Young Dems

Published December 2, 2014

by Gary Pearce, Talking About Politics, December 1, 2014.

Democrats looking to the future should look today to the swearing-in of four new Wake County Commissioners.

 

They are a large part of why I told the AP’s Bill Barrow that the key to the party’s success in 2016 and beyond "will have to come from younger Democrats in the cities." Huffington Post picked up his story, and my quote got widely circulated over the holiday.

 

Which prompts me to, as they say in Congress, “extend” my remarks to include not only the young but also the young in spirit, like Sig Hutchinson, who was key in organizing the unified Wake campaign that elected him and three other commissioners, John Burns, Jessica Holmes and Matt Calabria. That blend of experience and new faces, as with Sarah Crawford and Tom Bradshaw in the hard-fought Wake Senate races, is powerful.

 

Democrats’ House victories in Wake and Buncombe counties were bright rays in an otherwise dark November sky. The party now needs to build on that success and on the strengths of an extraordinary new generation of leaders now rising across the state.

 

Just to name a few: newly elected Representatives Gale Adcock in Wake and Brian Turner in Buncombe, Senators Jeff Jackson and Jeff Ford of Mecklenburg, Wake Rep. Grier Martin, Wake Commissioner Caroline Sullivan, Dare Rep. Paul Tine, plus Deborah Ross, Kim Hanchette, Dan Blue III, Zeb Smathers, Andy Ball and a host of active and impressive Young Democrats and College Democrats.

 

Wake Senator Josh Stein may be the first in his class to move up to statewide office in 2016. Watch him debate Senator Bob Ruccho on tax policy, and see why.

 

In years past, the Young Democrats Clubs produced leaders like Terry Sanford, Jim Hunt, Bill Whichard, George Miller and more. In years ahead, young Democrats can produce more leaders like them who can win and govern successfully.

 

For now, the Wake County commissioners can blaze the trail for the party’s statewide comeback in 2016 and beyond.

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December 2, 2014 at 9:36 am
Greg Dail says:

That all you got?

December 2, 2014 at 10:18 am
Norm Kelly says:

DemocRATs now control the Wake County School board as well as the Wake County commissioners. We'll see what they do to the county before we can say that this is a trend moving forward.

First, the school board has wanted to become it's own taxing authority for years. Now that the party controls both organizations, look for the school board to renew their push and the commissioners to support the idea. We can count on county taxes going up significantly if the school board doesn't have to request money from the commissioners. The school board has shown for more than a decade that it is extremely careless with tax payer dollars. And using the words 'extremely careless' is being quite generous to how the school board has handled OUR money.

Second, the county commissioners weren't even sworn into office yet and the push for regional rail was in full swing. When the county commissioners actually start to make decisions, expect the rail plan to move forward rapidly. Little to no discussion of the merits of regional rail will exist, little to no citizen input will be allowed. Regional rail, in the 'minds' of the commissioners, is a done deal. The only question for the commissioners is when construction starts. There is zero justification for regional rail. The cost is prohibitive, but the commissioners will ignore this. The current bus systems throughout the area, including Raleigh, Cary, Chapel Hill, RTP are extremely underused. Bus routes can change in order to accommodate riders. Regional rail is permanently planted. And permanently costing tax payers, even those of us who are not able to use the service. Regional rail in our region will never pay for itself. The cost to riders, if they were charged what it cost to run, would be so prohibitive that not even socialist greenies would take the train. Yet foisting the cost of regional rail upon the rest of us is considered acceptable.

So, you see, when all is said & done, it's quite possible that the new demoncrat commissioners may kill their own future. If they do the standard liberal/demoncrat things, like raise taxes, raise fees, go into debt, then a majority of voters may decide that the bleak future of the demons isn't worth it. It would be best if enough voters caught on early enough to prevent the damage to the area, but I fear the current county commissioners will move so fast, implement their destruction so quickly, that we won't get a chance to stop them. How many billions that we don't have will be spent on regional rail that has it's own doom built in? When I make a poor financial decision, my family and I are the only ones, potentially, that suffer the consequences. When the county commissioners and school board make poor financial decisions, the entire county suffers. Recovering from poor leadership is extremely difficult. And it takes enough educated voters to make a change. I expect the county commissioners to demonstrate quite well what poor leadership looks like.

So far, regional rail is supported by residents who want SOMEONE else to take advantage of the subsidized rider rates in order to free up space on the highway for ME! Just like buses are supported by those who want SOMEONE else to use them. Even when bus rates are eliminated ridership barely blips up. Completely or almost completely subsidized bus fares are not sufficient to convince a meaningful number of people to take advantage of mass transit. How will the region survive spending billions on regional rail, with all of it's associated increases in sales taxes and property taxes, and still have to build roads/highways to handle the auto traffic. Regional rails own studies have shown that fewer than 1% of those polled would consider the train as an alternative. And the majority of those polled said they wanted someone else to take the train to provide room for themselves on the roads. So if the people who are hell-bent on forcing regional rail upon us can't convince people that the train is a good thing, how will it ever succeed? And why is it that centuries old technology is considered the savior of the modern era? Talk about setting us back 100 years! Throw that one back in the faces of dems for a while and see how they like it! I wonder how the county commissioners would respond if they were ever asked why they believe centuries old tech is the right answer. I guess there would be a lot of blank looks and quiet. But we all know this question won't be asked. Especially by the N&D cuz it appears they want regional rail also. Have they ever justified it? Has Gary ever tried to justify regional rail?

It's possible that enough voters will pay attention during the next election cycle to move the commissioners back to at least the middle for some common sense to be brought back into the group. I can hope anyway! Poor leadership and lack of common sense will prove detrimental to our region. Look around the nation for examples of how poorly demons manage government.