archived: 9 - 15 Oct, 2005         Back                 Next

                        SEN. DOUG BERGER*
                         INSIDE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
                        “Raising The Resources”

Chris Fitzsimon of the respected North Carolina Policy Watch authored an article, “Political Moneyball” calling for public financing of State legislative campaigns.  Fitzsimon noted that Democrat President Pro Tempore Mark Basnight and Speaker Jim Black raise literally millions of dollars to help finance Democratic Party campaigns.  Fitzsimon concludes (emphasis added): 

Those dollars do more than get out the vote or pay for the operation of the party machinery. The party directs large sums of money to legislative candidates in close races, meaning that Black and Basnight raise money to pay for the campaigns of legislators who then support them for reelection to their leadership post. 

Senator John Snow won a very close election in 2004 against incumbent Senator Bob Carpenter. Snow won after the North Carolina Democratic Party gave his campaign more than $150,000 in October. Snow lives in Murphy in the North Carolina mountains, hundreds of miles from Raleigh. But money from Raleigh raised by Basnight helped decide who would represent the people of Murphy in the Senate.

It is pretty hard to imagine a member of the House or Senate who receives thousands of dollars from Black or Basnight ever bucking their chamber’s leader.  The practice does more than keep a political party in power, it helps keep individual leaders in power in the General Assembly too.  This is Basnight’s 7th term running the Senate, Black’s 4th as Speaker of the House.

It is also hard to believe that lobbyists or special interests that hire lobbyists can turn down an invitation to give Black or Basnight money if the group wants some consideration by the General Assembly in the following session.  It’s an offer they can’t refuse.  

Fitzsimon deals a serious blow to his credibility as to having inside knowledge of the inner workings of the Senate by using Senator Snow as an example of someone who would not challenge the Senate leadership given the amount of money the Senate leadership helped raise for him.  Ask anyone of the lottery five; Senator Cowell, Senator Nesbitt, Senator Kinnard, Senator Clodfelter or Senator Albertson if Fitzsimon’s assessment of Senator Snow is correct.   

Among other things, Democrats and all North Carolinians can specifically thank Senator Snow for successfully leading the effort to derail a 57 million dollar cut in teacher's aides and exerting the leadership that stopped state employees from having to pay any premiums on their own state health insurance.  Fitzsimon’s  attack on Democrats in Raleigh helping elect a Senator Snow in western North Carolina sounds much like the rightwing criticism aimed at Senator Boseman for taking contributions from Human Rights advocates across the nation.   

Fitzsimon should be praising Democrats for raising enough revenue to enable Senator Snow to show that a Democratic agenda can win in an area that conventional wisdom says only a Republican can win.  Likewise, Fitzsimon should be praising the Senate Democratic Party leadership that helped raise the money that elected Sen. Boseman, an openly gay legislator, in a District perceived to be Republican.  

The left view that Fitzsimons represents is unwillingly to marshal the resources critical to win elections.  The Republican Supreme Court's rulings to manipulate the redistricting process have made it nearly impossible for Democrats to retain power without having a tremendous money advantage.

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*State Senator Doug Berger represents the 7^th District; Franklin, Vance, Granville and Warren counties.  Sen. Doug Berger is joining TPJ with a regular column focused on the last session of the North Carolina General Assembly. If TPJ readers have questions for or topics that they would like Sen. Berger to cover, simply write TPJ using FEEDBACK. 

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Junkie:  Sen. Snow indeed narrowly defeated Republican incumbent Republican Bob Carpenter; (Snow-D) 35,722, 49.39%, (Carpenter-R) 35,438, 49.00%, (Lamm-L) 1,164, 1.61% or less than 300 votes. TPJ has identified Sen. Snow’s District as the most urgent priority for Democrats to defend in 2006.  It is nearly inconceivable that Sen. Snow can hold this District without substantial financial assistance from “Raleigh Democrats.” 

Sen. Boseman will be in for another rugged campaign.  Because of her sexual orientation, Sen. Boseman, who won by less than a 1,000 votes, will be the target of hundreds of radical Republican groups.  Principled Democrats will have to help Sen. Boseman meet that challenge, including substantial financial support.   

Fitzsimon’s contention that “[i]t is pretty hard to imagine a member of the House or Senate who receives thousands of dollars from Black or Basnight ever bucking their chamber’s leader” is not well taken.  For example, Sen. Cowell received substantial funding from the Senate Campaign Committee.  Yet, she advocated and voted against the North Carolina Education Lottery.  Apparently she did not find it as difficult to “buck” the leadership as Fitzsimon conveys. 

TPJ has written extensively on the contrast between the leadership of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party relative to the NC Education Lottery vote.  Republicans “locked down” their Party caucus, essentially a command from the leadership that all Republicans had to vote “no” on the legislation.  The Senate Democratic Party leadership did not attempt to “lock down” their Caucus.  As a result, FIVE Democrats voted “no” on the NC Education Lottery, including Sen. Cowell.  The Democratic Party leadership did not expel the Lottery Five from the caucus or take any other punitive measures. 

By unfairly singling out Sen. Snow, Fitzsimon has just handed Republicans in his District a new campaign ad for 2006.  One can easily imagine that the Republican Party will feature the message that a leading Democrat admits that Sen. Snow, who received campaign funds from the Senate Campaign Committee, is not free to represent the interests of his District.   

