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Edmisten dinner draws DA opponents

By Ray Gronberg, The Herald-Sun
September 26, 2006 10:46 pm

DURHAM -- A former state attorney general sponsored a dinner meeting two weeks ago that gave key opponents of District Attorney Mike Nifong a platform to try convincing write-in challenger Steve Monks to drop out of the upcoming DA's election.

The meeting began at a Raleigh restaurant, the 42nd St. Oyster Bar & Seafood Grill, and continued in the South Salisbury office of former attorney general, Democratic gubernatorial candidate and N.C. Secretary of State Rufus Edmisten, Monks said Tuesday.

Monks and his campaign manager, Charlotte Woods, said they conferred at the meeting with Edmisten and four Nifong opponents, former Durham County Sheriff Roland Leary, state juvenile justice official Ed Pope, Durham lawyer Jerry Clayton and former DA candidate Freda Black.

The group was trying to convince Monks to end his write-in candidacy so another erstwhile Nifong challenger, County Commissioner Lewis Cheek, can go one-on-one against Nifong in the Nov. 7 election, Monks and Woods said.

"Obviously, they're concerned, or they wouldn't have had this meeting," Woods said. "It's quite obvious that they have a huge concern that Cheek will not win as long as Steve is in the mix. And guess what: They're right."

Cheek has said that though he won't serve if elected, a victory for him would allow Gov. Mike Easley to appoint Nifong's successor.

Nifong's critics fear the possibility that Cheek and Monks will split the opposition vote and allow Nifong to win. Monks and Woods said that specter shaped the discussion that unfolded at Edmisten's table and later in his office.

But rather than agreeing to bow out of the race, Monks says he asked the Durhamites to support him instead of Cheek. That counterstroke was also unsuccessful. Pope and Leary left after dinner, telling Woods, she said, that they "were not about to change their position." The follow-up talk with Clayton and Black at Edmisten's office also failed to change any minds.

"We left agreeing to disagree," Monks said.

Monks -- chairman of the Durham County Republican Party -- said his determination to stay in the race stems from his opposition to the idea of letting Easley once again choose Durham County's chief prosecutor. The Democrat appointed Nifong to the job last year after former District Attorney Jim Hardin gained a judgeship.

Woods added that Monks would only consider withdrawing if there's certainty about Nifong's successor -- which could emerge if Cheek changed his mind about serving, or if the governor went public with the name of a prospective replacement.

"As I told [Edmisten, withdrawal] might be a viable option if we absolutely had a guarantee of who the governor was going to appoint," she said. "And we're not going to have that. I don't think anybody truly knows, and that's the Catch-22. If the governor made a public statement, that 'this is what I'm going to do,' then we could talk again. But that's not going to happen."

Such details about the substance of the conversation were available Tuesday only from the Monks camp. Black and Leary both confirmed that they attended the dinner. Clayton, Pope and Edmisten didn't return phone calls seeking comment.

Leary declined to discuss the substance of the meeting. "I was invited. I attended. I stayed about an hour and I left ... after two cups of coffee," he said, adding that beyond that, he wouldn't comment.

Black said Edmisten is "a close family friend" of hers and had issued the invitations. She denied participating in any conversation about the DA's race, and said the group went to Edmisten's office after dinner to look over some mementos of the former attorney general's political career, including a subpoena for White House tapes he served on former President Richard Nixon as a staff attorney on the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee. Edmisten was an aide to the late U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin, D-N.C., chairman of the committee.

"Others may have discussed it, but I didn't discuss it," Black said when she'd talked with others at the dinner about the DA's race.

Monks and Woods were firm, however, in saying that while they enjoyed seeing the Nixon subpoena at Edmisten's office, they had also talked about the race with Black and Clayton.

"They were engaged in a dialogue about whether or not I should withdraw," Monks said. "That was their side. My side was, 'I'm a good candidate who deserves to be supported.' "

Woods added that her invitation to the dinner came by phone from Clayton's law office, not Edmisten's.

She and Monks disagreed somewhat on the role Edmisten -- who has done commentary on the Duke lacrosse case for Court TV -- played in the discussion.

Monks said Edmisten's presence was the "drawing card" that convinced people to attend, and that he tried to facilitate the discussion without pushing an agenda of his own. The former attorney general acted as "a mediator or someone to say, 'Guys, let's just talk here, what do you want to do for the good of the community,' " Monks said.

Woods, however, said it was clear to her that while he avoided criticizing Nifong, Edmisten wanted Monks to drop out of the race. She agreed with Monks about Edmisten's role as a drawing card.

"I don't care who you are and which side of the bridge you're on, you can't go out to dinner with Rufus Edmisten and not have a good time," she said. "He's just an enjoyable, amiable type of person. However, be assured, I was on my guard because I knew I was up against somebody who certainly wasn't in my camp."

Asked for their reaction, Cheek and Nifong both commented on the mix of people present at the dinner, with Nifong terming it "unusual" and Cheek "odd."

Cheek said he can understand why some people would ask Monks to withdraw.

"People are voting on whether they want Mike Nifong to be their district attorney for the next four years or not," he said. "First thing is you've got two choices and not three, and you've got two names on the ballot. That makes it easier. And you eliminate the idea of a pure write-in situation, and that makes it easier."

Nifong said that, like Monks, he doesn't see the point of putting the decision about who serves back in Easley's lap.

"I am still puzzled about why there are so many people who want someone other than the voters to make that decision," he said. "These people who have made it clear they don't want me to be DA, as is their absolute right, have had ample opportunity to find someone to run against me. What they appear to be doing is trying to get people to vote against me by suggesting some future possibility that's out of their hands."

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Outraged by Nifong

I was surprised by Mary Portwood Artley's letter of Sept. 21. Artley previously contacted me and in a most pleasant conversation I explained that our research had shown most citizens did not mind, and even expected flyers on their cars during an election season. I admitted we did not know District Attorney Mike Nifong attended the church in question and in return she admitted he was not in attendance. I promised to avoid her church in the future and believed the matter to be settled in a cordial way.

However, after Artley's vehement letter, I feel I must answer with the following observations.

Despite her statement that other members of that church were outraged, curiously, we received only one other complaint. Elections are a private matter and even Artley cannot gauge how much "outrage" there may be at seeing a flyer on one's car versus seeing Nifong's outrageous behavior as DA.

Recall Nifong-Vote Cheek is a grassroots campaign made up of people campaigning -- not in their own private interest, not for power, or increased pensions, or the pursuit of an unbridled ego. We are proud to be Durhamites and are dismayed at the way Nifong has disgraced our community nationally and divided this diverse community of families locally.

Sometimes, we will make mistakes. But please remember: There is nothing in this campaign for ourselves, except a better Durham for all of us.

BETH BREWER
Durham
September 27, 2006
http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsletters/