Weekly Recap: Important primaries, a residency challenge and some choice words from yours truly
I wrote my first column in over six years and also previewed 24 of the top races you should watch closely ahead of the March 5 primary.
A big dropped catch, one yard shy of a tie game, a couple interceptions and a touchdown pass ricocheted off of a helmet. Greetings from the tumultuous life of a Buffalo Bills fan anxiously waiting for the second half. Hopefully by the time you’re reading this, I am in a happier mood (though I wouldn’t bet on it).
Our first week of 2024 is in the books, so now is the time for our first weekly recap.
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Now to the news that was from the past week.
24 primaries to watch
On Friday, I previewed what I consider the top 24 primaries to watch as the March 5 election approaches. They are notable either for their competitiveness or because of what the results could signal about the directions of the Democratic and Republican parties.
For a full explanation of the races and top candidates in them, you’ll want to upgrade your plan. A list of all candidates is available here.
Below are the 24 races folks would be wisest to watch, with candidates listed in order of how they’ll appear on the ballot:
#1: Republican 13th Congressional District: Kelly Daughtry, Marcus Dellinger, David Dixon, Brad Knott, Steve Loor, Josh McConkey, James Phillips, Siddhanth Sharma, Matt Shoemaker, Eric Stevenson, Fred Von Canon, Kenny Xu, Chris Baker and DeVan Barbour
#2: Republican Lieutenant Governor: Rivera Douthit, Jeffrey Elmore, Allen Marshburn, Marlenis Hernandez Novoa, Jim O'Neill, Sam Page, Ernest Reeves, Hal Weatherman, Seth Woodall, Deanna Ballard and Peter Boykin
#3: Republican 6th Congressional District: Bo Hines, Addison McDowell, Jay Wagner, Mark Walker, Christian Castelli and Mary Ann Contogiannis
#4: Republican 1st Congressional District: Sandy Smith and Laurie Buckhout
#5: Democratic NC Supreme Court Associate Justice Seat 6: Allison Riggs and Lora Cubbage
#6: Republican 10th Congressional District: Pat Harrigan, Diana Jimison, Brooke McGowan and Grey Mills
#7: Democratic 60th House District: James Adams and Cecil Brockman
#8: Republican 8th Congressional District: Mark Harris, Chris Maples, Allan Baucom, John Bradford, Don Brown and Leigh Brown
#9: Republican Auditor: Charles Dingee, Jim Kee, Anthony Wayne Street, Jeff Tarte, Dave Boliek and Jack Clark
#10: Democratic 105th House District: Yolanda Holmes, Terry Lansdell and Nicole Sidman
#11: Democratic Governor: Gary Foxx, Mike Morgan, Josh Stein, Marcus Williams and Chrelle Booker
#12: Republican Governor: Dale Folwell, Bill Graham and Mark K. Robinson
#13: Republican 25th House District: Yvonne McLeod and Allen Chesser
#14: Republican 3rd House District: Tony Moore and Timothy Reeder
#15: Democratic 27th House District: Rodney Pierce and Michael Wray
#16: Republican 80th House District: Eddie Gallimore and Sam Watford
#17: Republican 13th Senate District: Vicki Harry and Scott Lassiter
#18: Republican 62nd House District: Britt Moore, Ann Schneider, Jaxon Barber, Michelle Bardsley and John Blust
#19: Democratic Commissioner of Insurance: Natasha Marcus and David Wheeler
#20: Republican 82nd House District: Brian Echevarria and Kevin Crutchfield
#21: Republican 3rd Senate District: Rep. Michael Speciale and Bob Brinson
#22: Democratic Treasurer: Gabe Esparza and Wesley Harris
#23: Republican Treasurer: A.J. Daoud, Rachel Johnson and Brad Briner
#24: Republican Commissioner of Labor: Luke Farley, Jon Hardister, Chuck Stanley and Travis Wilson
Candidacy challenge
On Thursday, the Wake County Board of Elections unanimously voted to keep Democratic state Sen. Lisa Grafstein on the 2024 ballot, finding that she moved into the newly-drawn 13th Senate District days before a residency deadline.
The challenge was brought forward by Wake County assistant school principal Scott Lassiter, a potential general election opponent to Grafstein. Coffee shop owner Vicki Harry is also vying for the GOP nomination.
State law requires legislative candidates to have resided in the district they’re seeking to represent at least one year in advance of the general election.
In mid-October, Republican lawmakers unveiled new voting lines that double-bunked Grafstein alongside her colleague, Jay Chaudhuri. The redraw prompted Grafstein to move into a newly drawn tossup seat.
Grafstein provided county elections officials with utility bills, insurance receipts, home photos, moving expense documents and other paperwork showing she moved into the new district before the Nov. 5 deadline.
Grafstein faces no primary opponents and will advance automatically to the general election.
After the hearing, Lassiter told reporters he believed the state Senate could hold votes to remove Grafstein from office because she no longer represents her current district. He also suggested a voter in Grafstein’s current district could possibly bring forward a lawsuit.
While Senate Republican leaders have called on Grafstein to resign, they’re not pushing to remove her at this time. Grafstein has forcefully declined to resign, accusing Republicans of being the one not representing voters due to the way they split up Wake County and other urban communities across the state.
Ringing in the new year with some blunt honesty
For the past year, a former employer prevented me from reporting for a number of news outlets, dealing a personal financial hit and a tremendous disservice to the public. Effective, Jan. 1, I have no restrictions.
