archived: 6 - 12 Nov, 2005         Back                 Next

                        VOTER REGISTRATION 

The North Carolina Democratic Party has not grounded a voter registration drive in North Carolina.  Will Democrats field a comprehensive, professional voter registration effort?  TPJ hears a rumbling (rumor) that the NC Democratic Party leadership does not believe that a voter registration drive is necessary for success in 2006. 

IF true, one has to wonder what the Democratic Party leadership is thinking. 

In 2004, Democrats actually bested Republicans in voter registration between January 2004 and October 2004 by some +11,000 statewide.  Democrats “won” the registration drive principally by excellent voter registration work in the major metropolitan areas; Durham, Buncombe, Charlotte, etc.  The numbers clearly demonstrate that the Democrat Party effort was not uniform statewide.  Eleven counties had LESS than a 100 registration gain.  A total of 23 counties had less than a 200 voter registration gain. 33 counties had less than a 300 vote gain for the Democrats.  But it was a “victory” over NC Republicans. – TPJ, VOTER REGISTRATION 

Democrats should recall that the Party won majorities in the State House by less than 5,000 votes and State Senate by approximately double that number out millions of votes cast.  IF Democrats do not mount an aggressive voter registration drive, the results in 2006 may be quite disappointing.

NC Spin is also making the point:

John Davis . . . was kind enough to share with us the new Almanac of NC Politics, published and distributed to members of his organization (www.ncfree.com). 

Davis and his staff have just completed an analysis of the state's legislative districts, with some interesting revelations. Here are a few:

North Carolina is a political swing state. Twenty-five years ago Democrats made up 75 percent of the registered voters. Today, they have only 46 percent, while Republicans have gained to 35 percent statewide. The big difference in elections is the growing number of unaffiliated voters over the decade of the 1990s, increasing from 5 percent to 19 percent of those registered.

 

Many might believe that Republicans are a decided minority, but such is not the case since there are a large number of conservative Democrats who regularly vote Republican. NCFREE says that wherever you find a legislative district with 35 percent or more registered Republicans you are likely to find a Republican legislator, owing to the swing vote from unaffiliated voters. Party loyalty is waning.

 

Half the voters live in 14 counties. The other half reside in the other 85 counties.

 

The average cost to win a State Senate race was $182,500. Ten years ago that cost was $36,000. House races have increased similarly. Ten years ago you would win a House seat for $25,500. Today it will set you back $79,500.

 

In our Senate, Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 29-21 margin, but that advantage may be in jeopardy. NCFREE reports 21 districts strong or leaning Democrat, with the same number strong or leaning Republican. In the past two years the number of districts classified as "swing" districts, meaning they could elect either a Republican or Democrat, has increased from four to eight. Four seats lost by Democrats could deadlock the Senate. Five could swing the power to the R's.

 

The House, with its 63-57 margin is equally close. Three seats changing from D's to R's would also put the parties in a tie.

 

How do the Democrats remain in power? They raise more money and spend more money, especially in those swing districts. Democrats know how and play the game better. Until Republicans figure that out, they will remain minorities in the legislature.

With Bush and the radical Republicans on the “ropes,” Democrats have a wonderful opportunity to increase its voter registration numbers.  It may be a chance that we will not get again. 

                        NC NUMBER 1 

North Carolina ranks number one for the “Top Business Climate” according to Site Selection Magazine. – Site Selection Online  

                        TALKING POINTS  

Brooke Johnson, a Guest Columnist for the Watauga Democrat newspaper, has written one of the best reasons one can register and vote as a Democrat.  Every word is a talking point for Democrats. 

The day in 2003 when I walked into the Watauga County Board of Elections and changed my official voter registration from "Unaffiliated" to "Democrat" signaled what had become for me a moment of personal commitment to the future of my beloved country.

