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The next election is November 7. And that's what this is all about.

Nifong is pandering to the local relatively poor Democrat majority black constituency in the county by falsely prosecuting three rich white Yankee Duke students. Despite the gaping holes in his case, the polls show him ahead. More on that later.

Nifong was appointed to the open DA spot by the Governor about 18 months ago. So he's never stood for election and had no name recognition. He jumped on this false claim just before the primary in May and used it to win over a challenger who was favored for having recently won a high-profile case. Since Durham is so heavily Democratic, the Republicans didn't bother with a primary and so don't have a candidate on the ballot.

The case started to fall apart AFTER Nifong won the Democratic primary. At that point he thought he was "in" as DA. However, there began to be a groundswell against Nifong, and another Democrat named Cheek collected enough signatures to get on the ballot as an "unaffiliated" (UNA) candidate. After getting on the ballot, Cheek "changed his mind" and said he would not serve if elected. It is thought he's going to get a payoff of some kind from Nifong for having squashed any other Democrat's chances to collect enough signatures. If Cheek wins, Nifong's out, and the Governor will appoint someone else as DA. Cheek is not campaigning, but has people campaigning for him under the slogan "Recall Nifong - Vote Cheek".

Meanwhile, a Republican named Monks gathered enough signatures to qualify as a write in candidate on the ballot but not enough to actually have his name appear on the ballot as UNA alongside Cheek UNA and Nifong DEM.

Instead of attacking Nifong, Monks has spent all his time attacking Cheek claiming that he, Monks, is the true alternative to Nifong because he, Monks, WANTS to serve as DA, unlike Cheek who does not. By doing so, Monks is probably helping Nifong since most Democrats in the county will never vote for a Republican.

It's pretty messed up.