Harrison Faces Challenge From Former Councilman Kee in House District 57

GREENSBORO — One of the more interesting General Assembly primaries this election year is the House District 57 race between incumbent Rep. Pricey Harrison and challenger Jim Kee, a former Greensboro City Council member.

Harrison and Kee are both Democrats. Since there is no Republican running for the seat representing about a quarter of Guilford County, the May 6 primary is winner-take-all, barring a write-in or unaffiliated campaign in the general election.

Harrison is running for her sixth House term and has an enormous campaign cash advantage with $84,436 cash on hand at the end of 2013, according to the North Carolina FreeEnterprise Foundation. Kee had $702.

She has established herself as one of the more liberal members of the House, with a particular focus on the environment. Those views are aligned with her district, which is listed as strong Democratic, according to NCFEF. Its voters are 62.2 percent Democrat and 55.5 percent black. President Obama got 69.4 percent of the vote in 2012, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Walter Dalton picked up 64 percent.

Harrison has voted against every piece of major legislation proposed by the Republican-controlled legislature, including the rejection of Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, the voter ID bill, the charter school expansion bill, and the bill authorizing the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to issue permits for fracking and offshore oil drilling.

Carolina Journal scheduled a phone interview with Harrison, but in an April 7 email she wrote that she “had an unanticipated scheduling conflict come up that I have to take care of. … I am no longer available for the call.”
Harrison did not respond to requests to reschedule the interview.

On her website, Harrison said the “economy is the number one concern in North Carolina right now,” and the best way to get the economy back on track is to “increase the number of green jobs in our state.”

With that in mind, Harrison touts North Carolina for being the only state in the Southeast to adopt a renewable energy portfolio standard. In 2007 a bill was passed enacting REPS, which mandates that power companies purchase increasingly higher volumes of more expensive renewable electricity from solar, wind, biomass products, swine, and poultry waste sources.

Harrison was recently on the national stage when she appeared on the MSNBC program “All in with Chris Hayes” discussing the Duke Energy coal ash spill in the Dan River at Eden.

Harrison expressed concern over the lack of regulation of coal ash ponds in North Carolina, describing Gov. Pat McCrory’s relationship with Duke Energy as “cozy,” adding that DENR “made it clear that its customer is the regulated industry and not the public, which has a right to clean air and water.”

Kee, a self-employed property developer, served two terms on the Greensboro City Council before he was defeated in November by challenger Jamal Fox in a hard-fought and controversial contest.

In a phone interview with CJ, Kee said Harrison’s focus on the environment has come at a cost to District 57 residents.

“Rep. Harrison is a very strong environmentalist. Nothing wrong with that — we have to protect the community — but there hasn’t been a balance between job creation and protecting the environment. If you can’t pay your bills, the environment comes in a distant second,” Kee said.

Kee cited two main issues directly involving east Greensboro, which makes up much of District 57, in which he said Harrison was less than helpful.

The first was the Jordan Lake Rules — state regulations designed to improve water quality in the lake — which were estimated to cost the City of Greensboro $100 million.

Greensboro officials sought to have the Jordan Lake Rules delayed or amended, moves that Harrison opposed. “The only person who didn’t support finding a more economical way to correct this problem was Rep. Harrison,” Kee said.

The other major issue was Greensboro’s White Street landfill, which for years has been closed to household waste.

A push from some members of the City Council to reopen the landfill was defeated. Kee faults Harrison for not taking a more active role during the landfill debate.

“I reached out to her — asked her to come and speak to the council — but she never did,” Kee said.

Aside from those differences, Kee and Harrison agree on many issues. One example is the controversial bill prohibiting the expansion of Medicaid in North Carolina, which McCrory signed into law last year.

“I think we have to have a system where people have access to medicine and physicians, so I support expansion of Medicaid. But you have to screen people very carefully in order to qualify people,” Kee said.

Another example is the renewable portfolio standard, which Kee said he supports amid concerns of buying oil from foreign countries.

“We can’t continue to support the economies of people that are trying to do harm to us. We have to find our own sources of energy,” Kee said.

Kee also believes teacher salaries and tenure must be protected, so he opposes legislation doing away with teacher tenure.

“Teachers are always underpaid. The job is getting more and more challenging, so you have to pay them well in order to retain them,” Kee said.

But he believes there must be accountability standards in place for teachers who aren’t getting the job done. “Teachers that are not performing need to find another profession because we are falling further and further behind in the educational system,” Kee said.

If elected, Kee said, he would work hard to strengthen east Greensboro, which over the years has suffered from underemployment and underdevelopment.

Kee said he would work to make sure the Interstate 840 loop around Greensboro is completed on time, which he believes would lure businesses to the east side.

Kee also would work with fellow legislators and local governments to establish tax-free zones in east Greensboro, with the goal of attracting businesses that in turn would provide jobs.

“You have to have an incentive for companies to want to relocate,” Kee said. “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and east Greensboro is the weakest link. We have to strengthen that link, and that makes the whole city stronger.”

Sam A. Hieb is a contributor to Carolina Journal.