Catawba County Democrats have decisons to make

This coming Saturday the Democratic Party of Catawba County will hold its convention and elect new officers. Elizabeth Glynn is expected to become the new chairman, Eli has become a very active Democrat but she has her work cut out. Unlike other counties in the state Catawba county has not been able to turn recent party activism into electoral victories, with the exception of the NC House 88th district which includes parts of Catawba County and all of Alexander County, and is controlled by former Alexander County Democratic Sheriff Ray Warren the 2006 and 2008 elections have proven to be Republican sweeps. While some in the party are getting discouraged others are looking for new ways for the Democrats to become competitive.

One problem the party faces is it still only fields candidates for around half of the races, discussions will be made on should we try to fill all the slots or focus on the one's we can win. Another is trying to prove to voters the Democrats even matter, and that is an uphill battle. Catawba County has a political divide which fit into two camps, however both camps are affiliated with the GOP. One is the camp around longtime Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman the other around US Rep Patrick McHenry. For many years the Huffman camp controlled the county GOP, this year after their county elections Huffman people again won, but the McHenry faction appealed this loss to the state GOP and the state GOP threw out the results and gave it to McHenry's crowd. This has many in the Huffman camp questioning their GOP loyalty.

As for the Democrats the have to decide if they should open talks with Huffman and his folks to see if they can bring them into the party, if they can it would be a great addition, at the same time it would change the look of the Democrats, these are going to be tough decisions for the party, but thing could be interesting around here.