After digging a little more, I am coming around to the view that the state Democratic Party Council of Review will invalidate the process Nick Mackey used to organize local precincts. Once that is done, the path will be clear for a sheriff re-vote that will almost surely result in Chipp Bailey being selected for the post.
It has become clear that local Dems hopelessly bungled the December process and vote. The Uptown paper of record headline today — Democratic chairman eased rules — picks up and amplifies a point made here over a week ago. Namely, that David Erdman as far back as last August was beating the drum for bringing more “activists” into the party via relaxed precinct organizing.
Still unknown is the extent to which Erdman sought to merge local party activity with activist groups like ACORN and related entities like Ground Force Group. It does appear, however, that Ground Force principal Vinod Thomas was a precinct chair for Mackey.
Also former city councilman and Mackey supporter Malachi Greene has lauded Ground Force’s grassroots organizing skills in the county as capable of moving “the public discourse toward the outcomes they want.” Hmmmm.
Meanwhile, reports of bogus precincts continue to trickle out. WCNC relates that precinct 239 seems to have sprouted at a senior center among residents who didn’t know they were officers of the local party. Shameful.
This kind of news gives state party reviewers — the vast majority of whom are not from Mecklenburg County — solid footing to reject the December process. And punish a wayward and slack county party well in advance of vital November elections.
To the woodshed.
