NC Center for Voter Education

AARP has just published an enlightening national article - at this link here - highlighting North Carolina's public financing of elections program, which currently involves three Council of State offices (including Insurance Commissioner) and statewide judicial races.

On Monday, September 20th, an audience gathered in the Kenan Recital Hall at Peace College to listen to women candidates share their experiences about running for office, difficulties encountered because of their gender, and their visions for putting North Carolina back on the right track. The forum was made possible through a partnership with Peace College, the NC Center for Women in Public Service, and the Junior League of Raleigh.

The panel of women included: State Representative Deborah Ross (D-37), County Commissioner Lindy Brown (D-District 2), Representative Jennifer Weiss (D-35), Soil & Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors candidate Jenna Wadsworth (that's me!), NC House candidate Violet Rhinehart (D-40), Representative Marilyn Avila (R-40), Representative Rosa Gill (D-33), & NC Senate candidate Stephanie Watson (L-16).

I invite your comments to this Charlotte Observer editorial. (In the interest of full disclosure, I presently serve as President of the NC Center for Voter Education.) I am bothered by the hypocrisy of those who decry judicial activism when one ideology has a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court versus when the ratio is flipped.

Back in the 1700s, fear of King-picked Royal Governors and their great powers helped sow strong sentiments against strong State executives. Those seeds sprouted into many revisions of our State constitution, guaranteeing a weak governor and a State government with decentralized executive authority.