The case for Hampton Dellinger

Full disclosure: I am a volunteer with Hampton Dellinger’s campaign. More than that, I am a progressive Democrat who was born and raised in North Carolina and who has never been more excited about the future of the Democratic Party in our state. That’s because of what Hampton has done in the last few months and what he can do in the years to come. With early voting starting today, I wanted to set out why I think it is so important that Hampton becomes the next Lt. Governor of North Carolina.

This has the opportunity to be a watershed election in North Carolina. For years our state Senators have pushed an agenda that rewards big business and the wealthy donors that paid for their campaigns, not the everyday working people who comprise a majority of North Carolinians. The result is that money comes in through a tax system that is more regressive than it should be and goes out as “incentives” for businesses that would stay in the state even without financial prodding. And the Senators do this for the most part with impunity – they are rarely challenged in primaries, and, because of Republican incompetence (not that I’m complaining…) and our campaign finance scheme - which allows party leadership to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into individual races - the Democrats have held the majority.

Candidates for statewide office have often come through this system, passing legislation while in the Senate that earns them praise from lobbyists and other insiders as effective leaders, then turning that praise into a statewide run. Without Hampton in this race, Walter Dalton likely would have done exactly that. Instead, Hampton has pointed out that Mr. Dalton has been most effective for special interests, not the people of North Carolina. Hampton has highlighted Mr. Dalton’s proposal to give a tax break to homebuilders that the News & Observer said was “one of those classic exercises in Jones Street water-carrying. Dalton ... ought to be embarrassed.” Hampton noted that when times got tough, Mr. Dalton tried to cut spending on education by $250 million dollars. He drew attention to the Senate’s goals in recent budget negotiations, which Chris Fitzsimon described this way: “Lower taxes on millionaires, higher taxes on thousands of working families, fewer services to help children, the mentally ill, and kids at risk of dropping out of school—that is essentially the Senate position …” And recently, after Hampton pointed out that Mr. Dalton tried to kick 65,000 elderly and disabled North Carolinians off Medicaid, an independent expert, Adam Searing of the North Carolina Justice Center’s Health Access Coalition, agreed that “the main part of [Mr. Dalton’s] tenure in the Senate was … marked by him trying to cut care for the most vulnerable, including prescription drugs.”

But Hampton has not just talked about Mr. Dalton’s record. Far from it. He has also run an intensely substantive campaign with a number of detailed policy initiatives. The Wilmington Star-News called Hampton’s plan to help our seniors “attractive,” “sensible,” and “admirably specific.” His innovative education plan would expand More at Four to provide voluntary preschool to 3-year-olds, raise the dropout age to 18, and make North Carolina a top place for students, teachers, and parents. His higher education plan eases the burden of student debt and promises that we keep athletics in their proper perspective. He has been talking about reforming our mental health system throughout the campaign, promised to make compensation for victims of the state’s shameful forced sterilization program a budget priority, and urged state regulators to deny Duke Energy’s bid to build a new coal plant, leading the charge as Bev Perdue and Richard Moore soon followed suit. Heck, he even wrote a children’s story.

If nothing else, I hope you’ll check out Hampton’s bold government reform and economic development plan, which would dramatically change government in North Carolina. Under Hampton’s plan, you can be a large donor or your business can be eligible for government contracts, but NOT both. You can serve on a major state board or commission or be involved in political fundraising, but NOT both. Elected officials will no longer be able to direct massive political donations to individual candidates, the state will stop wasting money outsourcing responsibilities it can better do itself, the state will create an independent council with citizen-members and members of the press that will make public records more accessible, and we will see more voter-owned elections with the goal of public financing for every major election in North Carolina.

Hampton is a charismatic candidate who has had a tremendous response from voters around the state. They have been drawn to his ideas and his experience – he is the only candidate who has worked in the Governor’s office and in law enforcement, but he has also challenged abuses of power in state government, successfully suing over the misuse of taxpayer funds and challenging agencies that do not follow our public records laws. That background gives him the knowledge to get things done, but he is enough of an outsider to bring a fresh perspective and shake things up when necessary. So it is impressive but not all that surprising that Hampton has earned endorsements from the AFL-CIO, the Communications Workers of America, United Transportation Union, NC Physical Therapists Association PAC, five of the six major African-American groups in the state, the Durham People’s Alliance, NARAL Pro-Choice NC, the North Carolina Police Benevolent Association, and the only teachers group to endorse in this race (NCAE, who knows Mr. Dalton well from his time in the Senate, has stayed out of this race), as well as support from Al Gore, Dr. John Hope Franklin, Branford Marsalis, and others.
Already, by highlighting Walter Dalton’s record in a way that has rarely if ever been done in this state, Hampton has put elected North Carolina Democrats around the state on notice: if you favor special interests over the public good, if you put out a budget that favors big business at the expense of the most economically vulnerable North Carolinians, you will pay a political price.

But the message to our elected officials will be even stronger if Hampton wins this primary and brings his progressive voice to Raleigh. This primary has been hard fought, and, like others on this board have said, I look forward to the day when we’re all working together again. But for now, join me in hammering home the point that the Democrats of this state are no longer going to tolerate an agenda that fails to put the needs of working families first – vote for Hampton Dellinger.