by The big races yesterday were in New Jersey and Virginia. Others have covered those races and I won’t bother to rehash them other than to say than to say, despite the different party tags, neither winner is a friend of gun owners and their rights.
Despite all the media attention focused on Chris Christie, Terry McAuliffe, Ken Cuccinelli, and that Sandinista elected to replace Bloomberg, there were elections at the local level in many areas of the country.
Bitter at Shall Not Be Questioned examines the results in Pennsylvania as they impact gun rights here.
In North Carolina, municipal elections are usually held in odd years and there were a number of elections across the state involving mayors belonging to Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors. According to their website, there are currently 15 misguided mayors in North Carolina who have lent their names to that effort. Out of those 15 cities, 12 had elections yesterday. The other three held their elections in 2011 and weren’t due until 2015. The incumbent mayors of Carrboro and Emerald Isle did not run for re-election.
This left 10 elections in which a MAIG member was up for re-election. The mayors of Carolina Shores, Chapel Hill, Creedmoor, East Spencer, and Hillsborough faced no opposition except for possible write-in candidates. Thus, only five of the 15 MAIG mayors faced any real opposition.
So how did they fare?
In the cities of Durham and Winston-Salem respectively, incumbent Mayors Bill Bell and Allen Joines cruised to re-election with 80% plus majorities. The Mayor of Oxford, Jackie Sargent, squeaked through in a 3-way election but with less than a majority.
That leaves the mayors of Greensboro and Morrisville who both lost. While gun control was not an issue in the overwhelming defeat of Greensboro Mayor Robbie Perkins by Nancy Barakat Vaughn, it most certainly was an issue in Morrisville.
Morrisville Mayor Jackie Holcombe was quite outspoken in her support for gun control.
Holcombe has drawn the ire of both the National Rifle Association and Grassroots NC for asking Gander Mountain to stop selling semi-automatic rifles at its local store and for joining the Mayors Against Illegal Guns lobbying group.
Holcombe also pushed and failed to find ways for Morrisville to evade state law regarding concealed carry in city parks, greenways, and athletic fields. As such, she incurred the wrath of Grass Roots North Carolina and its Political Victory Fund which actively worked for her opponent Councilman Mark Stohlman who was pro-gun.
I don’t know if Holcombe’s anti-gun stance made the difference but she lost to Stohlman in the 3-way race by almost 100 votes.
With the defeats in Greensboro and Morrisville, the number of Illegal Mayors has been reduced to 13. I don’t know where the new mayors of Carrboro and Emerald Isle stand on gun rights. It may be if we are lucky that they don’t want anything to do with that organization. We’ll just have to wait and see.
To sum up, gun owners came out a little better after the election than before. Since most of the mayors in North Carolina who belong to Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors represent small cities and towns, a concerted local lobbying effort might reduce the number even more. It’s worth a try.
Carrboro? "Just a little to the left of Chapel Hill"? You can probably make a good guess as to the mayor's political stance.
However, he/she might just be smart enough not to do what is expressly prohibited by the NC General Statutes, thus not getting put on GRNC's radar screen.
I lived in Carrboro for a while. I left long before it got really looney.
Gun rights? Gun nuts! The only question is which is smaller, their brains or their dicks.