RALEIGH – In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s Election Day in North Carolina.
Oh, I know that most Carolina Journal readers are politically active. You follow North Carolina politics and public-policy issues closely. That’s why you read CJ. But even among those who always vote in presidential and congressional election years, the municipal and school-board races held in odd-numbered years don’t always hold your interest.
They should. In addition to the fact that town and city governments make important decisions about your taxes, property rights, public services, and other matters, and that school boards make important decisions about the most expensive government enterprises in the state, local elections can be fascinating political theater.
For one thing, while municipal and school board races have become more expensive and their practitioners more professional, there is still room for quirky personalities and passionate activists to make a splash with low-cost campaigns employing motivated volunteers and new technologies.
For another, local elections can help the student of North Carolina politics spot and explain larger political trends. In 1993, conservative Republican Tom Fetzer won the mayor’s race in Raleigh, long a city marinated in Democratic politics. That was surprising and a harbinger of things to come – namely the Republican Revolution of the following year that put GOP in power in the North Carolina House and many county commissions across the state for the first time since the 19th century.
Four years later, victories by local and Democratic candidates in several local races in North Carolina served as a signal that the pro-Republican tide had ebbed. Democrats won back the North Carolina House (and the U.S. House) in 1998. And in 2009, conservative victories in school board races in Wake County served not only to signal a change in the student-assignment policy of the state’s biggest school district but also a surge in conservative electoral strength that helped deliver both houses of the General Assembly to the GOP in 2010.
That’s not to say that local elections are always predictive of local political trends, or always offer clear messages. Also in 2009, a Democrat won the Charlotte’s mayoral race for the first time in decades and a Republican won the Greensboro’s mayoral race for the first time in modern history.
Similarly, this year it is possible that a more moderate candidate will replace outgoing Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, a liberal. That would not necessarily suggest a large-scale Republican trend in 2012, however. There aren’t many city mayors, or realistic would-be mayors, as liberal as Meeker was.
Today’s balloting will settle some races, but in many instances it will merely cull the field for a final vote in November. Here are some of the contests I’ll be watching tonight:
• Mayoral and city council races in Raleigh, Greensboro, Wilmington, Fayetteville, and Cary.
• School board races in Wake County and Charlotte–Mecklenburg.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.