WoW

Last Thursday I attended the monthly meeting of the Mecklenburg County chapter of Woman for President 2008 where UNCC lecturer Carol Gay was presenting the topic “Media Coverage of Women in Politics.”

Although I hadn’t attended any prior meetings of the WFP ’08 group, I knew I had to participate in this discussion. You see, just a few weeks before receiving the invitation, I had read the Washington Post’s coverage of Speaker Pelosi’s decision to appoint Alcee Hastings as chair of the House Intelligence Committee over the Committee’s Ranking Democrat, Jane Harman. While Pelosi’s choice to by-pass the ranking member may have been notable, the most astonishing aspect of the story was how it was played by the media, specifically, through the use of the term

Cat Fight.

Wednesday at noon, we will have Polk County Democratic Party Chair Margaret Johnson live-blogging on BlueNC as part of our Women on Wednesdays series. A profile with videos and text will be posted at 9 a.m.

Please use this thread to discuss questions for her. If you can't be with us Wednesday, leave your questions here and we'll see that they get asked.

To get you thinkin', here's the gist of her story:

Two elections after instituting an extensive strategic planning process, Polk County Democrats went from a dismal electoral record (only a clerk of court in office) to two Democratic County Commissioners and the Sheriff. For Congress, they turned a 2004 700-vote deficit into a 2006 1200-vote margin of victory for Heath Shuler.

To add some excitement to their election season, the Democratic sheriff's candidate was "investigated" on 20-year-old charges by the incumbent Republican sheriff. Even though he was indicted during the campaign, the tactic so angered residents the Democrat won anyway. (During the campaign he was offered a plea bargain if he would withdraw from the race.)

Last night was our first of 14 classes, the Interim County Manager, Gary McSwain, gave us an overview
of the course. Only 8 showed up for this free course, but these are 8 people very interested in their County Government.

Everyone attending was asked to introduce themselves and explain their reason for coming. Again and again the answer was that they wanted to know more about how their government works. To say the very least, we weren't disappointed.

Mr. McSwain started with an abridged lesson on North Carolina Counties and gave us a 17 page handout, (chapter 3 of Local Government in North Carolina - 2nd Edition by Gordon P. Whitaker.

Counties were a key part of colonial government in North Carolina. As British control and European settlement extended westward from the coast, the British authorities set up new counties to provide government for the colonists. The governor appointed justices of the peace in each county. The justices served as both the court and the administrators for the county. The justices of the peace appointed constables to enforce the law. They appointed a sheriff to collect taxes, and they appointed wardens to care for the poor. The justices also appointed a surveyor to mark land boundaries and a register of deeds to keep property records. Establishing land boundaries and maintaining records of property were very important to the farmers and planters who settled the colony...

Two years ago Nancy Fish was elected Haywood County Democratic Party chair at a county convention that was split almost evenly.

In the 2004 election Democrats lost the congressional race 55% to 45%. Hometown state Senator Joe Sam Queen lost his election (NC Senate district 47, which includes several other counties). He won in Haywood by 18 points, not enough to overcome the rest of the counties in his district.

Election day, 2006, in Haywood County the Democratic Party had swept the ticket.

Congressman Heath Shuler defeated Charles Taylor in Haywood by by 56 to 44. And NC Senator Joe Sam beat incumbent Republican Keith Presnell by a whopping 30 points to go on and take back the senate seat he'd lost two years before.

Please follow below the fold for more......