Six Democrats are on the ballot for a the nomination to succeed former Rep. Mel Watt, the 11-term 12th District Democratic congressman who resigned his seat earlier this year to become director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The six are Alma Adams, George Battle, Marcus Brandon, Malcolm Graham, Ravije Patel, James Mitchell, and Curtis Osborne. All tout progressive credentials, though they differ on their approaches to a number of issues.
Barring a runoff, the winner of the May 6 Democratic primary will face the winner of the Republican primary in the November general election. The 12th District stretches from Guilford County to Mecklenburg County, and includes portions of Forsyth, Davidson, Rowan, and Cabarrus counties.
The N.C. Free Enterprise Foundation rates it as a strong Democratic district. Watt won the 2012 election with 80 percent of the vote.
Adams led the pack with campaign cash on hand at the end of the first quarter of 2014, according to an N.C. Free Enterprise Foundation analysis of federal campaign reports in the district.
Adams had $114,985 in campaign cash on hand at the end of the quarter. Brandon had $70,722, Osborne $33,307, Battle $30,626, and Graham $12,807. Patel had not filed his report.
Alma Adams
Adams is a 10-term member of the N.C. House. She has spent more than four decades as an educator, and is a retired professor of art at Bennett College in Greensboro.
Jobs and education are the most important issues of the campaign, Adams said. “We have so many people that are unemployed and we’ve got to bring more jobs to North Carolina.”
Adams said strengthening public education would create economic opportunity. “The two coincide with one another because the education will determine in a lot of respects how prepared we are for the jobs,” Adams said.
Adams supports raising the minimum wage. She plans to propose increasing the state’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour in the few months she has left in the N.C. General Assembly.
“Whatever increase we get, we should index it to inflation,” Adams said. “That’s going to be one of my priorities in Congress to really work to get the minimum wage increased.”
Adams supports the Affordable Care Act. “I think the Affordable Care Act is a good start, when you look at the millions of people who have no health insurance and now have an opportunity to see a doctor,” Adams said. She’d like to see a bigger focus on preventive care. She said that it’s personal for her family because her sister never had health insurance and died when she was 26. “She was cared for in the emergency room all her life,” Adams said.
Adams said she didn’t have any personal impressions about Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency whistleblower who revealed the collection of personal records on American citizens.
“I think our security, that is a priority for me,” Adams said. “I’m not sure I am convinced that we need to be spying on American citizens and keeping data like that.” She said she expects reforms to help address some of her concerns.
On budget deficit and national debt issues, Adams said that Washington needs to prioritize spending and loopholes need to be closed. She said she would never vote to cut or privatize Social Security.
Adams also said she didn’t have any problems with President Obama’s use of executive orders, particularly with all the gridlock in Washington. “I would say he’s doing his job,” Adams said.
Marcus Brandon
Brandon, a political consultant, is in his second term in the N.C. House.
Brandon said he hopes the most important issue in the Democratic primary is effectiveness.
“We’re all Democrats; we all pretty much have the same values,” Brandon said. “Our message is who’s the most effective one and who gets things done. There is no competition as to who’s the most effective and who’s going to be at the table and get things done.”
Regarding the economy, Brandon said federal officials need to reconsider how they deal with Main Street. “They treat St. Louis, Mo., the same way they treat Greensboro, N.C.,” Brandon said. That plays out in how money gets spent, he added. “There’s tons of money to fight poverty, but it never reaches the people,” he said.
On the Affordable Care Act, Brandon said that the program still isn’t bringing down the cost of health care. He said states shouldn’t have the alternative of opting out of its programs. “If you have a mandate, the only way it works is that everyone participates,” Brandon said. Brandon said that he’s an advocate of the single-payer health care proposal.
Brandon called the revelations of NSA data collection “a very complicated case,” saying he would reserve his judgment on whistleblower Snowden until he has his day in court and all the facts come out. “I am not in favor of us spying on people,” Brandon said. “Just to call and say, give me all of your records, I am totally opposed to that.”
To solve the budget deficit and national debt problems, Brandon favors generating more tax revenue. He said the conversation needs to be changed from what spending we cut to how to bring in more revenue.
“We have a lot of responsibilities and we just can’t take them away,” Brandon said. “All the poor still have to be taken care of. All the elderly still have to be taken care of. All the roads have to be paved.”
Brandon said having more people working would help with the revenue picture by producing a bigger tax base. “We definitely might want to look at those tax cuts for the wealthy,” he said. “That would be a good start.” He said he also favors having a simpler tax code. Brandon said that while he’s not exactly a flat-tax proponent, he’s close to it. “I believe we spend more money collecting it than we make,” Brandon said.
