Ellie Kinnaird stresses experience, accomplishments

With six terms in the N.C. Senate and four terms as mayor of Carrboro behind her, it’s no surprise that Sen. Ellie Kinnaird spends much of her time at campaign appearances talking about what she’s done.

Kinnaird began a recent UNC forum appearance by noting that many in the room were taking advantage of one of her accomplishments – one stop early voting.

“That was my bill,” she said, noting she also helped implement a law requiring paper ballots be used throughout the state to ensure accurate vote counts.

But Kinnaird places the strongest emphasis on her successes in enacting environmental legislation.

“I’ve had a strong environmental history,” she said. “We’ve passed energy and water conservation for all new public buildings.”

Bob Atwater works for campaign finance, transfer tax

I haven’t been able to get up with Sen. Bob Atwater regarding his campaign, but he’s been in the news a number of times since he was last up for election, so voters can get a decent idea of what he’s accomplished from that.

-He teamed up with Gov. Mike Easley to enact a bill that requires gift card vendors to disclose any maintenance fees.

-He supported a land transfer tax for Chatham County.

-He cosponsored a bill with Sen. Ellie Kinnaird to institute public financing of Council of State campaigns.

His goals, according to his Web site, include:

Roger Gerber focuses on education reform

Roger Gerber has spent years organizing and advocating for charter schools, so it’s no surprise that the issue is at the forefront of his campaign for N.C. Senate.

Gerber, the Republican candidate in District 18, wants to abolish the cap limiting the number of charter schools to 100 schools statewide, and while he doesn’t think it’s likely that he will defeat incumbent Sen. Bob Atwater, he hopes his candidacy will contribute to the statewide debate about charter schools. He says charter schools are often more effective than traditional public schools.

Why blog about the senate races?

Very little media attention has been paid to the state senate races in our area this year. Many incumbents in the N.C. Senate are running unopposed, though here in the Triangle area, Republicans are challenging longtime incumbents like Ellie Kinnaird and Bob Atwater. Still, these candidates don’t appear to have nearly the amount of funding that the incumbents’ campaigns enjoy, judging from their fairly minimal Web presence (District 18 candidate Roger Gerber’s Web site only contains his position on a couple issues, while Jon “Greg” Bass in District 23 has no Web site at all).

Much of this has to do with the redistricting that has occurred over the years, which many say was designed to keep incumbents and their party in office. The Asheville Citizen-Times did an interesting analysis of the issue back in 2006 and Gerber laments the structure of state politics on his Web site. The district he hopes to represent combines rural Chatham and Lee counties with the very urban southwest corner of Durham county.

My hope is to give the Republican challengers an opportunity to be heard while giving equal time for the incumbents to discuss their accomplishments in office and what’s on their agenda if reelected. I also plan to provide my own analysis in comparing and contrasting the candidates as well. While local news organizations might not see these races as competitive enough to warrant heavy coverage, I feel strongly that voters should base their decision not solely on political party or incumbency, but also on a deeper knowledge of each of the candidates.