Primary Scoreboard

May 8, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics 1 Comment

The results are in for the various races I predicted this week:

MY OVERALL RECORD:  9-1

N.C. General Assembly (4-0)

Kirk deViere handled nuisance candidate Ed Donaldson and will face Wesley Meredith in the fall for Senate District 19.  This will be a red hot race and should be covered in state wide press.  Expect money from outside of Cumberland County on both sides, adding fuel to the fire.  This one will be ugly.

In the Republican primary for NC House 44, Linda Devore doubled-up newcomer Patrick Petsche.  He was embarrassed.  Devore will take on my father, Billy Richardson in November.

Ben Clark and Elmer Floyd fended off their primary challengers and will win in heavily Democratic districts in November.  These two men will be in the General Assembly for the next two years.  You can write it down.

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C.C. Divide’s Primary Predictions

May 6, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics Tags: , 3 Comments

This post contains my predicted winners for primaries in Cumberland County, including state, local, and congressional races.  But first, a few motivational words about voting from Willie Stark:

All of these races are closed partisan primaries so I’ve reached across the aisle for some insight.  Remember, my predictions are not endorsements.  With that said, here are the picks:

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Self-Funded Attacks??? (Senate 19)

April 30, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics Tags: , Leave a comment

We’ve blogged about the Democratic Primary in District 19 multiple times on this site.  It’s an intriguing race featuring two candidates that couldn’t be more different, but it’s turned exceptionally ugly in recent weeks.  Most of the battle is being fought in the mailboxes of likely Democratic voters with glossy attack ads.   Today, a new wrinkle emerged that took me and many observers with their political ears to the ground by surprise.

In a recent interview with the Fayetteville Observer, Ed Donaldson claimed that his entire campaign is “self-funded.”  The campaign finance reports back this up, as Donaldson appears to have loaned his own campaign over twenty grand.  More importantly, he hasn’t reported a single donation.

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Crossing-Out Control of the Courts

April 28, 2018 By in NC Politics Tags: , 1 Comment

Convention_of_1868_DocSouth_conv68tpBack in October, I wrote an article for Up and Coming Weekly about judicial redistricting.  I argued the Republican majority in Raleigh was attempting to gerrymander judicial districts on racial lines to gain an advantage in the North Carolina courts.  This will lead to further partisan and racial divide in a place that should, in theory, be free from racial bias and party influence.  The Republican majority has yet to succeed in these redistricting plans, but they are now pushing forward with a different sort of power-grab.

The Governor of North Carolina has held the power to fill vacancies in our District Courts since they were first created by statute in 1965.  A bill introduced in the House of Representatives will alter 50+ years of law and tradition.

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