very anti-choice, endorsed by leading right-winger Dr. Dobson.
Marvin Schiller [R]  
James A. Wynn, Jr. [D] Indy, EqualityNC, OCDP Army JAG.
N. C. Court of Appeals Judge Linda McGee* [D] Indy, EqualityNC, OCDP
Bill Parker [R]  
N. C. Court of Appeals Judge Wanda G. Bryant* [D] Indy, EqualityNC, OCDP
Alice C. Stubbs [R]  
N. C. Court of Appeals Judge Barbara Jackson [R]  
Alan Thornburg* [D] Indy, OCDP
N. C. District Court Judge, district 15-B, seat 1 Charles Anderson* [D] OCDP
Uncontested.
N. C. District Court Judge, district 15-B, seat 2 Alonzo "Brown" Coleman* [D] OCDP
Uncontested.
N. C. District Court Judge, district 15-B, seat 3 M. Patricia (Pat) Devine* [D] OCDP, EqualityNC
Uncontested.
Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor Will Shooter [L]  
Roger Tate [D]  
N. C. Constitutional Amendments Summary Notes OP Links
Amendment 1 Self-financing bonds for municipal development without voter approval. NO: Indy Amendment One
Amendment 2 Allow the state to dedicate civil penalties and forfeitures to benefit free public education. YES: Indy  
Amendment 3 Sets initial terms of office for certain new court officials. YES: Indy  
This is a work in progress! Last updated: 11/1/04 @ 11:56 pm. REMINDER: ANY POSTS ON THIS THREAD THAT ARE NOT PERSONAL ENDORSEMENTS WILL BE REMOVED.

Issues: 

Comments

Vote your heart!

I have been posting on OP so much lately that y'all probably couldn't care less what I think at this point, but that never stopped me before (and doesn't usually stop y'all either):

Wayne Goodwin (D) is running for Secretary of Labor. I have known Wayne for a long time and he is a good guy. Sec. of Labor is a highly technical role that requires a lot of knowledge about the state and federal workplace safety regulations. Wayne is an attorney with experience in this field and will be a good Secretary of Labor. He is on-record as supporting making connections between NC's Labor Dept. and the Community College system in order to improve workplace safety and develop NC's economy at the same time.

Richard Moore (D) is running for re-election as State Treasurer. I have not known him as long, but I know that Richard Moore has done more good work as the Treasurer of NC than anyone ever before. In fact, this has traditionally been a fairly perfunctory office that wielded essentially no power at all. Richard has used his time in office to leverage improved accounting standards on Wall Street by working with other state retirement programs. Essentially they are using state retirement funds to threaten a boycott against shady corporations and mutual funds that do not adopt higher accounting standards. Richard has also been exploring whether as State Treasurer he can direct state investment into promoting homeownership while yielding strong safe returns on investment for the people of North Carolina. It's not too sexy, but for an office that never did anything of any note before, I think this stuff is pretty exciting. Richard Moore deserves some real credit for his work.

Roy Cooper (D) also deserves mention for his work on stamping out the scourge of payday lending in North Carolina (see the OP.org thread on this subject). While I don't know Cooper personally, I have seen the work he is doing. As Attorney General he created a Consumer Protection division to fight fraud artists who pray on senior citizens and natural disaster victims (among others). He also staffed it with some of the brightest attorneys in North Carolina. The Death Penalty Moratorium crowd is not so pleased with Attorney General Cooper, I should note, but, I mean, he is the Attorney General after all . . .

I tried to post this as a 'trackback' last week but it didn't work so good. Here are my endorsements in full:

POTUS & VPOTUS
John Kerry & John Edwards

Straight party ticket choice: Democrat
(I don't usually do the straight ticket, but it's actually how I would vote this year anyway.)

N. C. Supreme Court, Associate Justice, seat 1
Sarah Parker

N. C. Supreme Court, Associate Justice, seat 2
James A. Wynn, Jr. (Manning is a close second)

N. C. Court of Appeals Judges
Linda McGee
Wanda G. Bryant
Alan Thornburg

N. C. District Court Judges, district 15-B
Charles Anderson
Alonzo Coleman
Pat Devine

Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor
Roger Tate

N. C. Constitutional Amendments
1: no
2: yes
3: yes

A reminder: this thread has special rules. You comments may only contain your personal endorsements, you may not mention any candidate who you do not personally endorse. No trash talking on this thread, please. Thanks for your cooperation.

I am moving all non-endorsement comments to the Open Election Thread. Please continue the conversations there.

I want to second Mark's comment about Roy Cooper. I think the race between Cooper and Knott is a "devil you know" moment. I am an opponent of the death penalty, and he's been the guy on the other side for the last four years, but if you think that a conservative Republican evangelical like Knott is going to be less zealous in his prosecution (or re-prosecution, as in the Gell case) of death penalty cases, I think you're high.

The Indy's endorsement of Knott, especially the paper's limp argument in favor of Knott, is triumphantly asinine. (Indy: We hope he's not_too_ evangelical or conservative, and we're willing to overlook his likely positions on church-state separation and parental notification issues so long as he's not Roy Cooper, because we think Roy Cooper is on television too much. We hope Knott will change the "climate" of the office, although we have no idea what that climate might become.)

For governor, I endorse voting for the Libertarian candidate or writing in somebody. Neither of the major party candidates cares about much more than promoting big business. The governor's race is different from voting for a legislator because the governor doesn't become part of a potential legislative voting bloc. This is why someone could make the argument that you should hold your nose as tight as you possibly can and vote for Erskine Bowles, but needn't put yourself through the humiliation of casting a vote for Easley.

I am voting mostly democrat but will not vote a straight ticket. Why? Because if you vote a straight democrat, you vote both BOCC candidates, and I only support Val Foushee.

Barbara Howe for Gov! She is the only candidate for Governor who is against the death penalty and against the war.

 

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