On the eve of Tuesday's elections, county commissioner candidate Steve Hopkins fired a verbal broadside at the People's Alliance and Commissioner Ellen Reckhow.

Accusing the PA of "Tea Party-like tactics," Hopkins accused the liberal political-action group of making race an issue in the commissioners race and making "wild accusations" about incumbent commissioners Joe Bowser, Brenda Howerton and Michael Page.

The People’s Alliance, one of Durham’s three big political groups (after the Durham Committee and the Friends of Durham) has a new coordinator.

Dave Austin is a longtime PA member, the group reports in its newsletter. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Western Samoa (of somewhat discredited anthropologist Margaret Mead fame), Austin has also worked with the Carolina Brown Lung Association and the N.C. Occupational Safety & Health Project (NCOSH).

He graduated from the UNC School of Public Health in 1976.