Conservation Insider Bulletin from Dan Besse, Nov. 2

Conservation Insider Bulletin

Published weekly for the Conservation Council of North Carolina

Conservation News to Peruse & Use

Editor: Dan Besse, earthvote@ccnccpac.org

November 2, 2007


Early voting ends tomorrow (Saturday November 3) at 1 p.m. for municipalities voting next Tuesday. We make our final pre-election comments in this week's CIB:

--Campaign Watch: Last Chance for Early Voting; High Stakes Decisions; Senate Switchback
--Education & Resources: Still Time for Clean Energy
--Enforcement Update: Muddy Water Watch Training

Campaign Watch: Last Chance for Early Voting; High Stakes Decisions; Senate Switchback

Last Chance for Early Voting: Even if you are not yet registered, you can still vote in the elections being held Tuesday if you live in one of many municipalities around North Carolina—but only if you act NOW! Early voting, with its same-day registration, closes tomorrow (Saturday, November 3) at 1 p.m. Don't miss this chance. Read on below to find out why it's important.

High Stakes Decisions: The contests to be decided in this round of municipal voting concluding Tuesday include some high-stakes decisions, for the towns and cities involved and in some cases for the state as a whole. Development and environmental issues will be key topics in local elections all around our state. Among them, here are some of the contests CIB will be watching Tuesday night:

Mecklenburg transit tax: Will voters retain or repeal the special half-cent property tax that finances our largest city's public transit—including our state's first commuter light rail system? It's a critical decision point for the future of balanced transportation options in North Carolina. Mecklenburg County's Air Quality Commission also came out this week saying that repeal of the transit tax would set back efforts to clean up regional air quality. (Charlotte voters will also choose their next mayor on Tuesday: Republican incumbent Pat McCrory or Democratic challenger Rep. Beverly Earle. Some of the drama went out of that contest when Republican primary voters picked McCrory over anti-transit challenger Ken Gjertsen, so both party's nominees support retaining the transit tax, but the race remains of interest on other policy grounds.)

Durham mayoral race: Incumbent Mayor Bill Bell is fighting off a challenge from former Civitas Institute employee Thomas Stith. Stith, a capital-C "Conservative", could be counted on to march in Lockestep with the anti-government, anti-regulatory philosophy of the folks who think that global warming is a liberal hoax. Many environmentalists would consider a Lockie mayor of one of our state's largest cities to be cause for alarm.

Boone Town Council runoff: Anti-regulation forces spent heavily in their effort to knock off Boone's environment-friendly mayor, Loretta Clawson, and take over a majority of its town council. They failed, but their point of view could still pick up a key vote on that council, depending on the outcome of Tuesday's runoff voting. One of the anti-regulation challengers, Steve Phillips, succeeded in displacing environment-friendly incumbent Bunk Spann. However, Dempsey Benton, the only incumbent to have voted against adoption of steep-slope development regulations, and therefore the only incumbent favored by the anti-regulation PAC, trailed in the first round of balloting to environment-friendly challenger Liz Aycock. Boone voters will decide Tuesday which of those two will get the final available Council seat. A victory by Aycock would keep the voting balance on the town council unchanged.

Asheville City Council contests: In North Carolina's largest mountain city, voters will decide whether they like the environmental policies of the current council majority (e.g., steep-slope development regulations, public transit expansion efforts, bike lanes). Incumbents Brownie Newman and Bryan Freeborn and newcomer Elaine Lite are the three conservation-group-endorsed candidates among the six total candidates vying for three seats up for grabs in the voting concluding Tuesday.
Transfer tax referenda: Despite a full-court press lobbying effort by the realtor/developer lobby, the N.C. General Assembly this year voted to allow counties to choose whether to adopt an increase in the land transfer tax. On Tuesday, 16 counties (from Swain in the western mountains to Brunswick on the coast) will decide whether to take advantage of that opportunity. The development lobby has poured heavy cash (more than $400,000) into fighting those local referenda in counties around the state. (According to Chris Fitzsimon of N.C. Policy Watch, supposedly "local" opposition groups are local fronts for the N.C. Homebuilders Association and the N.C. Association of Realtors, through hosting their nearly identical websites and financially underwriting the "local" committees.) Supporters of the land transfer tax argue that it provides a fair way to require new development to pay its share of the costs of growth at the local government level. The outcomes of these tax referenda will tell us something about both public attitudes toward booming development in fast-growth areas, and the effectiveness of development lobby rhetoric in swaying public perceptions in these debates.

Senate Switchback: By now, every political junkie in North Carolina is well aware of State Sen. Kay Hagan's (D-Guilford) decision to jump into the U.S. Senate race next year after all. The ongoing topic of speculation has been, why the change now? Some observers have linked Hagan's reversal to the revelation by candidate Jim Neal that he is gay. While CIB has no inside information on that point, we would offer a few observations. First, we think it more likely that Hagan's decision reflects the withdrawal of State Rep. Grier Martin (D-Wake) as a potential candidate. Democratic party insiders were clearly seeking a candidate with elected experience and long-standing in-state residency. Those party forces had been talking up the potential candidacy by Martin, and had been leary of a primary fight between two prominent state legislators. When Martin ultimately declined to run (a decision which surprised many, including CIB), the party forces switched over to Hagan as the strongest candidate possibly still available. By most conventional political measures (starting name recognition among party leaders, experience in public office, initial donor base), Hagan is the stronger candidate in comparison with Neal.

Second, however, Neal remains a credible candidate even though Hagan will be favored. Neal will have the opportunity to convince primary voters that his stance on the issues they care about is closer to what they are seeking in a nominee. We have no doubt that Hagan will be ethical (and smart) enough to avoid playing the sexual orientation card in this contest. (It would be disastrous for her if she tried that in a Democratic primary fight. No Democratic nominee in this contest can afford anything less than a united and enthusiastic Democratic base.) That should make the primary a chance to talk about how we should deal with real policy questions that will have meaning for thoughtful voters—foreign policy, health care, and the environment, to name a few keys. It could even prove a good opportunity for Sen. Hagan to speak on some contemporary questions related to equal rights. We hope and expect that such intelligent, issues-oriented conversation will take place and be the focus of public attention.

Education & Resources: Still Time for Clean Energy

CCNC is one of 28 groups co-sponsoring two forums titled "Averting Climate Catastrophe: Power Plants or Clean Energy—Who Decides?", to be held this month. The forums will take place Friday November 16, at 7 p.m. at Queens University in Charlotte; and Saturday November 17, at 3 p.m. at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill. Both forums will feature presentations by Dr. James Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute, and billed as "the nation's foremost climate scientist". Presenters will also include Mike Nicklas, former chair of the American Solar Energy Society and past president of the International Solar Energy Society. Primary hosts for the forums are the Carolinas Clean Air Coalition and N.C. WARN. More information on the forums can be found at http://www.ncwarn.org/HansenEvent11-07/CliffsideCampaign.htm.

Enforcement Update: Muddy Water Watch Training

CCNC is also participating in a program called "Muddy Water Watch", in which citizens take part in keeping an eye on erosion and sedimentation from construction sites. (Sedimentation is the state's biggest single cause of water pollution and aquatic habitat degradation.) A public orientation and training session on this important citizen initiative will be held Tuesday, November 13, from 6:45 to 9 p.m. in Raleigh. The Neuse River Foundation's Upper Neuse Riverkeeper, Dean Naujoks, will train citizen volunteers to "actively patrol construction sites looking for poorly maintained erosion and sediment control measures." Details on the program can be found at www.muddywaterwatch.org.

That's our report for this week. Don't forget to vote