The latest story by Casey M. Mann is hot off the presses regarding the recent endorsement process of the Orange/Chatham Sierra Club:
By Casey Mann, Senior Correspondent
Municipal candidates and their supporters are touting endorsements
from the local Sierra Club in municipal races in Orange County and
Pittsboro, but is it fair to do so if the process did not engage all
candidates or at least make a reasonable effort to do so?
Early in October, the Orange-Chatham group of the Sierra Club
announced its list of endorsements for municipal races in Orange
County and Pittsboro. In its press release, the Sierra Club noted it
was endorsing only two of the five candidates running for election for
three positions in the Pittsboro municipal race—Pittsboro Mayor and
one of the two Pittsboro Board of Commissioner seats. Curious about
the endorsement process, the Chatham County Line (CCL) reached out to
the Orange-Chatham Sierra Club Chair/Webmaster, Max Felsher, to learn
more about the process and the group’s endorsements.
Felsher stated while a majority of the candidates in Orange County
responded to the request, only “a couple” of candidates from Pittsboro
agreed to participate in the process. This seemed strange that a
majority of candidates chose not to participate in the process as the
Sierra Club has been endorsing candidates in Town of Pittsboro and
Chatham County elections for years.
When asked, Pittsboro Mayor Pro-Tem Pamela Baldwin, who is running for
re-election, stated that she had never received any correspondence
from the group regarding the endorsement process for the 2021 election
cycle.
Felsher stated that typically, candidates are contacted via email and
provided a questionnaire to complete and return. Once received, the
Sierra Club group does additional research including reviews of other
statements made by each candidate in forums, on websites and in other
campaign materials. Felsher also noted that much of the research on
candidates is conducted by “people that are familiar with candidates
and are on top of the local politics.” Felsher did not indicate to CCL
who the people who are familiar with the candidates and local politics
were.
[The only candidate forum to date was hosted by the East Chatham NAACP
via zoom on October 11th, which was four days after the endorsements
were posted online.]
Felsher noted that the National Sierra Club policy is not to release
the completed questionnaires to the public, but to encourage
candidates to do so on their own. He shared that the questionnaires
focus on various environmental topics such as environmental justice
and climate change.
However, he noted that Pittsboro had “specific questions which were
different” because of the Chatham Park development and also the
ongoing struggles with unregulated chemicals from upstream sources
that periodically appear in the Haw River which is the town’s water
supply. Felsher admitted that he didn’t have the Pittsboro
questionnaire to cite the specific questions. IN addition, CCL alerted
Felsher that Mayor Pro-Tem Baldwin did not recall receiving any
invitation to participate and asked him about the group’s procedures
in following up with candidates. Felsher stated that he was unsure of
how the process played out in Pittsboro as the process was managed by
the group’s Vice-Chair/Conservation Co-Chair Judith Ferster.
The Chatham County Line then reached out to Ferster to learn more.
Ferster said she “mailed hand-written letters” inviting each candidate
to participate. She stated that she was limited as to how she could
communicate with the candidates as the Board of Elections only posted
the postal addresses for candidates on their website. Ferster stated
she had no other way to communicate with the candidates. She admitted
that previous cycles had more participation and having only two of the
five candidates respond to the questionnaires was “disappointing.”
A review of the “candidate detail list” posted online at the Chatham
County Board of Elections in July revealed that the candidates
addresses and phone numbers were publicly available. In addition,
candidate filings are public record and, while not listed on the
website, emails are available to anyone who requests them from the
Chatham County Board of Elections. It should also be noted that
Ferster had emailed all the candidates in previous years to
participate in forums and other events. In addition, contact
information for all locally elected officials is available on the Town
of Pittsboro website as well as the elected official registry at the
Chatham County Board of Elections.
The Chatham County Line again followed up with Mayor Pro-Tem Baldwin
who reconfirmed that she had received neither a mailed letter nor
email correspondence from the group during this election cycle. She
also noted that she received a phone call from Ed Harrison, the
Orange-Chatham Sierra Club Political Co-Chair on or around Oct. 23. In
the call, he mentioned that she did not receive an invitation because
the attempt to email her “bounced.”
The Chatham County Line then reached out to all of the candidates to
learn about their experiences with the process. Pittsboro Mayor Jim
Nass, also running for re-election, searched his campaign mail and all
of his email accounts using both Ferster’s email address and “Sierra”
as search terms separately. Mayor Nass stated that the only
correspondence he had from Ferster was in 2019 regarding a candidate’s
forum and one in 2020 regarding a flood.