 

I had always considered myself an "independent" voter and was registered that way. I grew up in Cherokee County in north Georgia in a family that was never very political. My first presidential election was in 1956, when I voted for Eisenhower. (I remember my "I Like Ike" button!) In the election of 1960, while I was a student at the University of Georgia in Athens, I voted for John F. Kennedy. Political party meant very little to me. The personal philosophy and vision of the candidates were much more important.

 

I rationalized that being an independent voter was a refusal to follow blindly what either of the two major political parties were advocating. Highly partisan people seemed to lack objectivity, and I wanted to be objective.

 

I moved to Boone in 1965 and developed friends in both political parties. One of those friends, a man who was known locally as "Mr. Republican" for his devotion to the Republican Party and its candidates, admitted to me once, "I support my party, but when I’m in the voting booth, I vote my conscience." That said a lot to me about how "party people" balance the dilemmas of blind loyalty and the good of the country.

 

My decision to become a "party man" for the Democrats was a crisis of conscience arising out of what I saw as President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq early in 2003 on trumped-up evidence, those fictitious "weapons of mass destruction." In the weeks leading up to that invasion, I had many conversations with another staunch Republican friend who did not believe that his president would take such a drastic step as starting a war with a country that did not threaten us.

 

"If President Bush invades Iraq," my friend said to me, "the Republican Party will have no long-term future and will decline over the next several decades."

 

Bush did invade Iraq. The long-term future of the Republican Party is still undetermined as a result, but I found I could no longer remain "independent."

 

For one thing, there is actually no "Independent Party" in the United States, with clear leadership or a written philosophy or platform or a system of accountability. There’s just a large mass of "unaffiliated" voters like me, waiting passively to see what candidates and what programs will be offered up to us by the Republicans and the Democrats. "Independents" have no real power to influence those candidates and those programs.

 

In other words, being an "independent" voter began to seem to me like an excuse for taking no stand at all. I’ve admired some independent candidates for office in the past, like Ralph Nader, but being an independent just doesn’t get you very far in this nation.

 

I imagine there are a lot of loyal Republicans right now who choose to keep quiet about what’s going on – the war in Iraq, the growing deficit, the whiff of scandal coming out of Congress. They are partisan Republicans, but they also have consciences. And too many Democrats took the easy course during the time Bush was drumming up the war, some because they thought it was the right thing to do and some out of cowardice. As a new Democrat myself, I want to hold those weak Democrats to an accounting. I want to see them stand up and fight for what’s right.

 

That’s why I changed my registration to Democrat. I felt I had to do something to try to help our country move away from the precipice President Bush wants to take us over. That was the crowning reason.

 

I just hadn’t thought much about Republicans being for the rich and Democrats being for the poor. But now I do think about that. It is so clear to me that the Republican Party really does intend to end Social Security and Medicare. "Survival of the fittest" is what Republicans seem to believe. If you aren’t able to make it, you can just disappear. They would like the homeless to just disappear.

 

The protection of the environment is another issue that has brought me to the Democrats. I remember when Republican Lauch Faircloth became senator. He had hog farms, and he got legislation passed to protect his hog farms, just the opposite of what the environment needed in that part of the state. His self-interest always seemed much more important to him than the public interest.

 

I’m very encouraged by the development of bio-diesel and its potential for causing less air pollution and for helping us be less dependent on foreign oil. I was very proud last April when the Watauga County Democratic Party passed a resolution supporting the development of bio-diesel as an alternative energy source.

 

I’ve taken a stand with the Democrats because Democrats support the common good and not just the interests of the rich. I’ve taken a stand because we’re in a major crisis as a nation, and I believe the Democrats will reverse some of the disastrous policies of the last five years.

 

I urge other "independents" to consider that by being aloof you are allowing others to set policies and determine the direction of all our futures. By joining a party, you can make your voice a part of a powerful chorus, you can work for reform, you can be active in a great struggle that I, for one, could no longer stay out of.

 

______

 

Brooke Johnson retired in 1991 as area director of New River Mental Health Center.  

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Ms. Johnson, TPJ kudos to you.  Welcome to the fight.

TAR HEEL DEM CELLAR