News-Record.com

Editorial Page Editor Allen Johnson reports the Simkins PAC endorsements today on his blog.

There are no great surprises, I guess, although the PAC did not endorse any Republicans (in partisan races) this time. For the past two election cycles the PAC board has gotten behind one Republican.

In 2002, it was Mark McDaniel in his losing bid to unseat state Sen. Kay Hagan. In 2004 it was Mike Winstead, who defeated incumbent Mike Barber in a county commissioner race.

While I have interviewed some members of the PAC board many times over the past few years, I can’t claim to have a clear insight into their process. But from what I have been told and have observed, those two endorsements for Republicans had as much to do with what PAC members perceived as failings on the Democrats' part as any real enthusiasm for the Republican challenger.

I can't think of anything that any of the Democrats running in Greensboro this year would have done to rub the PAC the wrong way, which I guess makes sense.

Critics of the PAC point out that several elected officials sit on its board, including Rep. Alma Adams and Rep. Earl Jones who are in partisan races this Tuesday. So the question comes: would the PAC ever endorse against one of its own?

At least once is the answer, says Adams, who is PAC's chairman right now. It endorsed now Congressman Mel Watt in the 1992 Democratic primary against Jones.