Conservation Insider Bulletin from Dan Besse, Oct. 19

Conservation Insider Bulletin
Published weekly for the Conservation Council of North Carolina
Conservation News to Peruse & Use

Editor: Dan Besse, earthvote@ccnccpac.org

October 19, 2007

We're still reading the tea leaves from last week's municipal primary election results, as well as other campaign news, this week in CIB:

--Campaign Watch: Boone Council Heads to Runoff; Durham's November Lineup Set; Development Interests Do Well in Greensboro's Low Turnout; Positive Polling in Mecklenburg; Sierra Endorses in Orange; Martin Won't Run Either

--Washington Watch: Clean Water Act Anniversary

Campaign Watch: Boone Council Heads to Runoff; Durham's November Lineup Set; Development Interests Do Well in Greensboro's Low Turnout; Positive Polling in Mecklenburg; Sierra Endorses in Orange; Martin Won't Run Either

Boone Council Heads to Runoff: A final count of questioned ("provisional") ballots in Boone jumbled the Town Council results slightly. Incumbent council member and mayor pro tem Lynne Mason picked up almost enough votes to win outright, and gained re-election when fellow incumbent Bunk Spann (who finished fifth) declined to call for a runoff. Newcomer Liz Aycock, a member of the town's planning commission, picked up enough votes to slip past incumbent Dempsey Wilcox for the third position. However, Wilcox did call for a runoff. As a result, November 6 will see a head to head matchup of Aycock versus Wilcox for the third and final town council seat up for grabs in this year's voting.

Observers of Boone politics say that pro-environment forces have so far had the better of the election results, despite the massive spending by a pro-development PAC for an attack campaign against the incumbents. They say that Mason's re-election guarantees three pro-environment votes out of the five members on the new town board (Mason plus holdover incumbents Janet Pepin and Rennie Brantz, whose terms don't expire until 2009). Moreover, a runoff win by environmentally-friendly challenger Liz Aycock over Wilcox would ensure that the town board remained at its 4-1 pro-environment status quo. (Wilcox was the only incumbent to vote against the recently adopted steep-slope development ordinance.) Spann's replacement by newcomer Stephen Phillips is seen as an environmental loss, but Aycock's ouster of Wilcox would offset that change. In the mayoral contest, environment-friendly mayor Loretta Clawson convincingly defeated PAC-backed challenger Tim Wilson. The active campaigning resulted in a Boone-record turnout for a municipal primary (2,259 voters, about 23% of the registered electorate).

Durham's November Lineup Set: Results last week in Durham's "non-partisan" primary showed progressive Democratic candidates polling strongly compared to conservative Republican challengers. The top six vote-getters advanced to the November 6 general election, at which time voters will select three to serve four-year terms on the city council. Of the top six in the primary, popular incumbent Diane Catotti finished a strong first with 20 percent of the vote (7,228 votes), followed by fellow incumbent Eugene Brown with 15 percent (5,945), and newcomer Farad Ali (vice president of the N.C. Institute of Minority Economic Development) finishing third with 13 percent (4,891). Two members of a three-candidate conservative Republican slate made it to the general election, but with unimpressive totals: Laney Funderburk, fourth, with 3,750 votes; and Steve Monks, sixth, with 3,198 votes. The other candidate advancing to the general election was another progressive activist: InterNeighborhood Council president David Harris, who placed fifth with 3,376 votes.

Development Interests Do Well in Greensboro's Low Turnout: Greensboro's voter turnout last week was woeful even by municipal primary standards: A mere 7 percent of registered voters bothered to vote. According to one local conservation advocate, it seemed that Greensboro was "invaded by developers" who were the only ones to show up at the polls. Development-favored candidates did well in the council races; according to Yes Weekly (10/17/07), three of the six candidates for at-large council seats work in the real estate and development industry. Voters will select three of those candidates, plus a mayor and district council representatives, in final voting on November 6.

Positive Polling in Mecklenburg: The anti-rail John Lockies must be gnashing their teeth this week. Their own polling numbers in Mecklenburg, released Thursday, show opponents of repealing the transit tax there with a solid lead, 54 percent to 39 percent. Vote Against Repeal, a pro-public transit group organized to support retaining the half-cent sales tax which finances public transit systems in Mecklenburg, welcomed the poll news but said they would continue to work hard. The opinion poll was commissioned by the John Locke-associated entity, the Civitas Institute.

Sierra Endorses in Orange: The state Sierra Club chapter this week announced a series of candidate endorsements in municipal races in Orange County. The Sierra Club's recommendations: Chapel Hill—Mayor Kevin Foy and Town Council Members Jim Ward, Bill Strom, Sally Greene and Cam Hill; Carrboro—Mayor Mark Chilton and Board of Aldermen candidates Joel Hall Broun, Dan Coleman, and Lydia Lavelle; Hillsborough—Mayor Tom Stevens and Board of Commissioners candidates Evelyn Lloyd, Eric Hallman, and Bryant Warren Jr.

Martin Won't Run Either: Conservationists were disappointed late this past week when State Representative Grier Martin (D-Wake) announced that he would not challenge U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) for the U.S. Senate next year. Martin, who has earned environmental group awards for his service in the N.C. House, was the last remaining current office-holder reported to be considering the U.S. Senate race. National analysts have concluded that Dole is vulnerable in what looks to be a Democratic election year in 2008, but all the high-profile potential Democratic challengers have declined the race. Thus far, the only declared Democratic candidate is Jim Neal of Chapel Hill, a little-known corporate investment advisor who has never run for public office before.

Washington Watch: Clean Water Act Anniversary

This week saw the 35th anniversary of passage of the Clean Water Act. Actually, the 1972 bill technically consisted of amendments to an earlier law, the Water Pollution Control Act—but the changes were so broad and critical that the 1972 action is commonly treated as the origin of the law. It set up the system of state and federal permits for and limits on water pollution discharges that still form the backbone of water quality regulation today.

Clean water advocates around the nation are using the 35th anniversary of this critical environmental act as a chance to remind us that it's time to restore key provisions of the law which have been undercut by the Bush Administration and hostile Supreme Court rulings in recent years. (For example, wetlands protections are in serious jeopardy at the federal level, under the Supreme Court's confusing and shifting reading of the Clean Water Act as it stands.)

The Clean Water Restoration Act (HR 2421—CRWA) would reassert federal jurisdiction over "waters" as they had been previously defined by decades of judicial interpretation, broadly including rivers, lakes, streams, and wetlands. The CWRA is under debate in the U.S. House of Representatives.