Competition makes the comfortable, entrenched market leader nervous, whether the business is selling food or political candidates. Today’s illustration of competition and market forces comes from politics. The state’s Democratic Party is speaking out against the effort by the SEIU-backed North Carolina First organization to gather enough signatures to put an unaffiliated candidate on the ballot in the state’s 8th District, where Democrat Larry Kissell is the embattled incumbent. If successful, NC First’s candidate would pose a challenge to Kissell from the left. The AP’s Gary Robertson writes:
Party leaders contend voters in the 8th Congressional District that paid representatives of the group North Carolina First aren’t explaining when they go door-to-door that they’re trying to put another candidate on the ballot to challenge Democrat incumbent Larry Kissell.
Instead, they’ve been saying the petition is for “better jobs,” according to Andrew Whalen, the party’s executive director, citing media reports and phone calls from Democrats in the district who have received knocks on their doors.
Whalen said the party would e-mail Democrats advising them that they can call county election offices and ask that their signatures be removed.
“We are trying to make sure that people are being honest with the registered voters of the 8th District,” Whalen said in an interview.
Clearly, state party leaders are concerned that a ballot challenge from the left could give the fall race to the Republicans. But the Republicans have their own problems in this race, which features a war of words between runoff candidate Tim D’Annunzio and state GOP chairman Tom Fetzer, and D’Annunzio’s lawsuit against opponent Harold Johnson.
Come the fall, both national parties will be watching this amazing 8th District congressional race that could end up featuring two Democrats, one Republican, and Libertarian Thomas Hill.
The bottom line is that competition works for the consumer by providing more choices and forcing the competitors to offer a better product or service — in this case, a better reason to choose one candidate over the other.
