Durham County Republicans were on the losing side in the Nov. 8 transit-tax referendum, but GOP precinct chairman Dick Ford sees silver linings in the cloud.

Writing in the county party's newsletter this week, Ford points out that the transit tax's margin of victory, 60-40, was smaller than the favorable margin it showed in a March poll. In rounded numbers, the poll found 60 percent favoring the tax and 34 percent opposed (7 percent had no opinion).

By Ford's reckoning, the election returns demonstrate a margin of 20 percentage points, down from the 26-point margin in March. "With a guerilla campaign that did not get started until October, we increased our vote by 20 percent," he writes.

Ford also points out that while Democratic presidential candidates have averaged taking 70+ percent of the Durham County vote in the past two elections, the transit tax, at 60 percent, "lost over 10 percent of their natural base."

Vincent Allison and Susan Ross, who led the Durham Transit Tax Referendum Committee, and Triangle Transit released formal comments soon after unofficial returns showed the half-cent sales tax winning approval.

"This is a great win for Durham, and the first step in what we hope will become a positive movement throughout the Triangle for an integrated transit system to serve all of our residents and workers," Allison and Ross said.

"Durham has truly led the way in this important initiative and all of Durham should be proud of that leadership."

In a statement issued by spokesman Brad Schulz, Triangle Transit called Durham's vote "a positive step to fund expanded transit options" and a "vote of confidence" in plans for a regional transit system.

"We look forward to continuing the important partnership that will be needed to move forward as we provide the most effective transportation alternatives for Durham and the Triangle's growing population," the agency said.

Durham Mayor Bill Bell overwhelmed challenger Sylvester Williams in his bid for a sixth consecutive term.

With 61 of 62 precincts reporting,  Bell had 82 percent of the vote to 18 for Williams.

Incumbent City Council members Eugene Brown and Diane Catotti, along with candidate Steve Schewel, won three at-large council seats.

Meanwhile, voters approved a half-cent sales tax for mass transit and a quarter-cent sales tax for education, and in the rural Rougemont community of Durham County incorporation lost by a margin of 11 votes.

Catotti had 27 percent, Brown 22 percent and Schewel 25 percent of the total, while Victoria Peterson, Donald Hughes and Solomon Burnette trailed with 11,98 and 6 percent respectively.

Today's returns remain unofficial until the Durham County Board of Elections completes a final canvass Nov. 15.

In Rougemont, 168 voters went against incorporation with 157 in favor. In the simultaneous Town Council election, Linward Hedgspeth, Denise A. Smith, Linda K. Huff, D. Artemas (Lee) Holden and Danielle Kowalczuk were leaders in the nine-candidate field for five seats.

The five winners would have taken office if incorporation had been approved.

Mayor Bill Bell took a few minutes of Monday's city council meeting to plug the sales-tax proposals on today's Durham County ballots.

"We have two very important referendums," he said, referring to the half-cent tax for public transit and quarter-cent tax for education. The city council has endorsed both.

Bell has been a strong proponent of a unified transit system serving Durham, Wake and Orange counties. Much of the revenue from the transit tax is for Durham's portions of passenger-rail lines between downtown Durham and UNC Hospitals and eastern Wake County, as well as expanded bus service.

"Hopefully, we will set the pace for other counties to follow," Bell said, before showing a seven-minute video depicting successes for a 10-mile light-rail line in Mecklenburg County.

"It really highlights the attributes of the system in Charlotte," Bell said. "Similar to what will happen if the referendum is supported in Durham."

Candidates in Durham's mayoral and City Council races come face to face with voters Tuesday. Voters of the future, that is.

Kids Voting Durham is holding a candidates' forum, at which only youngsters are allowed to ask questions. The forum is at the Holton Center, 401 N. Driver St. and runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Kids Voting Durham is managed by the Durham County Extension as an affiliate of a national nonprofit organization. The program assists schools in presenting civics lessons and holds a mock election at the same time as the grownup election. Children cast their votes at working precincts.

The forum is open to the public, but, again, only the kids ask questions. To find out more, see www.kidsvotingdurham.org.

When the county commissioners agree to put the tax up to a Nov. 8 referendum, they agreed that the tax revenue would go to Durham Public Schools, Durham Tech and pre-kindergarten programs.