“To the best of my knowledge, I received no letters or emails from the
Sierra Club, Judith Ferster, or anyone else concerning the 2021
election,” Nass said.
Pittsboro Commissioner Michael Fiocco, also running for re-election,
also conducted a search of his mail and email. Fiocco also stated that
the last correspondence he could confirm from the group was also from
Ferster in 2019 regarding a candidate forum.
Candidate for Mayor Cindy Perry, who was endorsed by the Sierra Club,
stated that her invitation to participate came via email. The email,
which Perry shared with the Chatham County Line, shows that Ferster
was in communication via email with Perry as early as mid-September.
Candidate James Vose, who was also endorsed by the Sierra Club, did
not return requests for comment.
In Ferster’s press release about the endorsements, she states the “two
candidates stand out from the rest” and “stand out above their
competitors.” But if the other candidates were not provided the same
opportunity as the two who were endorsed by the Orange-Chatham Sierra
Club, what is the real value of those statements?
After a rigorous process, the group may have ultimately still selected
former Mayor Cindy Perry and first time candidate James Vose. But it
seems odd that the group would proceed with the 2021 endorsement
process without making every effort to ensure that all the candidates
had the opportunity to respond and participate; a task they apparently
were able to do in previous elections cycles.
In addition, Mayor Pro-Tem Baldwin noted that she does not recall ever
being endorsed by the Orange-Chatham group of the Sierra Club in any
of her four campaigns for Town Board in the last sixteen years.
Given that a portion of her family’s land in Chatham County was
polluted by the old landfill west of Pittsboro and that the current
focus of the Sierra Club of North Carolina is “equity, inclusion and
justice for North Carolinians of color and other underserved peoples,
who are most affected by environmental degradation and natural
disasters,” it seems strange that the only African-American woman ever
elected to Pittsboro’s Town Board (Mayor Pro-Tem Baldwin) was not at
least contacted for an interview by the Orange-Chatham Sierra Club.
Of course Pittsboro was not the only municipality that garnered some
constructive blowback from followers and associates of the
Orange-Chatham Sierra Club.
Former Orange County Commissioner, Mark Marcoplos, noted on their
facebook page that it was a “strange decision on Adam Searing. [Chapel
Hill] His policies are squarely counter to the Sierra Club’s clear
support for smart growth, equity, and affordable, mixed-use
development. You can read more here:
https://vault.sierraclub.org/sprawl/affordable.pdf”
Marcopolos further expounded as follows:
“Searing supports breaking the promise to the Rogers Rd.-Eubanks
community for a mixed-use development on the Greene Tract in favor of
making the entire 160 acres a park. The current plan, which Searing
opposes, includes about 60 acres of preserved land (the Headwaters
Preserve), which would make it the largest preserved natural area in
Chapel Hill or Carrboro. The nearby parks in the Rural Buffer provide
many other recreational options. The Chapel Hill Council recently
received a report revealing that Chapel Hill’s policies are leading to
a dangerous level of gentrification. It seems irresponsible and
puzzling that the local Sierra Club endorsed a candidate who clearly
does not have a holistic understanding of the inter-linked issues of
smart growth, equity, affordable housing, climate crisis mitigation,
and environmental land use.”
According to its facebook page the Orange-Chatham Sierra Club works
“to protect the environment in North Carolina’s Alamance, Caswell,
Chatham and Orange counties The Sierra Club’s Orange-Chatham Group
represents the club’s members in North Carolina’s Alamance, Caswell,
Chatham and Orange counties. This area includes Burlington, Chapel
Hill, Siler City, Yanceyville and many more cities, towns, and rural
areas.”
The North Carolina Sierra Club Committee is a state political action
committee dedicated to electing pro-environment candidates to
political offices. The official endorsement, which was processed by
the Orange-Chatham group, is an endorsement of the North Carolina
Sierra Club. Per Ferster, all local endorsement recommendations are
forwarded to the state organization to process. A summary of the North
Carolina Sierra Club endorsements recommended by the Orange-Chatham
group for the November 2nd municipal election can be found at the
group’s Facebook page.
From: virginia penley
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2021, 06:52:55 PM EDT
Subject: Does An Endorsement Count If The Process Wasn’t Fair?