How to find the truth amid 2023 NC election claims about GOP trying to ‘pull a Cotham’

Few 2023 North Carolina elections will feature political parties next to candidates’ names, but that hasn’t stopped speculation in some races over possible partisan ties.

Nonpartisan elections for mayor, city council, town commissions and more are on many ballots this November. That means voters have to do their own research if they’re interested in whether candidates align with particular parties. And it’s left otherwise nonpartisan elections open to claims about partisanship.

Progressive political group Carolina Forward alleged in early October the Republican Party of Mecklenburg County was “trying to ‘pull a Cotham’ again” — a reference to the state legislator who flipped parties from Democrat to Republican earlier this year — by secretly supporting three school board candidates: Annette Albright, Claire Covington and Michael Johnson.

Carolina Forward claimed the trio, running as the “CMS Unity” ticket, has ties to Republican fundraisers in a social media post reshared by the Mecklenburg Democratic Party.

The MeckGOP pushed back on those claims and announced in October it would file “a complaint with the North Carolina State Board of Elections requesting the Board open an investigation into the false and misleading claims and practices of Carolina Forward.”

The progressive group isn’t the only one injecting party politics into nonpartisan races. In Huntersville’s mayor and commissioners election, a Republican political group sent out a flyer accusing some mayor and town commission candidates of being “dangerous Democrat activists.”

And candidates in Mecklenburg County and beyond are picking up party endorsements in nonpartisan elections.

For voters looking for clarity, including whether party affiliation matters in nonpartisan races, there are ways to research candidates’ partisan affiliations.

Are Republicans running in CMS race?

Albright and Covington are both registered to vote as unaffiliated, while Johnson is a registered Democrat, according to the State Board of Elections. But campaign finance filings show all three candidates share a P.O. box and treasurer with some Republican politicians and political action committees.

Carolina Forward said in its post those ties are “yet another trojan-horse tactic by the Meck Republicans and the Moms for Loonytoons,” a reference to the conservative Moms for Liberty group.

The MeckGOP refutes those claims, saying Carolina Forward “recklessly based its false claims” on positions in a campaign that are “apolitical.”

But Carolina Forward has continued to post about the Unity Ticket as recently as Monday on its social media.

Johnson also previously denied to the Observer that the slate was tied to the Republican Party or Moms for Liberty.

“It saddens me because I feel like I’m being attacked by my own party when all of us have the kids’ best interests at heart,” he said.

The Mecklenburg Democratic Party is promoting three candidates — Liz Monterrey, Lenora Shipp and Monty Witherspoon — while the African American Caucus of Mecklenburg Democrats is backing Shipp, Witherspoon and Shamaiye Haynes, WFAE reported.

Endorsements from political parties in nonpartisan races in North Carolina “happen fairly frequently,” said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University.

“It is increasingly common to try to break through the noise and indicate to voters where each candidate stands in terms of traditional partisanship,” he said. “And the reason is, it just makes it easier for the voter and obviously better for the party.”

Why does party matter in nonpartisan elections?

Robert Taber, Carolina Forward’s vice president for policy outreach, said he believes looking into potential partisanship in nonpartisan races is about keeping candidates honest.

“What gets troubling is when there are candidates where there are indications that they’re being supported by people who have a very particular view, but they deny all knowledge of that, or they try to try to shrug it off,” he said.

Taber, a teacher, said especially in school board races it’s important for voters to understand whether a candidate is “going to be focused on addressing teacher shortages and helping all students succeed” or “going to be embracing some sort of deeply partisan political identity or agenda because of who provided them with the infrastructural support to run their campaign and who donated to them.”

Outgoing CMS board member Jennifer De La Jara said “the politics matters” even in a nonpartisan race.

“We actually do need to engage in the politics of it and think about it politically,” De La Jara said.

While she can understand the “surface level of appeal” of keeping politics out of education, she said, that’s not always feasible because of the way local, state and federal governments are structured.

“It’s actually very naive to think that we can do that because, particularly in education, all policy and all funding decisions are made by politicians, whether that’s at the federal, the state or the local level,” she said.

De La Jara said its important for voters to do their homework on candidates, including looking into party affiliations.

“They have tools at their fingertips in order to research that,” she said of voters. “That should not be the only factor., but it’s certainly a factor.”

Claims of party allegiance can explicitly or implicitly tie candidates to positions on national issues.

In Huntersville, the flyer circulated by a Republican-aligned group made claims about some nonpartisan candidates’ views on topics such as abortion and gender-affirming care for minors, which don’t typically fall under the purview of local government.

How to spot party affiliation in NC elections

While nonpartisan races can “slow down the effect of partisanship,” Cooper said, they also put “more onus on the voter to do research.”

The first step Cooper recommends for voters looking to research candidates is to find out “where the candidates fall on the major issues regardless of partisanship.” That process can include reading candidates’ campaign websites, watching debates and community forums, and keeping up with media coverage.

Cooper said “the easiest thing to do” for North Carolina voters is to check candidates’ voter registration at vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup and see whether they’re registered as a Democrat, Republican or unaffiliated voter as well as their voting history.

“If the candidates are registered as unaffiliated, you can get some clues by which primary they tend to vote in,” Cooper added.

Covington, one of the CMS Unity candidates who is registered unaffiliated, for example, voted in Charlotte’s Democratic primary in September, according to State Board of Elections data. Her N.C. voting history doesn’t show a vote in any other party primaries.

Campaign finance reports can also provide key information, according to Cooper.

“If Candidate A gets a lot of money from right-leaning groups, and Candidate B gets money from left-leaning groups, then that’s a pretty good indication of who thinks they will benefit from an election,” he said.

People can read Mecklenburg County candidates’ campaign finance reports through the county Board of Elections at meckboe.org or through the State Board of Elections at ncsbe.gov/campaign-finance.

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