Orange County

I was at the Orange County Executive Committee meeting last night and my mind wandered, as it tends to do at these things when the "floor is open to discussion". There was discussion about the NCDP GOTV effort, about Obama GOTV effort, and about OCDP GOTV effort. There was a discussion about OCDP playing more of a role and how we could go about doing that. I was left wondering, how many people could we reach through BlueNC? So, I hate to take up front-page space with this, but I will, roll call.

You can tell as much or as little as you would like about yourself, but I'm wondering how many of you from the OC read BlueNC?

p.s. I am postdating this until tomorrow evening (3/27), so we'll see whether that works or not. : )

They're baaaack, realtor astroturf in Orange County:

This time it's Orange County.

Glenn Gerding announced today he is running for District Court Judge for District 15B, which includes Orange and Chatham Counties. Gerding is in private practice in Chapel Hill and represents clients in both counties.

Gerding said he intends to enforce the law fairly, help improve the efficiency of District Court, and work hard to help people with difficult problems. He plans to ensure victims' rights are protected and their voices heard.

Orange County residents have been on the receiving end of dubious push poll telephone calls recently, described by one recipient as:

...what may very well be the most egregious violation of research ethics I have ever experienced.

Why all the fuss? Tuesday evening, February 5th, at 7.30pm, the Orange County Board of Commissioners, at its regular meeting, will a public hearing regarding a Local Revenue Options Referendum. The purpose of the hearing is "to solicit opinion from voters regarding which, or both, of two local revenue options should be placed on a May 2008 referendum for voter consideration." In other words, they are trying to decide between a 1/4% sales tax or a 0.4% transfer tax increase, to pay for growth.

I was thinking the other day about the possibility, albeit slim, that come primary-time in May I'd have the ability to vote for a full slate of folks who live within five or ten miles of my front door. I won't say that any of these would have been my natural choice, but I'm assuming that even with his campaign in suspension, Edwards will still be on the ballot for president; Chapel Hillians Jim Neal and David Price could snatch my votes for Senate and House; at least in theory I could vote for Chapel Hill resident Bev Purdue for governor; and let's not forget lieutenant governor candidate Hampton Dellinger, who grew up in town though he's since fled to Durham.

Next Tuesday the Orange County Board of Elections will recieve a proposal from Barry Garner, the Orange County Board of Elections Director, recommending the removal of the one-stop voting site from UNC Chapel Hill.

This was the sight about ten minutes before the 4:30pm showing of Sicko this Sunday. I had decided to "host" an event, "A Night on the Town with Sicko". I put "host" in quotes because I kind of thought there would be 20 or so of and we'd watch the movie and have a nice slice of pizza and chat afterwards. I am the Vice President of Health Care for All NC, so I put a call out to our list members to join the show. I'm also one local captain of the John Edwards One Corps, so I put out the call to that list to join us.

Then, the RSVPs started rolling in, and then....

This isn't really worthy of a diary, but I found it highly amusing. The N&O wins the obvious headline of the day award, and it has nothing to d with Almond Joy, Nuts, or personnel problems.

ready for it?

Yesterday’s Pilot reports Moore, Chatham, and Orange Counties are joining together to request new local taxing options as alternative sources of revenue to existing sales and property taxes. It is hoped that three counties working together and which happen to be represented at least partially by the Speaker will be more effective in bringing fairness and consistency to taxing authority for all 100 NC counties.

An important element of these resolutions is that the counties are asking to have these options so they can put them up for referendum. This is an important distinction, because if the legislature is to deny these options, they are saying they know better than the voters do about how the people would choose to be taxed. Of course, would also be saying, in not so many words, they desperately need the money that flows from the homebuilder and real estate lobbies. If we're talking about referendums, there should be no need for the Legislature to act to “protect” people from their county governments.