But the ballot just says, "Local sales and use tax at the rate of one-quarter percent (0.25%) in addition to all other State and local sales and use taxes. " That wording was specified in the state legislature's act that authorized the referendum.

The vague language leaves the option open for the county to actually use the money any way it likes. The commissioners have passed a resolution to use the money as stated, but the resolution is not binding on them or on the board to be elected next year.

Some groups and citizens oppose the schools tax because there is no guarantee it will go to schools, but the measure has won support from several organizations and even, Toler said, from much of Durham's business community.

Soliciting business for a tax increase, he said, "is like asking the temperance league to support a kegger."

City Council candidate Donald Hughes (right) said Saturday that he is not in any alliance with Mayor candidate Sylvester Williams.

Hughes was responding to comments made by council candidate John Tarantino, who said Williams' campaign workers were distributing sample ballots with Williams's name marked along with Hughes's and council candidates Solomon Burnette and Victoria Williams. (See item below.)

"I have not authorized my name to be used on any sample ballot," Hughes wrote in an email to Bull's Eye.

"Any citizen has a right to support me, but I want to make it completely clear that my campaign has not authorized any individual or campaign to use my name on a sample ballot. Mr. Tarantino stated, 'the candidates scrambled and formed an alliance' — this is completely false. I have not formed an alliance with any candidate in this year's election. It is clear that Mr. Tarantino's endorsement and accusations are a desperate final attempt to gain votes ahead of Tuesday's primary election."

City Council candidate John Tarantino (right) said this afternoon that he's endorsing County Commissioner Joe Bowser for mayor in Tuesday's primary election.

"I'm aligned with Bowser and encouraging my friends to vote for Bowser," he said.

Bowser (below), who has more than a year left on his commissioner's term, is challenging incumbent Mayor Bill Bell. Retired salesman Ralph McKinney and minister Sylvester Williams are also in the race.

Tarantino is one of seven candidates for three at-large Council seats. Tuesday's voting will eliminate one, as well as two mayoral candidates, leaving the survivors to face off in the Nov. 8 general election.

Tarantino said he decided to come out for Bowser after Williams's campaign began passing out sample ballots encouraging votes for three black City Council candidates: Solomon Burnette, Donald Hughes and Victoria Peterson.

"The worst thing that can happen is nothing," he said.

Tarantino said he was miffed because he had given Williams support, including financial support, in a past campaign for City Council.

Bowser is also black, as is Bell; Tarantino is white, and said Williams, Burnette, Hughes and Peterson appeared to have formed a bloc after the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, one of Durham's major political organizations, decided against making endorsements for the primary.

Williams, Hughes and Peterson have said the Durham Committee's political subcommittee recommended them for endorsement, but the full Committee did not accept the recommendation. Peterson said the political subcommittee also favored Burnette, but Burnette declined to comment.

"The candidates scrambled and formed an alliance," Tarantino said.

The People's Alliance, another major Durham PAC, has endorsed Bell along with council incumbents Eugene Brown and Diane Catotti and former School Board member Steve Schewel. An Alliance campaign mailer promotes the four as a team in the elections.

Brown, Catotti and Schewel are white.
 

The Triangle Labor Council and North Carolina AFL-CIO have endorsed Mayor Bill Bell and City Councilwoman for re-election in this fall's municipal elections.

Bell is running for a sixth consecutive term, Catotti for a third.

Both were informed of the endorsements by letter. Labor Council President Michael Gravinese wrote that his group's policy is to leave announcement of its endorsements up to candidates.

Bell faces four challengers in a primary election Oct. 11. Besides Catotti, seven candidates are running for three at-large seats on the City Council.

The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People picked no favorites at its endorsement meeting Saturday, Committee Chairwoman  Lavonia Allison (right) said this afternoon.

"No endorsement for the mayor race, no endorsement for City Council," she said.

Mayoral candidate Sylvester Williams released a statement Saturday, saying that he had been endorsed by the group's political committee, though not by the Durham Committee as a whole.

That was incorrect and improper, Allison said, because under Durham Committee rules any endorsement requires the full Committee's agreement. No committee make take a position on its own, she said.

"No standing committee is autonomous," said Allison, and endorsement announcements may be made only by the Durham Committee's chairman.