election

There are 4 local District Court Judge races. Only Democrats are on the ballot. Two have no competition (Beverly A. Scarlett and Jay Bryan). On the ballot Sherri Murrell has competition (Lunsford Long) but Judge Long has withdrawn from the race but is still on the ballot. Logically everyone should vote for Murrell because if she doesn't win, the current governor could appoint to the future vacancy created by Long. The only real contested race is between Samantha Cabe and Sam Cooper. Tomorrow 9/29/16 there is another forum for the district judges sponsored by Orange Democrats.

REMINDER: District Court Judicial Candidates Forum

The Orange County Democratic Party will be sponsoring a candidate forum with candidates for the Long and Anderson seats on our local District Court. Candidates for these seats include Samantha Cabe and Sam Cooper (Anderson seat) and Sherri Murrell (Long seat).

This forum will take place  Thursday, September 29 from 7:00pm to 8:30pm at the Lake Hogan Farms Clubhouse (101 Commons Way, Chapel Hill). 

This event will be moderated by OCDP Chair Matt Hughes and OCDP Vice Chair Susan Romaine.

 An article in the Chapel Hill News on Sunday gave me pause on the candidates for the Chapel Hill town council. When asked to speak on town spending, all resorted immediately to either vague plans for reductions or, astonishingly, proposals to charge for transit, which is by far the most effective service Chapel Hill offers.

Instead of deciding which items to cut, the candidates for the council should commit to a pro-growth agenda. Rezone the entire downtown core as TC-3-C, and consider removing the height cap for downtown. Allow people to build along the planned light rail corridor to Durham. Expedite the review process so every proposal doesn't get dragged down in years of bickering.

Interesting to be on the road the day after the election. Vignettes:

1. O'Hare airport the morning after the Grant Park address - a lot of bleary-eyed, happy people; some wore Obama teeshirts, some didn't have to. There were a few perceptible scowls on the faces of some well-dressed road warriors in the First Class line. May or may not have had anything to do with the election.

2. On the flight to Vancouver, sitting next to a man who'd been at Grant Park. He was filled with emotion about it - and he a "well-dressed road warrior" CEO of his own company. He'd walked behind MLK's family at the funeral procession in Georgia and equated being at Grant Park with it as the two most memorable days in his life.