Will the North Carolina lieutenant governor’s race in 2016 be a rematch of 2012?
That’s what one Democratic primary candidate is hoping. Linda Coleman, whose political experience includes terms as a Wake County commissioner and state representative, lost four years ago to Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest by 6,858 votes of 4.3 million cast statewide, a margin of less than 1 percent.
While Coleman questioned whether 500-plus provisional ballots had been counted, in the end she decided not to seek a recount.
Coleman is in a four-way Democratic primary contest on March 15, and all the candidates have staked out progressive positions that clash with the direction the Republican Party is headed with its legislative and executive initiatives.
Buncombe County Commissioner Holly Jones, Durham tax attorney Ronald Newton, and veteran Wake County state employee Robert Wilson round out the Democrats’ field in the race.
As a former teacher, Coleman’s main issues are education and economic development. Actually, it’s one issue, she said, since education and economic development are linked closely.
Coleman said she learned that lesson during her time as chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners. Employers looking at the county as a possible place to locate their operations always inquired about the public school system.
“I believe those issues go hand in hand,” Coleman told Carolina Journal. “You cannot recruit business in North Carolina without a trained and skilled work force, and without good public schools. We absolutely have to invest in our education system if we are going to grow our middle class.”
While the state’s nonpartisan Fiscal Research Division says $11.35 billion was allocated for education in the 2013-14 budget, and $12.33 billion is in the 2015-16 enacted state budget, Coleman claimed the Republican majority in the General Assembly cut funds to education at all levels.
“The proper investments are not being made in the public school system, the community college or the university system,” Coleman said. While the cuts might not look like much on paper, Coleman said, 2 percent across the board “is a lot of money.”
Coleman believes that topics such as requiring voters to have a photo ID and gay marriage are “distraction issues.” She strongly believes in the expansion of Medicaid, which she said would provide North Carolina with 40,000 “good paying, not minimum wage” jobs.
And while the possibility exists that Coleman could find herself between a Republican-controlled legislature and a Republican governor, she believes she will be able to reach out to both.
“Anything is possible and everything is possible,” she said. “I’m sure there will be some issues on which we will never see eye to eye, but I’m also sure there will be things on which we can find common ground.”
Jones did not respond to requests for comment, but a post on Jones’ website advances her positions on some issues.
“Our schools are underfunded, our teachers are leaving, and our university system is struggling to maintain its prominence,” she wrote on her website.
“Republicans passed blatantly discriminatory laws against gay and lesbian couples. They privatized a Medicaid system that was a model for other states, and recognized for providing superior services while saving the state money. They raised taxes on low- and middle-income families while offering more tax cuts for the wealthiest among us. I could go on, but you get the point.”
Jones also launched a petition against a proposed Taxpayer Bill of Rights that would limit spending increases to a combination of the rate of inflation and population growth. She believes it would “limit the state’s ability to make significant investments in education, infrastructure, or people.”
Wilson’s main issue is one that doesn’t get a lot of attention in statewide media — expansion of the port in Wilmington and a rail line inland.
Wilmington isn’t on the list of East Coast ports expanding to accommodate the Panama Canal expansion, and Wilson wants to know why.
“These expansions at the other ports will mean a wealth of jobs, economic stimulus, and growth for their states. Where is the plan to do the same for North Carolina?” Wilson asked on his website.
Wilson also supports Medicaid expansion, but believes it should be put on the ballot as a referendum, “and let the good people of N.C. make the decision.”
Newton describes himself as “naturally a populist.” He believes “we ought to do what’s right for ordinary people.”
Newton minced no words when calling to repeal changes to the tax code passed by legislative Republicans to lower corporate and personal income taxes.
“The bill that was passed in Raleigh was the worst piece of legislation in the last 100 years in this state,” Newton is seen saying on a videotape addressing students at a forum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. “It is regressive taxation, meaning the more you make the less you pay. No economic system can survive that way.”
Newton criticized North Carolina’s refusal to expand Medicaid, which he believes is “close to a violation of the 14th Amendment.
“We cannot refuse to accept federal funds, and cause 550,000 women and children to not have healthcare,” Newton told UNC-Greensboro students. “We don’t know how many people died because we made that poor decision.”
Newton also believes cities should focus on “building up” for density instead of promoting urban sprawl. Adequate mass transit systems should be developed, and government should ensure that cities are adequately wired with broadband Internet services.
Newton added that the next election is crucial to charting the course of North Carolina’s future.
With that in mind, students cannot afford to remain passive.
“Republicans lie better, and they’ve got more money. So we can’t afford to be still,” he said.