PA-PAC is preparing for the 2013 City Council elections!   With a dramatically expanded membership and committed and experienced volunteers, PAC expects to play a vital role in these important local races.

 

The races at stake are the mayor’s office and the three city council ward seats.  The incumbents are Mayor Bill Bell and council members Cora Cole-McFadden (Ward 1), Howard Clement, III (Ward 2), and Don Moffitt (Ward 3).  Under the rules governing the ward races, a candidate must reside in the ward to be eligible to run for that ward seat.  Elections are city-wide, however, and every registered voter will be able to vote in all three ward races.

 

Candidate filing opens on July 5 and closes at noon on July 19.  For more information, contact the Durham Board of Elections, www.durhamcountync.gov/elections .  As each candidate files, PA-PAC will ask him or her to complete a written questionnaire designed to sound the candidate out on his or her positions on the issues.  When all questionnaires are returned, PAC will publish them on the PA website.  Candidates will also be invited to interview with PAC’s interview committee.  Although completion of PA PAC’s questionnaire and an interview are not pre-requisites for PA PAC endorsement, candidates who do not participate in the PAC’s information-gathering process may be at a disadvantage in the endorsement process.

 

PA-PAC endorsements are made by PA members at a well-publicized meeting.  At the meeting, the interview committee may recommend one candidate over another, but the endorsement decision will ultimately be made by a majority vote of the members in attendance.  The process is highly deliberative.  After hearing the interview committee’s report, the question of who will receive the PAC’s endorsement is placed before the members.  Debate is not concluded until every member who wishes to be heard has had an opportunity to speak.  To encourage a frank and open discussion, the meeting is open only to PA members who agree that when they discuss the meeting later with anyone who was not in attendance no statements made in the meeting will be attributed to a speaker.  Candidates and members of their families who are PA members may attend the meeting, but they will be asked to excuse themselves during the body’s deliberation and decision-making in their own races.  The thoroughness of the PAC’s investigation of candidates and the integrity of the PAC’s decision-making process has made PA-PAC’s endorsement influential among thousands of Durham’s voters and sought after by Durham candidates.

 

The election of candidates endorsed by PA-PAC will be promoted in the press, through advertising, by direct mail, and at the polls by PAC volunteers.  PA-PAC does not make direct contributions of money to candidates or their campaign committees.

 

Candidates or prospective candidates who wish to know more about the Durham People’s Alliance and its PAC are encouraged to contact any of the PAC’s coordinators or PA’s staff:

 

Durham People’s Alliance PAC Coordinators

 

Milo Pyne                            (919) 956-5290                   [email protected]

Lorisa Seibel                       (919) 286-4319                   [email protected]

James Hill                            (919) 213-0888                   [email protected]

Tom Miller                          (919) 599-7618                   [email protected]

 

Durham People’s Alliance Staff:   (919) 682-7777    [email protected]