How’s That Political Welfare Working For You?

Only two of the 12 Chapel Hill town council and mayoral candidates opted for taxpayer financing of their campaigns. John Locke Foundation legal and regulatory policy analyst Daren Bakst makes some excellent points about this misguided policy in The Locker Room.

Meanwhile, Public Policy Polling puts the race for Chapel Hill mayor as too close to call. Candidate Matt Czajkowski leads Mark Kleinschmidt 45 to 44. This race is one to watch tomorrow night.

“Without the party labels, you’re at sea without a rudder”

John Locke Foundation President John Hood nails the problem with nonpartisan elections in a recent segment for Carolina Journal Radio. By removing political party affiliation, you are intentionally withholding from the voter what is an important piece of information.

The citizenry is better served with more information, not less. This is a contributing factor to the low turnout in municipal elections.

Is Confusion the Strategy?

Tomorrow’s runoff for the District 2 seat on the Wake school board continues to twist and turn. Cathy Truitt – who withdrew her request for a runoff against top voter-getter John Tedesco – now says she’ll serve if she wins the election tomorrow. OK, fine. Then why did she withdraw her request for a runoff? Tomorrow is going to be fascinating.

Stirring Up Trouble in Chapel Hill

I’ve blogged previously about this year’s interesting races for Chapel Hill mayor and council, which some are characterizing as a challenge to the liberal status quo. Today’s Herald-Sun story shows that somebody, or some group, definitely intends to influence the outcome of the mayoral race. And the tactics being used may run afoul of the law, not to mention ethics.

The paper reports that leaders of Orange County’s Democratic and Republican parties are jointly denouncing a mailer of questionable origins and with questionable intent, and are calling for an investigation by local and state election officials.