Hey! Surprise! Nikita Mackey is our new sheriff!
And it only took 600 votes from Democratic Party insiders to make it happen. Now it is up to the Mecklenburg County Commission to rubber-stamp the choice — or not.
Do not hold your breath.
Update: Kudos — or some damn thing — to Tommy Tomlinson for trying to find a silver lining in this mess, but I’m afraid he struck lead:
Think about what this process revealed. Everybody knows now that Mackey has a shaky past. He knows the county will be watching. That makes him a lot more likely to run a clean office.
And if we the people don’t like him, next election we can vote him out.
Uh, no. There is no reason to believe Mackey can run the office, period. He got into this race despite a “shaky past” knowing full well it would not matter if he hooked up with the right insiders. Guess what Tommy? Now Nikita is an insider. Perhaps the most powerful in the county, put in office by an electorate of less than 1000 325 Democratic party activists (see comments for the math).
And all 850,000 residents of Mecklenburg have to live with — under really — Mackey for three years before we can make a change? A few months ago gathering 58,000 signatures on a public petition for a formal county-wide ballot measure was dangerously undemocratic and misleading to the public. The Uptown paper of record all but called the process illegitimate. What changed?
And we are supposed to sit back and take this? And marvel at the wonder of it all?
Update II: Alan Teitleman provides much good info in the comments below. Be sure to check them out. Also note this little data point.
