And the race is on: Hughes pulls off DCABP endorsement, makes Ward 1 race worth watching

Newspaper editors and bloggers around Durham, rejoice: there's actually going to be an election contest this fall.

The endorsement meeting of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People ended with an upset in favor of recent college graduate and upstart City Council candidate Donald Hughes, who pulled off a very narrow win in the endorsement vote over mayor pro tem and two-term Council incumbent Cora Cole-McFadden in the race for the Ward 1 seat.

Hughes confirmed the endorsement in a Facebook posting shortly after the meeting's end.

The move came amidst what's said to have been a fairly tense endorsement session (the DCABP endorsement meetings are not open to the general public or media) -- and one that reportedly saw DCABP chair Dr. Lavonia Allison put her not inconsiderable political muscle behind both Hughes.

Longtime Council incumbent Howard Clement still had the votes to pull off the endorsement in his race, though reports have Sylvester Williams winning a decent number of votes from he endorsement crowd.

The Committee won't endorse in the two-candidate Ward 3 or mayoral race until a later date, as neither faces an October 6 primary. Even without those last two endorsements, it's hard to think that three of the four races aren't sewn up.

With all three PACs endorsing, Clement is practically a shoo-in for re-election. BCR expects Clement and Williams to survive the primary; even a very unlikely change in endorsement by the Committee for the general election would certainly still see Clement retaining the PA and Friends (and probably Indy) endorsements and moving back to another term on Council.

Ward 3's Mike Woodard and Mayor Bill Bell are both facing shadow challengers who haven't demonstrated an ability to raise significant funds; we'd expect both incumbents to retain their seats with 80%+ landslide victories.

Which leaves, though, the curious case of Ward 1 -- where Cora Cole-McFadden's PA and Friends endorsement is met by the Committee's endorsement of Hughes in the primary.

As with Clement, that's something that could change for the general election. But as things stand right now, the October 6 primary will provide an interesting look at the relative drawing power of the PA and the Friends against the Committee.

Look for some very interesting candidate debates in this race, and for Hughes to pull no punches against Cole-McFadden, who despite her incumbency may have been the weakest of the four candidates in the race.

.....

Besides the endorsement outcomes, it's intriguing to see that both Hughes and Williams enjoyed a strong undercurrent of support in the Committee endorsement process.

From a politics perspective, that's not all that surprising. Dr. Lavonia Allison, the powerful chair of the Committee, enjoys that reputation for power precisely because she has wielded her strength through selective and careful endorsement.

One can imagine that there's little to be gained in Allison's schema by having candidates like this year's incumbents earning broad-based endorsements from all three local PACs -- because, then, what would the Committee's endorsement mean?

It's a spirit that was out in force when County Commissioner Brenda Howerton faced down Allison during a public meeting earlier this year, with Howerton -- who garnered the PA endorsement but not the Committee's in last year's race -- pointing out that she (and not Allison) held the seat, with Allison retorting that Howerton might not do so for long.

That's a marked contrast to Joe Bowser, who left the County Commission under a cloud in 2004, only to return with the endorsement of the Committee, and only the Committee -- and who's been very closely, and fiercely, aligned with the PAC through most of the BOCC's business this year.

Which is not to say that's the only motivation underlying the endorsement, certainly. Hughes is an eloquent and bright arrival on the local political scene, and though some have called for the challenger to get more seasoning before holding office (a notion Hughes has rejected in calling for political change and a new generation of leadership), he's clearly got a chance at putting together a broad base of support that can lead to victory.

But that's not the case of Williams -- which makes one wonder how much political brokering the Committee's leaders who supported both challengers have in mind.

Comments

[Michael Bacon]

The angle that I see as interesting here is if Hughes could somehow make a play for the Indy's endorsement, which still carries some weight (albeit not as much as the PACs). With just the DCABP, I don't see Hughes as a strong threat to Cole-McFadden, but if he got the Indy endorsement, things could get very interesting.

[Erik Landfried]

How often do the Indy's endorsements differ from PA?

[Kevin Davis]

@Michael: I think the big challenge there is going to be his (and the Committee's) support for the 751 Assemblage project. Milo Pyne mentioned it as a factor in the PA's endorsement discussions -- though I would be hard-pressed to imagine them not endorsing Cora, anyway.

Donald's stated positions are progressive in many ways, but I think the development issues -- particularly around the 751 project -- probably ding him where the Indy is concerned. (OTOH, I suspect it's a reason for the half-nod that the Friends gave.)

[Kevin Davis]

BTW, Ward 2 challenger Darius Little responded to the Committee's endorsement with a press release on Friday, in which Little sez (after congratulating Clement)--

"Though we are clearly disappointed in not receiving the endorsement that we feel we deserve, the Little Campaign’s concern is about Durham’s Black Community as a whole. “There are 64,997 African Americans registered in Durham. On last night, less than 11 people decided for whom the entire ‘Black Community’ should vote in this primary. It doesn’t take a Harvard graduate to figure out that this year’s Durham Committee endorsement doesn’t mean as much as in the past.”

Nationally known Durham Attorney and civil rights activist Bill Marsh opened the meeting by questioning the process of voting. “This process needs to be open to all citizens in our community, if we’re going to say it represents the black community. At our next political Committee meeting, I am challenging this entire process.”

Little added, “I have been in that office working at 3am in the morning, typing letters, licking envelopes and making labels (helping plan our 74th Anniversary Banquet) when everyone else was home sleep. I’ve been in front of the School Board, County Commissioners and City Council on behalf of the Durham Committee, fighting for our community. Clearly true service to the community means nothing. This is an example of what discourages people from participating.”"

So: Does the Committee endorsement mean what it used to?

The grumbling of Marsh over the endorsement process confirms other reports we've heard of the Committee meeting. To some extent, and particularly with what I suspect was a strong push by Dr. Allison for Sylvester Williams over Howard Clement, it is possible that the endorsement pattern this time around may raise some questions among others in the Committee.

On the flip side, the real question is, what happens at the ballot box? In general elections past, I've watched at the BOE office as voters stand in line, usually with either the torn-out Indy endorsements or the Committee's suggested ballot/slate in hand.

The brands are strong, and long-known -- and there's lots of voters who'll follow the Committee or the Indy's endorsements wholesale.

The primary will actually be an interesting arbiter of the strength of the Committee. Personally, I think Dr. Allison's activism in the past year is a result of the tailwind that came out of getting Joe Bowser on the BOCC at a time when most in the political establishment thought he was six-feet-under at the ballot box.

Of course, there's a Roger Maris-sized asterisk on that one: the BOCC primary was scheduled with the Obama/Hillary Clinton vote, leading to record turn-out, especially with African-American voters.

So, my guess? I think the Committee's leadership is reaching forward from last year's victory with a new sense of power and reach -- as evidenced by Allison's statements on the urban chicken and 751 issue.

We'll want to watch closely how the precinct-by-precinct votes go for Cole-McFadden, Hughes, Clement... and Williams, to some extent.

Like I said a couple of days ago, the endorsements certainly are keeping things interesting.