RE: RE: Stokes County Democrats
Just a couple of points on Tucker's points:
Robert was up against much more than just Brian Holloway and the King Republicans. He was up against Art Pope, Richard Morgan, and Jim Black. Both sides of the aisle wanted that seat to be held by the most ineffectual member they could find. They succeeded. Essentially, once Art Pope defeated Rex Baker in the primary, it was in the statewide best interest of both sides to have a shapeless lump in that seat. Robert wasn't running in a local race, he was running in a statewide race with only local resources (money, support, etc.).
While King could dominate Stokes County politics, they generally do not. It is axiomatic that no candidate can get elected without winning something in King, but King has never decided the outcome of a local election on its own. While I was on the board, there was only one person with King associations there, Buster Robertson. For the first two years, there were three from North of the mountain and one from Walnut Cove. During the last two years, four of us were from North of the mountain. Even today, there is really only one person from King on the board, Jimmy Walker. Leon Inman is originally from Asbury and he lives in South Sauratown, I believe. Joe Turpin lives in Dalton, John Turpin lives in Volunteer, and Sandy lives in Brown Mountain. The Turpins' business is near Walnut Cove.
The Stokes County Democrats' problem can be summed up in two words: apathy and bozos. On the apathy front, the Eastern part of the County could decide an election outcome on its own. It is overwhelmingly registered Democrat but either doesn't vote that way (I won Freeman and there are only eight Republicans in the whole precinct) or doesn't vote at all. King tends to turn out very low percentages in County races, sometimes as low as 15%. If Walnut Cove, Meadows, Sandy Ridge, and Pine Hall just turned out 30% or more, they could dominate an election. On the bozos front, the Stokes Democrats have offered a parade of candidates who are either on the lunatic fringe (Bev Southern and Keith Robertson), communists (Don and Reba Eliot), or so far out of the mainstream, even other Democrats are afraid to vote for them (Steve Carroll). Most of the reasonably "normal" Democrats I know won't even consider running for office. Mostly that was because they were afraid they'd get pasted with Bill Clinton (Yes, I admit I had a hand in that), but these days the Republicans just win everything but School Board races. Not too many reasonable Democrats are interested in becoming sacrificial lambs.
Just my $0.02
Robert was up against much more than just Brian Holloway and the King Republicans. He was up against Art Pope, Richard Morgan, and Jim Black. Both sides of the aisle wanted that seat to be held by the most ineffectual member they could find. They succeeded. Essentially, once Art Pope defeated Rex Baker in the primary, it was in the statewide best interest of both sides to have a shapeless lump in that seat. Robert wasn't running in a local race, he was running in a statewide race with only local resources (money, support, etc.).
While King could dominate Stokes County politics, they generally do not. It is axiomatic that no candidate can get elected without winning something in King, but King has never decided the outcome of a local election on its own. While I was on the board, there was only one person with King associations there, Buster Robertson. For the first two years, there were three from North of the mountain and one from Walnut Cove. During the last two years, four of us were from North of the mountain. Even today, there is really only one person from King on the board, Jimmy Walker. Leon Inman is originally from Asbury and he lives in South Sauratown, I believe. Joe Turpin lives in Dalton, John Turpin lives in Volunteer, and Sandy lives in Brown Mountain. The Turpins' business is near Walnut Cove.
The Stokes County Democrats' problem can be summed up in two words: apathy and bozos. On the apathy front, the Eastern part of the County could decide an election outcome on its own. It is overwhelmingly registered Democrat but either doesn't vote that way (I won Freeman and there are only eight Republicans in the whole precinct) or doesn't vote at all. King tends to turn out very low percentages in County races, sometimes as low as 15%. If Walnut Cove, Meadows, Sandy Ridge, and Pine Hall just turned out 30% or more, they could dominate an election. On the bozos front, the Stokes Democrats have offered a parade of candidates who are either on the lunatic fringe (Bev Southern and Keith Robertson), communists (Don and Reba Eliot), or so far out of the mainstream, even other Democrats are afraid to vote for them (Steve Carroll). Most of the reasonably "normal" Democrats I know won't even consider running for office. Mostly that was because they were afraid they'd get pasted with Bill Clinton (Yes, I admit I had a hand in that), but these days the Republicans just win everything but School Board races. Not too many reasonable Democrats are interested in becoming sacrificial lambs.
Just my $0.02
posted by Anonymous | 1:43 PM
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