Fitzsimon’s larger points on campaign financing and the sums of money need to finance elections are well taken and worthy of public debate and discussion.  That debate can be had without Democrats starting another internecine ideological purge that simply results in radical Republicans returning to power in the State Senate.                

                        CAMP WELLSTONE COMING TO NC  

Camp Wellstone is coming to North Carolina Raleigh/Durham area on November 11-13.  Every Democrat activist should be there. 

Even if you cannot attend, progressive Democrats should identify and sponsor young Democrats.  It would be a great short term project for the Democratic Party or auxiliary group in your county.  You will be sending the future of the Democratic Party to receive some of the finest training anywhere.

Camp Wellstone is nationally recognized and highly distinguished in training progressives who are interested in: 

Learning new strategies to win on issues

Helping elect progressive candidates

Building your leadership and the leadership of others

Camp Wellstone is a dynamic weekend-long training program that teaches progressives how to win on issues and elect good candidates.  We use a distinctive approach to politics, based on Paul Wellstone's success at integrating grassroots organizing, electoral organizing, progressive public policy and ethical leadership. Camp Wellstone will begin at 3:00 pm on Friday and run until about 4:00 pm on Sunday.

Camp Wellstone is for anyone interested in gaining valuable skills in effective political action: candidates and those considering a run for office, volunteer and paid campaign workers, and citizen activists involved in community or issue organizing. The program is fast-paced and highly interactive. Sessions are led by grassroots organizers and campaign professionals from across the United States and the local community. – Camp Wellstone: North Carolina 

Opportunities for this level of training in North Carolina come too infrequently.  Click on this hyperlink and register to attend: 

CAMP WELLSTONE: NORTH CAROLINA                       

                        JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL   

North Carolina is not immune from the proclivities of radical activists.  Carefully consider this incident from Currituck County: 

[Selina] Jarvis had assigned her senior civics and economics class “to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights,” she says. One student “had taken a photo of George Bush out of a magazine and tacked the picture to a wall with a red thumb tack through his head. Then he made a thumb’s down sign with his own hand next to the President’s picture, and he had a photo taken of that, and he pasted it on a poster.”

According to Jarvis, the student, who remains anonymous, was just doing his assignment, illustrating the right to dissent.

But over at the Kitty Hawk Wal-Mart, where the student took his film to be developed, this right is evidently suspect.

An employee in that Wal-Mart photo department called the Kitty Hawk police on the student. And the Kitty Hawk police turned the matter over to the Secret Service.

On Tuesday, September 20, the Secret Service came to Currituck High.“At 1:35, the student came to me and told me that the Secret Service had taken his poster,” Jarvis says. “I didn’t believe him at first. But they had come into my room when I wasn’t there and had taken his poster, which was in a stack with all the others.”

She says the student was upset.

“He was nervous, he was scared, and his parents were out of town on business,” says Jarvis.

She, too, had to talk to the Secret Service.

“Halfway through my afternoon class, the assistant principal got me out of class and took me to the office conference room,” she says. “Two men from the Secret Service were there. They asked me what I knew about the student. I told them he was a great kid, that he was in the homecoming court, and that he’d never been in any trouble.”

Then they got down to his poster.

“They asked me, didn’t I think that it was suspicious,” she recalls. “I said no, it was a Bill of Rights project!”

At the end of the meeting, they told her the incident “would be interpreted by the U.S. attorney, who would decide whether the student could be indicted,” she says.

The student was not indicted, and the Secret Service did not pursue the case further.

“I blame Wal-Mart more than anybody,” she says. “I was really disgusted with them. But everyone was using poor judgment, from Wal-Mart up to the Secret Service.” – The Progressive           

Wal-Mart has not commented on the incident.  Every North Carolinian should bypass shopping at Wal-Mart stores anywhere until Wal-Mart apologizes to teacher and student.  

The Currituck County Wal-Mart incident is just one example of an ever growing body of examples that the Government is becoming more intrusive in the lives of American citizens.  Pending legislation in Congress, endorsed by radical Republicans, will give the military more authority to operate inside the USA: 

As part of the expanding counterterrorism role being taken on by the Pentagon, Defense Intelligence Agency covert operatives need to be able to approach potential sources in the United States without identifying themselves as government agents, George Peirce, the DIA's general counsel, said yesterday.

"This is not about spying on Americans," Peirce said in an interview in which he defended legislative language approved last week by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The provision would grant limited authority for DIA agents to clandestinely collect information about U.S. citizens or emigres in this country to help determine whether they could be recruited as sources of intelligence information. – Washington Post                                                

Contrary to Peirce’s assertion, the law will permit spying on Americans.  While the authority is “limited,” it reflects an ever increasing pressure to grant the Government greater powers of the military (and Government generally) to conduct domestic surveillance in contradiction of the Constitution. 

These are features that TPJ has previously published that have continuing research relevance for North Carolina Democrats.  Simply choose a subject and click on the icon to access these features and research.  TPJ readers who find research materials that may be of value to Democrats across the state should alert TPJ in order that the material may be posted for all.