Democrats focus on elections, collaboration

RALEIGH - With no national or statewide races up for grabs this year, the UNC-Chapel Hill Young Democrats are focusing on a handful of local elections that could have a significant impact on Chapel Hill.

And that has meant spending a lot of time in Raleigh.

"Raleigh is the only city in the Triangle that really has municipal elections that are straight-up partisan," said Tom Jensen, a UNC-CH senior and president of the N.C. Federation of College Democrats. "We need people in Raleigh who are really committed to working cooperatively with our leaders in Chapel Hill and Durham."

In Orange County, Democratic candidates largely dominate local elections, with political battles fought mostly in single-party primary races. Durham municipal elections are mostly a Democratic battleground as well, Jensen said.

"So you can't, as a party organization, work for Democrats running against other Democrats," he said. "That's why the focus is on Raleigh."

In the capital city, Mayor Charles Meeker, a Democrat first elected in 2001, is facing challenges from Republican J.H. Ross and Libertarian Steven Hilton. After winning by a margin of 55 percent to 29 percent in a contentious 2003 race against Republican city councilman John Odom, the mayor is expected to have little trouble winning reelection this year.

"We're taking it seriously, but the competition is not as difficult as it has been in the past," said Justin Guillory, Meeker's campaign manager and former president of the UNC Young Democrats. "But for some of these city council races, they're very competitive."

It is those Raleigh city council races that have become a priority for the group and the catalyst for a new partnership between the Chapel Hill YDs and their Wolfpack counterparts, the N.C. State University College Democrats.

A group of six N.C. State students and four UNC students met Friday afternoon to conduct door-to-door canvassing in North Raleigh - and trade a few insults about Saturday's football game.

"We just thought it would be cool to come together the day before the big game and show some solidarity," Jensen said.

Walking through an older neighborhood just outside the Raleigh beltline, Jensen worked in tandem with Jessie Mendez, president of the N.C. State College Democrats.

Marking off a list of registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters, the two knocked on doors and reminded supporters to turn out for the Oct. 11 elections. They dropped off brochures for Meeker and Democratic council candidates Paul Anderson and Russ Stephenson.

Mendez, who became president of the College Democrats in August, said the partnership with UNC-CH resulted from a series of e-mails between herself and Jensen, and from the support of Meeker's campaign office.

"One of the goals I really wanted was for all of the college groups - not just UNC, but for Duke (University) and Wake Forest (University) - to work more closely together," Mendez said.

That's a vision Jensen pledged to make a priority.

"In the past it's been really kind of a diffused group where people haven't gotten together enough," he said. "We're trying to do things like this all over the state."

 

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.