News-Record.com

This story from the N&O (registration required) has gotten some notice, although Alston complained to me that it was unbalance. I think it was pretty fair myself. I would differ with the characterization that it is rare to have a contest for NAACP president. There's an election every two years and Alston has had challengers in the past. But that's a small point.

There's also been some written by bloggers, although most that I've seen seems to be clearly in the pro-Barber or anti-Skip camp. Find examples and more links at Floyd's place, the political agitator, and Hoggard's.

I didn't do a lot of horse-race fashion analyzing in my story for a couple reasons. Chief among them I had the persistent feeling that folks I were talking to were holding back. That was particularly so in the case of people who might cast a ballot on Saturday, who sometimes talked about the person they were backing but would say nothing about the other candidate, good, bad or indifferent.

That leads neatly to my second reservation: the vote will be a sampling of the membership by way of delegates, not a poll of the entire membership. That restricts the sample size and allows for goofy numerical stuff to happen.

And finally, this is a private organization selecting its leadership. I can't claim to have a real thorough knowledge of how this process works or its quirks.

That said, both men can point to signs in their favor and at least one big challenge.

Barber certainly has a lot of grass roots buzz and a lot of people talking about him throughout the state. He's traveled widely as a speaker, is known from his days working in the state bureaucracy and is a minister of a pretty well known congregation. The question for Barber is whether he can convert that grass roots zeal into votes, since it will be delegates selected by each branch who make the choice.

Without having real intimate knowledge of the group, I would have to imagine the delegate system favors Alston, the long time incumbent. One of the president's main jobs is to help build local chapters and lend support in time of need. That gives Alston a tremendous amount of exposure to the people making decisions on delegates. Alston can also point to his seat on the NAACP's national board and several awards that he and the state conference have one this year from the national group. Still, there seems to be a pretty vocal "anyone-but-skip" faction out there, and that's never a good sign for a candidate in any office.

Of course, some folks might wonder why it would matter to non NAACP members who the president of the group is.

Firstly, the post of state NAACP president gives one a tremendous bully pulpit to speak out on matters of public concern. That person is frequently a go-to quote for us scrubby media types and can generate a lot of attention on any issue they choose to raise.

Second, that person has a tremendous amount of access to politicians at the federal, state and local strata and can bring a lot of political pressure to get here way. Working in the name of the NAACP allows its president to nudge state policy this way and that.

The convention starts up Thursday down out the Koury Convention Center and the schedule I have says it winds up Saturday night, although folks have told me there might be an informal Sunday event or two. We should get word on the president's race Saturday afternoon or evening.