It is barely 2022 and already November is breathing down my neck.
Our longtime state representative is hanging it up after nearly two decades in Raleigh and will retire at the end of this month. Per North Carolina statutes, members of her party’s executive committee residing in the district will elect someone for the governor to appoint to serve the remainder of her term. About 60 of us from the district will do that, in person (state law), Covid precautions in place, and on the first anniversary of the MAGA insurrection, even as January 6th remembrances take place across the country and inside the Beltway. Here, 30+1 party activists in a county of 270,000 have the power to elevate someone to the state legislature. Including me.
The week won’t be out yet and already there’s an election to administer. No rest for the weary.
I asked one candidate on Thursday who recommended volunteering for this suicide mission. The answer (after a knowing chuckle)? It was a personal decision after a few years in development work overseas and NGO work back on this continent. Public service is a family tradition. No, really.
The hours stink. The pay is crap. “Work” is 4-1/2 hours away. The opposition? Brutally opposed to giving an inch to the Democratic minority. Democrats are there now as much as anything else to sustain Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes. The “winner” this week will have to be ready to serve by February 1st. She or he will be expected not simply to warm the bench until the next session, but to file for the 2022 election immediately, build a team and campaign all year as an incumbent, win on November 8, and face another two years of Republican abuse. Not to mention the abuse from political allies for the invariable rookie mistakes first-termers make.
North Carolina’s freshly Republican-redrawn districts are already being challenged in court.
It is easy for clicktivists and armchair quarterbacks to criticize public officials for their failings. We all have them. But cut the noobs a break. Most of us would never stand up for these jobs.