Elections

"Dollar dollar bill, y'all..." Sorry I don't have time to write more, but here are some articles in today's Herald. Looks like it's all about money!

It turns out SEANC paid for the so-called "push polls" that appeared to be promoting Barry Jacobs in House District 50. No wonder, SEANC (the State Employees Association of N.C., pronounced "scenic") did endorse him.

Doesn't look like those calls have hurt him in the pocketbook, anyway. Bill Faison is the top spender in the House 50 race, having spent $59,000 to Barry Jacobs' $17,500. Faison has raised a total of $109,175 - including $103,000 of his own money. Jacobs' has raised $39,272 so far, most of which came from donors who gave $100 or less.

Commissioner Marget Brown, who failed to file her finance report by last week's deadline, raised more than any of her opponents in her re-election bid. She has raised $12,692.50, and has over $10K left to spend!

A lot of folks don't seem to want to talk about anything but the Orange County School Board race and it's ugly twin sister, the merger debate. Here's an open thread for those people so they can stop hijacking other topics of interest to the rest of us. Enjoy.

In addition to the many things the Herald-Sun does every year to get information to voters, they have now implemented candidate blogs. This is a great idea and it's a good compliment to the forums, editorials, and online "votebook" the Herald already provides (see below).

Greensboro journalist/blogger Ed Cone has some great insight and commentary about the candidate blogs. He has been evangelizing for political blogging for a while, so he should know! I think this is an innovative step for the Herald and I'm glad to see them do this. I hope candidates will take advantage of this unique opportunity to communicate with their potential supporters and constituents.

new user registration form, but then I remembered how many times the Herald's telemarketers called me, for years, trying to get me to subscribe. (After I had unsubscribed due to the H-S's conservative politics.) I'm going to think twice before I give them my phone number again.