Conservation Insider Bulletin from Dan Besse, Oct. 12

Conservation Insider Bulletin

Published weekly for the Conservation Council of North Carolina
Conservation News to Peruse & Use
Editor: Dan Besse, earthvote@ccnccpac.org


October 12, 2007


Municipal election results will influence environmental policy from west to east. This week in CIB:

--Campaign Watch: Boone Mayor Wins, but Council Needs Runoff; Green Candidates Clear Primary in Asheville; Greensboro Sees Environmentalist Miss; Cary Changes Direction; Raleigh Gets New Majority; Wake Bonds Pass; Wilmington Results Noteworthy; Hagan Won't Run

Campaign Watch: Boone Mayor Wins, but Council Needs Runoff; Green Candidates Clear Primary in Asheville; Greensboro Sees Environmentalist Miss; Cary Changes Direction; Raleigh Gets New Majority; Wake Bonds Pass; Wilmington Results Noteworthy; Hagan Won't Run

Boone Mayor Wins, but Council Needs Runoff: A developer-led PAC missed in its effort to knock off Boone's environmentally-friendly mayor, Loretta Clawson, who held off her challenger by a convincing margin (1,222 to 925) despite the money poured into an "independent expenditure" campaign against her. In a closer set of tallies, however, the PAC managed to aid two of its favored candidates into the top three vote-getters for three seats up for election on the Town Council. Only the top finisher, development PAC-favored challenger Steve Phillips, achieved a final win in the first round of voting, leading the council tallies with 1,062 votes. Four other candidates face the prospect of a runoff for the two remaining seats: environmentalist-favored incumbents Lynne Mason (1,038 votes) and Bunk Spann (1,011 votes) and challenger Liz Aycock (1,015 votes), and development PAC-favored incumbent Dempsey Wilcox (1,028 votes). Clearly, this hard-fought and sometimes nasty campaign has resulted in a closely-divided electorate.

Green Candidates Clear Primary in Asheville: Three Council incumbents easily led the voting in Asheville's primary election this week, including environmental allies Brownie Newman and Bryan Freeborn. Newcomer "green" candidate Elaine Lite ran fourth. The top six vote-getters (including Newman, Freeborn, and Lite) will face off Nov. 6 for the three seats up for election in Asheville this year.

Greensboro Sees Environmentalist Miss: In Greensboro's city council primary this week, environmentalists were disappointed as candidate Joel Landau just missed the cut for the Nov. 6 general election balloting. Landau finished seventh of 13 candidates vying for three open at-large seats. The top six move on to the Nov. 6 showdown. Only about 7 per cent of Greensboro's electorate turned out for this important vote.

Cary Changes Direction: N.C. Policy Watch head Chris Fitzsimon put a blunt interpretation on Tuesday's results in Wake County: "It’s still early in the fall local election season, but Tuesday’s results in Cary and Raleigh and the findings of the latest Carolina Issues Poll seem to indicate that people are no longer buying the line from the market fundamentalists that the free market alone should govern the state’s growth.

"Cary Mayor Ernie McAlister, a friend of developers and real estate interests, was defeated by challenger Harold Weinbrecht, a proponent of managed growth for the city.

"And it wasn’t that close. Weinbrecht won with 58 percent of the vote after a heated campaign in which McAlister spent five times as much as his challenger. The results in city council races in Cary and Raleigh were similar, with candidates who campaigned on more controls on growth doing well, defeating incumbents in several cases." (Email 10/10/07.)

Other analysts generally echoed that assessment. The Raleigh News & Observer noted in its 10/11/07 editorial column that incumbent McAlister was "heavily backed by business interests' money" but that "Weinbrecht speaks of a 'balanced' approach, which in Cary means backing off on—but not halting—development permits until the infrastructure can support new projects."

Raleigh Gets New Majority: The results in Raleigh were even more dramatic a turn for pro-planning forces. Two incumbents regarded as more likely to favor development interests were turned out by challengers running as planning-friendly proponents of carefully managing growth and development. Newcomer Nancy McFarlane ousted developer-backed incumbent Tommy Craven in Council District A, and newcomer Rodger Koopman convincingly led developer-favored incumbent Jessie Taliafero in District B. A third, more conservative candidate in District B pulled away enough votes that Taliafero could have called for a runoff, but she declined to do so. In the at-large races, planning-friendly incumbent Russ Stephenson strongly led the ticket to win re-election. He will be joined by newcomer Mary-Ann Baldwin, the only candidate who appeared favored by development interests who carried the evening. Mayor Charles Meeker was re-elected without opposition. Analysts project that the new council lineup will tend to favor his planning-friendly policies by at least a 5-3 majority, and perhaps by 6-2 or even 7-1 on some votes.

Wake Bonds Pass: Also in Wake this week, four bond issues won handily, including two of specific interest to conservationists: Open Space Preservation bonds, $50 million for purchase of undeveloped land in drinking water supply watersheds; and Raleigh Parks bonds, $88.6 million for parks, recreation, and greenways acquisition and development.

Wilmington Results Noteworthy: In Wilmington's City Council elections this week, incumbent Council Member Laura Padgett was the only outright winner. Four other candidates appear headed for a Nov. 6 runoff to determine the remaining two seats. Of those, incumbent Council Member Pat Delair, arguably the council's strongest environmental voice, finished a strong second to Padgett and needs only hold that spot to win re-election in the runoff.

Hagan Won't Run: Another potential Democratic challenger to incumbent U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) announced this week that she was giving the race a pass. State Sen. Kay Hagan (D-Guilford) said that she will instead seek re-election to the N.C. Senate, where she holds the influential post of co-chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Speculation now focuses on State House Rep. Grier Martin (D-Wake) as the undropped shoe in this potential contest. The rumor mill is active—some Pundits say he's definitely running, others say definitely not, and Martin himself still says he's pondering. The clock is ticking.

With many cities and towns across North Carolina holding some stage of their municipal elections this week, we have necessarily included only a sampling of the most noteworthy results coming to our attention. It is clear, however, that development policy played a major role in many elections, with the advantage going toward the green side in many cases. We will look for more final outcomes of note in the Nov. 6 final voting round.