Brandon said he has no problem with President Obama issuing executive orders. “He’s being a president, like all presidents have done,” Brandon said. “I didn’t like all the executive orders that President Bush did, but that was his power as president.”
Malcolm Graham
Graham is a five-term member of the N.C. Senate, and a special assistant to the president of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte.
Jobs and job opportunity top the list of issues for Graham. “That involves raising the minimum wage,” Graham said. He said he wants to focus on helping small businesses in Congress. He wants an educational environment that promotes engineering and math. He also supports making college affordable so that kids can finish college without being in debt.
Graham said the economy is slowly getting better. “We need to make sure that major corporations come home and not go overseas,” Graham said. He said he would promote that by creating tax breaks and incentives for staying home, and penalties for going away. “You make a disincentive for them to leave the country,” Graham said.
He also supports tax breaks for major corporations that hire veterans and increasing the minimum wage. “They spend those dollars right away,” Graham said. “It helps the economy right away.
Graham said he believes health care is a human right. “I support the president on that,” Graham said of the Affordable Care Act. “I will run toward it, not away from it.” Graham said that the act wasn’t perfect and needs to be massaged. He said he’d work with honest brokers from both parties to improve it.
On national security and revelations of data collection, Graham said there is a “find line between protecting the personal privacy of Americans and protecting the country,” adding, “I want to make sure that my personal information is protected.” He said that when he’s on a plane, he wants to make sure steps are taken to make sure it’s safe to fly. He said he believes the president is making the right decisions based on the information available to him.
Graham said he’d like to see a bipartisan solution to budget deficits and the national debt. He supports rooting out fraud and waste, and evaluating the budget to see where savings can be found.
On Obama’s executive orders, Graham said that should be used by the president in a manner that does not usurp the authority of the Congress. “It needs to be utilized as a tool infrequently, bus used when there’s gridlock in the Congress.”
Curtis Osborne
Osborne is an attorney and a business owner.
“I think the most important issue is the right to vote,” Osborne said. He was critical of the sweeping election law changes passed by the General Assembly last year. He said Congress should amend the Voting Rights Act to answer a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year which resulted in many states and counties no longer being required to get preclearance from the Justice Department before changes to election laws can take effect.
The onus should be on the states and counties to prove that they shouldn’t need preclearance, Osborne said. He said that the changes would have a “disproportionate impact on minorities, the working class, and poor folk.”
He mentioned the enactment of a voter ID law, shortening early voting, not being allowed to have same-day registration and no longer being able to vote outside your own precinct as parts of the law he found objectionable.
As for the economy, Osborne said that Congress should offer more incentives to companies to keep jobs from going overseas. “We give them incentives, including tax incentives,” Osborne said. In addition, Congress needs to make sure businesses pay taxes on money that’s derived from sending jobs overseas, he said. He also supports training to make sure workers have the skill sets they need to work.
Osborne backs the Affordable Care Act, and that President Obama and Congress should be applauded for enacting it into law. “I think there’s always room for modifications,” Osborne said. “I definitely think that individual states should not have the alternative of turning away federal tax dollars,” including money for Medicaid expansion.
On the NSA’s collection of data, Osborne said, “There’s a certain amount of information that our government should be able to gather regarding our citizens.” He said he doesn’t think the government should be able to collect just any information. “America, like most other places, has enemies,” he said.
Osborne said that the budget deficit and national debt expanded because the federal government needed to spend money to salvage the economy. “Wee have slowly been pulling our way back up out of this,” he said. As the economy becomes more robust, the deficit will begin to fade, he said. “It’s not going to happen overnight,” Osborne said. “It will take time.”
He also said that every president uses executive orders, and they all get criticized for it. He said that if there is an abuse, Congress should step forth and clarify what the president can do.
George Battle
Battle, general counsel for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, did not respond to requests for an interview. His Web page includes a “Battle Plan” listing his key issues.
He supports an “aggressive funding plan to assist states with education infrastructure.” He supports fully implementing Obamacare and says health care is a right. He supports using government to promote small businesses and support individuals.
Battle says the notion that you have to choose between a healthy economy and a healthy environment is a “false choice.” He supports “common sense immigration reform with a viable path to citizenship.”
James Mitchell
Mitchell did not respond to a request for an interview. The Charlotte Observer reported in mid-April that Mitchell planned to drop out of the race, citing an inability to raise money. He unsuccessfully lobbied the Charlotte City Council to name him mayor to succeed Patrick Cannon after Cannon was indicted on corruption charges and resigned. Mitchell’s Facebook page says he has withdrawn his candidacy. His Web page is no longer operative.
Ravije Patel
Carolina Journal could find no contact information for Patel, nor does he appear to have a campaign website.
Barry Smith (@Barry_Smith) is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.