Yesterday began a series of columns in which I discuss what I perceive to be the political territory at stake in this year’s N.C. House elections. Today, I’d like to direct your attention south and east, where there are three races along the coast that promise some excitement as we approach Election Day.
One is a new House District 14 in Onslow County. A swing district that tilts a bit Republican, House 14 features Democrat Dolores Faison against Republican Keith Williams. Faison is a former candidate for judge and school board who is stressing legal issues in her campaign. “I’d like to give parents and judges a little more discretion in dealing with juveniles,” she told the local newspaper. She also favors reforming prisons to discourage recidivism by requiring more of inmates before they are released. Williams, a minister at Heritage Christian Center, is sticking to the statewide GOP message of fiscal restraint and lower taxes. “Our state is in trouble because of lack of efficiency and a lack of fiscal restraint,” he said. “We need to change, desperately.”
The dynamic is a little different when you take the highway south into District 16, including Pender and part of New Hanover. Both nominees have local government experience and are emphasizing the local angle on state problems. Democrat Jack Barnes, a former mayor pro tem of Topsail Beach, said that he has “the experience to assure than Pender and New Hanover counties get the fair share of funding and services from the state of North Carolina.” He is retired from the N.C. Department of Administration. Republican Carolyn Justice is a two-term county commissioner and business owner who said that “unfunded mandates passed down by state legislators forcelocal government to either cut back county services or raise taxes.” She also questions recent increases in the state’s debt load and like Michael Gorman up in District 3, she has reportedly been the target of Democratic push-polling. This district, like House 14, is a swing with a slight GOP tilt.
The only one of the spotlighted races with an incumbent is District 17, including Brunswick and the other part of New Hanover. Democrat David Redwine, president of an insurance and realty company, is a longtime member and the chief leader of the Democratic caucus on appropriations. Some think he might be a future speaker. His opponent is Republican newcomer Bonner Stiller, a Southport attorney. Why is this race competitive? Because the new district is now moderately Republican and Redwine is being forced to defend recent budget and tax actions by the General Assembly (he violated a no-tax-hike pledge he took before the 2000 election). He has staked himself out this year as a strong supporter of the lottery and a skeptic about passing new corporate incentives having just raised taxes on consumers. He is also upfront about the fact that the just-passed budget will create another large deficit in 2003 — requiring a new round of cuts or tax increases. “All we did this year was put a finger in the dike to keep the water from drowning us,” said Redwine. Stiller, therefore, has some obvious targets in the campaign, but will likely be very outnumbered in dollars. Redwine gets a lot of free media as a House leader.
Tomorrow: The Sandhills area offers four competitive House races.