Carter Wrenn has seen it all in N.C. politics during his time as a Republican strategist working for the well-known (Sen. Jesse Helms and former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot, for example) and the less-well-known, too. He's part of one of the most engaging blogs I follow about North Carolina politics at www.talkingaboutpolitics.com. His blogging partner is Gary Pearce, a Democrat who has worked for, among many others, Jim Hunt and in 1998 John Edwards. Between these guys there's a couple of encyclopedias worth of experience and judgment.
I was particularly taken with Carter's blog last week about what's going on in local elections in Stanly County. He says it's a case where the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission appears to have freed corporate interests to overwhelm political candidates without deep pockets. In a blogpost he headlined "The Edge of the Storm?" Carter notes that "we just got an example of what may be the front edge of the coming storm right here in North Carolina – down in Stanly County."
It's all about Stanly County commissioners opposing Alcoa's effort to get another license for its hydroelectric plants on the Yadkin River -- and how the company may be able to politically bury three commissioners running for re-election who had fought Alcoa and shown how the company had polluted the area back when companies dumped waste on the "back 40," as one company official put it. Carter wrote:
"Then last week, before the upcoming Primary where three of the Commissioners are seeking reelection, Alcoa launched an ad campaign using newspaper ads, billboards, mailings and the Internet to blast the Commissioners, saying they’ve been wasting taxpayers’ money…by, well, hiring scientists, lawyers and lobbyists to fight Alcoa.
"This is a pretty good example of what the “moaners” were worried about regarding the Supreme Court ruling. Alcoa’s an international behemoth conglomerate. Its Chairman is from Brazil, its President is from Germany, it’s partnered with the Chinese and its world headquarters is in Pittsburgh, old Andrew Mellon’s hometown. It smelts aluminum everywhere from Iceland to the Amazon Rainforest and its annual budget is bigger than the State of North Carolina’s – so what hope on earth do three local County Commissioners (who may raise $5000 in their entire campaigns) have of winning re-election if Alcoa with its $20 billion annual budget is dead-set on retiring them?"
