Elections

Tuesday is the Democratic runoff primary contest between June Atkinson and Marshall Stewart. They are running against each other for the Democratic nomination for Superintendent of Public Instruction.

I'll let the candidates speak for themselves:

June Atkinson from the Herald-Sun Votebook:

Favorite Book: "Cold Sassy Tree . . . Laws and policy should be the honest and accurate expression of the will of the people."

Marshall Stewart from the Herald-Sun Votebook:

Favorite Book: "Bible . . . I have very strong values that are based on my faith."

The polls will be in their regular places and open for the regular amount of time (6:30 am - 7:30 pm). If you are registered Democrat or if you are Unaffiliated (and you voted in the Democratic Primary last month) then you are eligible to vote.

Guest Post by Matt Compton

The facts are pretty clear. Barry Jacobs got outspent by about $41,000 on Tuesday. But I’m not so sure that was the deciding factor in the House 50 race. In fact, there were at least three other things that contributed to Barry’s poor performance everywhere north of Hillsborough, and they in turn, led him to lose the race. These are simple observations. In most cases, I don’t have scientific evidence to back up my perceptions, but I think they are valid nonetheless.

1) The "Push" Poll
I don’t think Barry Jacobs had anything to do with the poll that was conducted by the State Employees Association of North Carolina, but it didn’t help him at all. SEANC made it a point to play hardball in this year’s primary, targeting five races, but for the most part, their efforts did more harm than good. Faison showed good political instincts by responding to the charges early and hitting back hard. Jacobs didn’t have a good answer when he was asked about it, and that left a bad taste in peoples’ mouths.

because this crow tastes terrible! So much for my career as a political pundit . . . So what DOES it all mean?

I think someone on the Late Breaking News may have hit on something by calling this a referendum on Margaret Brown.

Clearly this is neither a rebuke for NoMerger.org nor an endorsement of school merger.

I said it twice yesterday, the voters are not stupid. I suspect that they saw two good candidates and voted for them. In fact, I spoke to quite a few people who said that they were voting for Moses and Valerie. I just figured they were significantly in the minority.

That said, there were a number of comments on this site from people who said that Margaret rubbed them the wrong way. I still think NoMerger.org did Margaret a disservice by painting her with same brush they used on Moses.

Here are the theories I heard bandied about tonight (I am not saying that I buy these ideas):

1) Margaret was punished for trying to have it both ways on merger (or that she was punished for failing to take a stand).