Unsuccessful Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Linda Coleman ended her improbable challenge to the Nov. 6 election results Monday morning, halting two planned lawsuits and, in the process, handing Republicans enhanced control of all three branches of North Carolina government.
After calling Republican winner and Tea Party favorite Dan Forest to concede, Coleman held a short news conference at the state Democratic Party headquarters in Raleigh.
“Today puts an end to everything. There will be no lawsuits. Today ends the campaign,” Coleman told a small assemblage of reporters and supporters, a stark contrast to the crowds she spoke to during the campaign while enjoying a promising lead in both early and late statewide polling.
Forest led by about 10,500 votes last week. After all 100 county boards of election canvassed the vote totals, the margin of victory shrank to 6,858 of the 4,368,598 ballots cast.
“I’m glad she called to concede,” Forest said. Because no statewide candidate has overcome such a wide voting gap in a recount, Coleman’s challenge efforts were “pretty much just delaying the inevitable,” he said.
“I’m certainly happy not to have another couple of weeks of recount action going on,” said Forest, who was meeting with his team of attorneys about legal strategy to combat Coleman’s lawsuits when the Democratic candidate called him this morning.
“As soon as we heard we changed gears. We’ve been in campaign mode for 20 months,” said Forest, who joins Republican Gov.-elect Pat McCrory in the top executive branch positions. They will have GOP majorities in both the Senate and House, and a majority Republican Supreme Court to work with.
“Obviously it’s great” to have Republican majorities in all three branches of state government, Forest said.
“We have an opportunity to work really well together, both the executive team and the legislative team,” he said.
“I believe Pat and I will have a very strong working relationship going into this January, and I think that will bode well for the people of North Carolina. We’re going to be there to work with the governor and be the best team player we can be” in pushing policies for the betterment of the state, he said.
He has not begun prioritizing a legislative agenda because attention has been focused on Coleman’s legal challenge, Forest said.
“Certainly we’re a couple of weeks behind now based on where we’d like to be getting the transition started,” he said. His first order of business will be to identify and recruit top policy experts to fill his staff, he said.
Forest plans to meet with the current lieutenant governor’s office and take time going around the state to meet as many senators as possible before he assumes the seat that makes him the presiding officer of the Senate. Forest said he will be learning the rules of parliamentary procedure and “how to navigate the rules of the Senate.”
“We did very well, we were very successful,” in raising cash to wage a defense in the lawsuit battle, Forest said.
“We racked up quite a legal bill the last couple of weeks. We don’t have any left over” after paying all the legal expenses, he said. Both he and Coleman said they were uncertain how much they had raised since the election.
“The days since the election have been strenuous for all involved in this endeavor,” Coleman said at her news conference. But she said her delay in conceding defeat was rooted in vital principles.
“Our post-election endeavor shines a bright light on the flaws of our provisional ballot-counting process. Together we helped to get at least several hundred additional ballots counted,” said Coleman, who previously served as chairwoman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, state legislator, and, most recently, as director of the Office of State Personnel.
“And while we contend that there were at least 3,000 ballots that should have been counted, we faced the reality that an extended battle would not alter the outcome of this race,” Coleman said.
Coleman announced plans to file lawsuits against the state last week in an unprecedented attempt to force the state Board of Elections to count votes from people if they registered on Election Day. Same-day registration and voting is permissible during the state’s three-week early voting period, but not on election day.
Coleman contended it was a constitutional rights issue. Forest’s campaign said that it was a blatant attempt to change election law to alter the outcome of a vote already taken.
Coleman also planned to sue the state Department of Motor Vehicles, demanding it turn over records in its possession after some voters contended they registered to vote at a DMV office but couldn’t vote on Election Day because their names were not on the voter registration list.
“We made sure the election was fair. We worked hard to make sure every vote was counted and everyone’s voice was heard,” Coleman said. “We know that what we were fighting for was bigger than just this race. We waged a war to protect our most sacred constitutional right, access to the ballot box. In the end, our instincts were right and the results narrowed significantly.”
In the same way, her campaign was one of lofty ideals, she said.
“A woman’s access to her own health care, fair pay for hard work, security for the middle class, a strong public education for our young people,” Coleman said. “These are the resounding issues of my public service, and they resonated” as she crisscrossed this state.
“We didn’t hide from our convictions,” she said.
Coleman said she had “no clue” what her next step is.
“I’m going to take a much needed rest and spend time with friends and family,” she said, and will “always be in public service.”
Meanwhile, she said jobs and the economy – “putting our people back to work, making sure they can provide a living for their families,” – is one of the two biggest issues facing the state.
The other is education, “which has made North Carolina progress and prosper so far ahead of other Southern states. I am so afraid that we are going to lose the progress that we’ve made over the last few decades in that area, and that will really hamper our other economic opportunities as well,” Coleman said.
In a touch of irony, on the day she conceded, Coleman also lost control of her messaging. Exactly one minute before Coleman’s press conference started, the news leaked out, putting her in runner-up position again.
Dana Cope, executive director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, a staunch Coleman financial and infrastructure supporter, beat her to the punch on Twitter. He Tweeted:
“@DanForestNC Congrats on hard fought election. With the election over now is the time to govern together and make NC better!”
Dan E. Way (@danway_carolina) is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.