At long last, that is the raw vote total from the county Democratic Party special “election” in December.
Using the precinct weighted multiplier, Nick Mackey came out on top with 631 “votes” while Chipp Bailey ended up with 390 “votes.” Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James dug this little datum out of the treasure trove of documents the state Democratic Party — to its credit — has put online for all to see.
There are many, many confusing pages and numbers, but it gives us the best picture yet of what was unfolding in Democratic circles last fall. In short, the Mackey campaign did not sneak up on local leaders as we’ve been told.
More to come.
Update: Turns out that in late August county Democratic chair David Erdman was loudly and repeatedly urging community activists to “instantly” organize precincts with five members present. But by September 14, the county party suffered a catastrophic data loss when their data host, Microterra, had a server crash.
Incredibly, in mid-September former party chair John Cotham — father of state Rep. Trisha Cotham — told the executive committee that the mayor’s race was winnable if the party could only raise $50,000. Way to score brownie points in Raleigh, dad.
Update II: By mid-October county Dems were reacting to the Pendergraph announcement — that and lamenting that they could not squeeze any money out of local banks for the upcoming campaign. Interesting.
Update III: Now make that Mackey 112, Bailey 75. This tally signed by party officials evidently transposed the numbers. Confused? Me too.
Update IV: WBT’s Pete Kaliner relates that once all the votes from all officials are added in the final final raw vote score is…Mackey 125, Bailey 121. Sounds like an old ABA score. And this ladies and gents concludes our excursion in the hell of local machine politics. Suffice it to say I can make head nor tails out of the process or outcome.
