Weekend report (10/9): NAACP election; lottery and more
If you haven't seen the paper yet, these stories concern topics you've been reading about here:
- The North Carolina NAACP has a new president following a vote Saturday night. The Rev. William Barber of Goldsboro replaces Melvin "Skip" Alston of Greensboro. More on this in a second.
- I know this will shock, just shock, all you hard bitten political types, but it turns out that the folks who tend to give to state political campaigns also have issues they are pursuing before the General Assembly.
- My colleague Tafe Wireback wieghs in on the lottery and what agencies are doing to prepare to police the game and deal with gambling addiction issues.
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A couple bits of after-matter on the NAACP election:
- There will still be a Guilford County Commissioner in a statewide position for the NAACP, even though Alston is now off the board. Carolyn Coleman is now the group's first vice president.
- Coleman had served on the state executive board before. But, she told me last night, when she tried to file to run two years ago Coleman was told that her application was late...by then-President Alston.
- Coleman was running against the current first vice presidnet, Gladys Shipman. Shipman is president of the Greensboro NAACP chapter.
- NAACP candidates do not run in slates, but I was told that Shipman and Alston are seen as closely allied. And indeed, it seems that people carrying around Alston for president fliers yesterday also had a re-elect Shipman flier in the same hand.
- Both Alston and Barber were concearned yesterday afternoon about irregularities surrounding the voting. The issue, as far as I understood it, involved whether some delegates were properly registered and should be allowed to vote.
The issue was serious enough that it delayed the start of the election and the final result for a few hours. Both men were prepared to lodge a challenge against the results with the national NAACP.
However, Alston said last night that Barber's margin of victory was sufficient that the issue at hand had not made a difference.
- Alston said that he will remain on the state board of president emeritus.
- In case a discussion breaks out there, I've also posted on this topic at Inside Scoop.
- More comments from Floyd, Sue, and Jerry.
- Barber's own blog here.