In my first column in more than six years, I called on all news organizations to stop being hypocrites and to end a practice that runs afoul of the First Amendment values they publicly espouse.
Since I know some folks didn’t get the email with the column in its entirety as they should have, I’m including the column below:
***
From the outset, I must say that writing this column makes me deeply uncomfortable. I do my best to refrain from expressing personal policy views (as I believe all reporters should) and pride myself on not becoming a story.
However, I also have to square that with my firm belief that a reporter’s job is to hold individuals and institutions accountable for their actions.
So this column (the first I’ve written in more than six years) isn’t about personal animus or achieving some legislative policy solution. It’s about reporting for the public good and championing a better news ecosystem— something we should all be able to get behind as a divisive 2024 election approaches.
***
Today marks a special day for me. Effective immediately, no former employer has any say over what I can report on, where I can report from or who I can report for.
For the past 12 months, I’ve been severely limited in my ability to cover North Carolina politics due to a non-compete clause. It’s the reason you haven’t seen me at the State Capitol, at news conferences or on television very much.
While many news organizations limit their non-competes to a handful of places and similar mediums, seven outlets in and around Raleigh had been barred from accepting my work this past year. My blacklist included a number of television stations, news websites, a newspaper and even newsletter services (Believe me, the list would’ve been much longer without pushback).
Not only has this come at a substantial personal financial cost, it has more importantly dealt a blow to readers, viewers and listeners seeking out the latest happenings in North Carolina politics.
Non-compete provisions are commonly used both in and outside journalism. Their stated aim: To give employers the ability to invest in talent while protecting the company’s assets and interests. The actual aim: To stymie the competition and keep disgruntled employees far away.
If you are a young or aspiring journalist, you already have little leverage to negotiate contract terms at the time of your hiring. And if you want to work in television, you will almost definitely need to agree to a non-compete in order to be hired.
In the news media, there are all too many applications for too few jobs, creating a power imbalance from the outset. The positions that are created are often ones filling coverage gaps left by people who no longer work there. This makes non-competes all the more predatory.
The use of non-compete clauses is a subject of much debate. Businesses understandably want to protect their interests, while employees naturally want flexibility and mobility. The inherent tension has prompted national discussion and fueled some states, such as New York, to reevaluate their employment rules.
Nationally, the Federal Trade Commission is considering a ban on non-compete clauses in employment agreements altogether. In California, Colorado, Minnesota, North Dakota and Oklahoma, virtually all non-competes are already banned.
But in North Carolina, businesses are given wide latitude to operate as they want and are free to create broad non-compete “agreements.”
While there’s a larger debate to be had about non-competes in agriculture, health care and a number of job sectors that advance important public needs, doing away with non-competes in news media should be a no-brainer.
Public trust in news media is already low, and forcing reporters to abandon communities they’ve long served or want to continue serving doesn’t help. The public demands journalists be able to do their jobs without the undue influence of their company’s executives.
News outlets that publicly espouse values of free speech and public access to information ought to first look in the mirror and embrace those values from within. Anything less is grossly hypocritical. If they won’t get rid of non-compete provisions on their own, the public ought to demand that they do.
If you truly don’t want your reporters leaving for a rival outlet, I have some solutions: Pay your staff fairly, don’t mistreat them and create a healthy environment they won’t want to leave. Too many reporters excel in spite of their working conditions, not because of them. Making life at least moderately tolerable is often enough for reporters to stay.
As much as the public believes reporters are elite, most aren’t. Many live paycheck to paycheck. Many work long hours. Many miss holidays with loved ones.
It’s often a thankless job, with public criticism ranging from substantive critiques of their framing of a story to shallow attacks on their physical appearance. We don’t do this job for money, likes or fame. We do it because we believe it matters. And in exchange, we merely ask for basic decency.
As frustrating as 2023 was, it’s not lost on me that I am one of the lucky ones.
I’ve had the ability to take a financial hit this year. I’ve had the ability to fight it out and stay in Raleigh. I’ve had sources who have continued to talk to me, not for an audience size, but because they trust me to tell their stories fairly and accurately.
As unfair as I believe non-competes are in journalism, I’ve abided by the terms. Nearly all of my reporting went on a Substack newsletter I created, with net proceeds from the past year going to charity. And the outlets I have reported for were ones not subject to any non-compete provisions.
As we enter 2024 and vow to change things about ourselves, let’s resolve to do one thing: Make news ecosystems better for reporters and, by extension, the public.
I love North Carolina, the people of this great state and I’m not going anywhere.
📖 6 essential reads
There was plenty of news this week. Here are some top headlines you may have missed from around the state
Top NC Court of Appeals judge removed from leadership role, without explanation (Will Doran // WRAL)
Mark Harris Is Not Asking For Forgiveness (Tim Funk // The Assembly)
Lawmakers open to revisiting bill that led to NC users losing access to porn sites (Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi // Raleigh News & Observer)
Judge recommends ending suit on prosecuting ex-felons who vote in North Carolina, cites new law (Gary Robertson // Associated Press)
Does the textile town of Star have a bright future? It hinges on fixing aging infrastructure (Colin Campbell // WUNC)
Panthers owner David Tepper needs someone to tell him some hard truths. I’ll volunteer (Scott Fowler // The Charlotte Observer)
Thank you
I shall return to your feed later this week, with one story I’m particularly excited to share. Stay tuned!