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Voters make this a year of change for City Council
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Published: October 11, 2009
With less than a month to go before the general election, voters in Winston-Salem -- those scant few who actually care how their money is spent, anyway -- seem determined to make this a year of change.
Two of the eight members of City Council, Democrats Joycelyn Johnson and Evelyn Terry, were ousted in primaries. Johnson seemed set as a council-member-for-life, and Terry occupied for one term the seat held by her husband for eight years. A third council member, Nelson Malloy, decided it was time to retire.
Even before the first November vote was cast, we've got a minimum 38 percent turnover in a body not particularly noted for dynamic action or a high rate of turnover.
(Which brings to mind a takeoff of a classic lawyer joke: What do you call three incumbents replaced even before the general election? A good start.)
Down the stretch we go. With a little over three weeks left before Election Day, there may yet be a few more surprises.
Prodigious fundraiser
Reading the details on a campaign reporting form is a lot like watching corn grow, only less exciting. Only a wonk, somebody with a vested interest in the outcome or one with way too much free time would actually go through them.
So there I sat Tuesday morning, reading campaign-finance reports dating back to 2006. It wasn't long before two patterns emerged: Mayor Allen Joines is a prodigious fundraiser from the elite of Winston-Salem, and incumbent council members have been running scared for some time.
Joines reported having $61,937.90 in his campaign account at the end of June. By the time he filed a "pre-primary" report early last month, Joines reported banking $125,833.57.
Checks for $1,000 were received from, among others, various Flows (of auto-dealer money), Dr. Anthony Atala (the director of Wake Forest University's Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a tenant at the downtown research park), J. Andrews Hancock (president of Frank Blum Construction), Jose Isasi (publisher of Que Pasa) and Ben Sutton (president of ISP Sports, a total $4,000 contribution).
The question for today is: What does Joines intend to do with all that cash?
"We intend to run a campaign to encourage people to vote," he said Friday. "I ran unopposed in 2005 and turnout was abysmal. This is an important election, obviously, and we want to remind people that there is a municipal election."
Running scared
Signs that incumbent council members were getting nervous started appearing almost as soon as construction stopped last fall on the $48.7 million downtown ballpark.
Earlier this year, Dan Besse, Democrat of the Southwest Ward, personally loaned his campaign $2,000 -- nearly 20 percent of the $11,840.30 cash on hand he reported in early September. He also turned over $3,300 from his failed campaign for lieutenant governor in 2008.
Molly Leight, Democrat of the South Ward, switched gears when she realized she would be opposed.
A financial certificate indicating that she planned to raise less than $3,000 -- the threshold before more detailed reporting is required -- was rescinded July 23.
The next day she filed another form showing that she'd raised $5,991.82.
And between Aug. 5 and early September, Democrat Wanda Merschel more than tripled her cash on hand, from $495 to $1,738. That's after two Republicans filed to run against her.
A major donor for both Besse and Merschel is Joines, who wrote Merschel a $500 check on Aug. 10 and has been a regular contributor to Besse. He's given $600 to Besse's city-council campaign and at least $2,000 to Besse's losing campaign for lieutenant governor -- money that Besse was free to use in his city-council race.
The next round of reports isn't due until Oct. 26, a little more than one week before the Nov. 3 election. With three incumbents gone and two others -- Merschel and Besse -- in tighter-than-expected races, expect a few more financial twists.
ssexton@wsjournal.com
(336) 727-7481
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