Outnumbered Republican overrun [Understanding Durham politics]
Author: ALAN SCHER ZAGIER; The News & Observer, November 5, 1998
DURHAM -- As lonely goes, the Maytag repairman of 1970s television fame set the standard. Good thing he never met any Durham County Republicans.
While never much of a force in a county where there are more than three Democratic voters for every registered Republican, the local GOP party fared particularly poorly in the general election Tuesday. That is, in those races where the Republicans were even able to muster candidates.
Durham's three state representatives faced no Republican opposition. The Republican candidate for sheriff, Al Hight, switched his party affiliation to avoid the hassle of a Democratic primary. And two of the three Republican candidates for county commissioner were unknown to local party officials until filing for office.
Not surprisingly - even to Republican operatives - Democrats swept the fields for county commissioner, sheriff, state House District 23 and state Senate District 13.
"If you have a weak party, it's difficult to convince candidates they can win," said Bob Appleby, chairman of the Durham County Republican Party. "And we have a weak party."
In previous years, local party activists recruited Republicans with political promise to run for office. A lack of interest among party organizers killed that effort this year.
History is not on the GOP's side in Durham. Before 1994, when a tide of Republican success across the country swept Ed DeVito* and Tommy Hunt onto the county Board of Commissioners, just one other Republican had won a seat on the board - and that was in 1968. Republican representation from Durham in the General Assembly is similarly scarce; with the GOP dry spell extending to at least 1925.
"People just see it as such a long-shot," said state Rep. Paul Luebke, who with fellow Democrats George Miller Jr. and Mickey Michaux coasted to victory Tuesday over Libertarian Robert Dorsey.
"It's such a strong Democratic district that it's highly unlikely that a rookie Republican can go up against a Democratic incumbent," Luebke said of District 23, all of which rests within the Democratic-friendly borders of Durham County.
The battle to register more Republican voters has been a struggle worthy of Sisyphus, the king of Corinth doomed in Hades to roll a stone uphill - only to have it always roll down again.
In 1964, nine of every 10 registered voters in Durham County called themselves Democrats. By 1992, Republicans accounted for nearly 22 percent of the county's voters.
But in recent years, those modest gains have started to crumble. In mid-October, the Republican share of registered voters had dropped to 20 percent, compared with 63.3 percent of voters who call themselves Democrats.
Meanwhile, the number of unaffiliated voters - those who shun any party identification - has increased by almost 7,000 since 1992. Unaffiliated voters now account for more than 16 percent of Durham County's eligible voters - and just 4,300 fewer people than on the Republican side.
"I'd say that's bad news for the Republicans," said Mayor Nick Tennyson, a Republican.
For Tennyson, the slim slate of local candidates in the past election cycle wasn't an issue of partisan politics but instead a more general symptom of disenchantment and lack of time.
The commissioners' race, he noted, lacked a Democratic primary for the first time since 1986 and only the second time in more than 20 years.
"It's a sign of the declining willingness of people to step forward to offer themselves for public service," Tennyson said.
Only 14 of Durham's 52 electoral precincts boast more than 30 percent registered Republicans, with the top GOP "stronghold" at Mangum Primary School tallying 39.2 percent.
Even in those precincts, party affiliation is no guarantee of victory, as the contest between U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth and challenger John Edwards proved.
Edwards, who defeated the Republican incumbent, actually won the majority of votes in five of the strongest GOP precincts. Those same five precincts also favored U.S. Rep David Price, a Democrat, who defeated Republican Tom Roberg.
In the county commissioners' contest, high voter turnout in Republican-heavy districts such as Forest View Elementary School was no match for even higher turnout in predominantly black and Democratic districts, where support from the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People often translated into winning margins of several hundred votes.
John Best Jr., 27, a former candidate for the Durham City Council, blamed the local Republican Party's malaise in part on a generation gap. Best said he might challenge the old guard of party leaders and run for chairman next year.
Should he win, Best is prepared for the long haul, given Durham's staunch support of Democrats over the years. Two of the biggest losers in modern presidential politics came to mind.
"Considering that George McGovern carried Durham in 1972 and Mike Dukakis carried it in 1988, it's going to be kind of hard," he said. "But you have to start somewhere."
* Ed DeVito on the Committee: "It's like a dictatorship."
Donna Shalala on the football fracas in Florida :
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/NCAA/2006/10/17/2051478-ap.html
"This university will be firm and punish people who do bad things," Shalala said. "But we will not throw any student under the bus for instant restoration of our image or our reputation. I will not hang them in a public square. I will not eliminate their participation at the university. I will not take away their scholarships."
and :
"It's time for the feeding frenzy to stop," Shalala said. "These young men made a stupid, terrible, horrible mistake and they are being punished."
(There's an example of how a university president defends her students.)
Fired deputy tied to counterfeiting
By BriAnne Dopart : The Herald-Sun
bdopart@heraldsun.com
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-779588.html
Oct 18, 2006 : 12:09 am ET
DURHAM -- A Durham sheriff's deputy fired after being charged with selling cocaine at his bar was involved in a counterfeit money scheme, according to legal documents that allege hit men, prostitutes, drug dealers and people involved in human trafficking frequented the now-closed establishment.
(snip)