Bladen County
Mark Harris won one of those rare victories you hardly ever see in politics – he upset an incumbent Congressman in a primary. After that Harris went straight on to win the General Election by 905 votes but then ran head on into a buzzsaw: When the day came to declare him the new Congressman in the 9th District the Elections Board said no.
The Board started issuing subpoenas, investigating reports of voter fraud, and most people, not sure who was telling the truth, scratched their heads waiting patiently for the Board to lay the facts on the table. But the politicians in both parties didn’t wait: The Republicans saw a Congressional seat they had in their hands slipping through their fingers and the Democrats saw an election they’d lost by less than a point once again within their grasp.
The head of the Republican Party, Dallas Woodhouse, immediately demanded that the Elections Board declare Harris had won – before it investigated the voter fraud. And a Democratic Congressman (who’s from the suburbs around Washington, D.C., not from North Carolina) said flat-out he knew for a fact “votes have been stolen” which was followed by Nancy Pelosi threatening to order a new election (which the Democrats will have the power to do when they have the majority in Congress).
Newspaper reporters flocked to Bladen County, reporting how a local politician, McCrae Dowless, had signed people up to vote for Mark Harris by absentee ballot then, once the voters received their ballots in the mail, Dowless’ ‘grassroots workers’ returned to their homes saying, Give us your ballots. We’ll send them to the Board of Elections – the problem with that was obvious: Dowless – who was being paid by Harris – having a voter’s ballot in his hands opened the door to mischief.
That wasn’t all: The newspapers also reported Dowless’ grassroots workers had gone to the homes of Democrats, primarily African-Americans, who almost surely voted against Harris and collected their absentee ballots too – the obvious question then was: What did McCrae Dowless do with those ballots?
By then Mark Harris’ Democratic opponent was blasting him for bankrolling ‘criminal activity’ and the head of the Republican Party was backpedaling, telling CNN it looked to him like an investigation was a good idea after all.
Two years ago, back in 2016, the first time Mark Harris ran against Robert Pittenger for Congress he lost the Republican Primary by 134 votes; in that same election McCrae Dowless had worked for a third candidate who got 221 absentee votes to Harris’ 4 and Pittenger’s 1 in Bladen County. After the smoke cleared from that election Harris had met with a local judge, a sheriff, a County Commissioner and a former Republican Party Chairman who told him he ought to hire Dowless to do the same thing for him the next time he ran. And that’s what he did. He hired Dowless but, a few days ago, when WBTV asked him if he’d known about any shenanigans Harris explained, I didn’t – and still don’t – know whether that happened.
So is Mark Harris a villain – who paid a local fixer to get himself elected? Or did he make a mistake in judgement by trusting the wrong man? Was McCrae Dowless a Svengali stealing ballots? Or is he an innocent man? No one will know until the Elections Board lays the facts on the table – so waiting makes sense. But not to politicians. The Democrats now see Mark Harris as damaged goods so they want a new General Election and they want it to be between Dan McCready and Mark Harris. Some Republicans figure Harris may be damaged goods too, so the head of the Republican Party changed directions a third time: If the Elections Board orders a new General Election, he said, it should also order a new Primary;—and the Republican majority in the State Legislature obliged him by passing a law that does just that.
It’s gotten to be an old story: We find ourselves with a problem but given a little time we can figure out the right cure to fix it. But before anyone knows the truth the politicians in both parties, each dead-set on electing their own man, go berserk and give us a circus.
Bladen County
Mark Harris won one of those rare victories you hardly ever see in politics – he upset an incumbent Congressman in a primary. After that Harris went straight on to win the General Election by 905 votes but then ran head on into a buzzsaw: When the day came to declare him the new Congressman in the 9th District the Elections Board said no.
The Board started issuing subpoenas, investigating reports of voter fraud, and most people, not sure who was telling the truth, scratched their heads waiting patiently for the Board to lay the facts on the table. But the politicians in both parties didn’t wait: The Republicans saw a Congressional seat they had in their hands slipping through their fingers and the Democrats saw an election they’d lost by less than a point once again within their grasp.
The head of the Republican Party, Dallas Woodhouse, immediately demanded that the Elections Board declare Harris had won – before it investigated the voter fraud. And a Democratic Congressman (who’s from the suburbs around Washington, D.C., not from North Carolina) said flat-out he knew for a fact “votes have been stolen” which was followed by Nancy Pelosi threatening to order a new election (which the Democrats will have the power to do when they have the majority in Congress).
Newspaper reporters flocked to Bladen County, reporting how a local politician, McCrae Dowless, had signed people up to vote for Mark Harris by absentee ballot then, once the voters received their ballots in the mail, Dowless’ ‘grassroots workers’ returned to their homes saying, Give us your ballots. We’ll send them to the Board of Elections – the problem with that was obvious: Dowless – who was being paid by Harris – having a voter’s ballot in his hands opened the door to mischief.
That wasn’t all: The newspapers also reported Dowless’ grassroots workers had gone to the homes of Democrats, primarily African-Americans, who almost surely voted against Harris and collected their absentee ballots too – the obvious question then was: What did McCrae Dowless do with those ballots?
By then Mark Harris’ Democratic opponent was blasting him for bankrolling ‘criminal activity’ and the head of the Republican Party was backpedaling, telling CNN it looked to him like an investigation was a good idea after all.
Two years ago, back in 2016, the first time Mark Harris ran against Robert Pittenger for Congress he lost the Republican Primary by 134 votes; in that same election McCrae Dowless had worked for a third candidate who got 221 absentee votes to Harris’ 4 and Pittenger’s 1 in Bladen County. After the smoke cleared from that election Harris had met with a local judge, a sheriff, a County Commissioner and a former Republican Party Chairman who told him he ought to hire Dowless to do the same thing for him the next time he ran. And that’s what he did. He hired Dowless but, a few days ago, when WBTV asked him if he’d known about any shenanigans Harris explained, I didn’t – and still don’t – know whether that happened.
So is Mark Harris a villain – who paid a local fixer to get himself elected? Or did he make a mistake in judgement by trusting the wrong man? Was McCrae Dowless a Svengali stealing ballots? Or is he an innocent man? No one will know until the Elections Board lays the facts on the table – so waiting makes sense. But not to politicians. The Democrats now see Mark Harris as damaged goods so they want a new General Election and they want it to be between Dan McCready and Mark Harris. Some Republicans figure Harris may be damaged goods too, so the head of the Republican Party changed directions a third time: If the Elections Board orders a new General Election, he said, it should also order a new Primary;—and the Republican majority in the State Legislature obliged him by passing a law that does just that.
It’s gotten to be an old story: We find ourselves with a problem but given a little time we can figure out the right cure to fix it. But before anyone knows the truth the politicians in both parties, each dead-set on electing their own man, go berserk and give us a circus.