Here’s the text of a letter I just e-mailed to the Weekly Standard‘s editors:

Thank you for the excellent cover story detailing the complicity of some Duke faculty members in the rush to judgment involving lacrosse players and rape allegations.

In defense of Durham County, N.C., voters, though, one clarification is in order. Charlotte Allen writes: “[Mike] Nifong, courting Durham’s substantial black vote in a May 2 Democratic primary for reelection as district attorney (a primary that he won handily, as well as the election itself)….”

First, the May 2006 election was not technically re-election, since Nifong had been appointed to the post in April 2005 and was running in his first election.

Second, “handily” might not have been the best description of Nifong’s election victory. In a three-way Democratic primary, Nifong won with 45.1 percent of the vote. He had 883 more votes than second-place Freda Black (41.6 percent), who had entered the campaign season with a much higher profile than Nifong’s because of her prosecution work in a nationally publicized murder case.

Nifong’s victory margin in the November election was much more substantial, but the circumstances had changed by fall 2006. Democratic candidates had entered the campaign season with a clear path to the district attorney’s job. No other candidates were vying for the office. Nifong should have run unopposed on the November ballot.

But the outrage over his conduct prompted two other men to enter the race after the Democratic primary. One was a Republican who failed to secure enough petition signatures to appear on the ballot; he waged a write-in campaign instead.

The second candidate was a popular Democratic county commissioner who did secure enough petition signatures to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate, then baffled supporters by telling them he didn’t want the job. His campaign strategy seemed to suggest that voters should cast ballots for him so that he could then turn down the district attorney’s post and force the governor to appoint someone else.

It should surprise no one that Nifong was the winner in this confusing three-way race with a non-candidate and a candidate whose name did not appear on the ballot. Despite this campaign advantage, Nifong secured only 49.5 percent of the vote.

So Mike Nifong has never secured the support of a majority of Durham voters.

Thank you for your attention.

Mitch Kokai
Raleigh, N.C.