What do they have in common?

Under the Dome makes much— or at least tries to make much –of the fact that Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson coordinated security at a campaign rally in Burlington on Tuesday. Johnson —as you recall — has been the subject of a DOJ investigation claiming his department has targeted Latinos.

Look who else shows up in Dome’s post:

On Tuesday, Dalton’s campaign responded itself, issuing a statement from Melvin “Skip” Alston, the Guilford County Commission chairman and former president of the N.C. NAACP. He called McCrory’s defense of the ad “a pattern of shameful campaign tactics meant to divide North Carolina.”

“First McCrory hired Fred Davis, the Hollywood-based ad maker who came under fire for planning a racially inflammatory ad campaign against the President. Then, he defended Mitt Romney’s lack of concern for almost half of Americans. Now McCrory is defending a top surrogate notorious for stoking racial tensions and bitterly blaming his professional failures on African Americans,” Alston said in a statement release by Democratic rival Walter Dalton’s campaign.

“Subtle racism is still racism. And race-baiting disguised as a political vision cannot be tolerated,” Alston added.

Alston is actually responding to the controversy surrounding former Wilson County Sheriff Wayne Gay, who appears in a McCrory campaign ad. Evidently the N&O sees a pattern here…..