Roberts: I didn't get shoved aside because I'm a woman

Jennifer Roberts talked with me this morning about why she decided to drop a provocative statement about men shoving women aside that was in a draft of her remarks at Tuesday night’s county commissioners meeting. Democrat Harold Cogdell seized the commissioners’ chairmanship from Roberts with the backing of the board’s four Republicans.

In a draft of her remarks, Roberts said: “I am not the first woman who has been shoved aside by a man, and I won’t be the last.” But she did not say that at the meeting.

“I struck it because I realized it was not what I wanted to say. It is what women have said to me and it’s not what I wanted to say,” Roberts told me. “It’s not really about that at all. These things happen in politics regardless of race or gender. It’s politics. It’s not one particular gender or category.

“A lot of women have expressed their anger to me because they do feel like it might have been different had I been Parks Helms or someone else. I don’t have any reason to believe that’s true. If people can make a deal to get something they want, then they do it.

“You want to appreciate your constituents and understand their perspective but sometimes you get carried away and realize it’s more their perspective than yours and you realize, ‘I don’t feel that way.’ Being overly empathetic, I don’t know. That’s why you have several drafts of something, to convey what you really mean.”

Roberts was smart to strike the line. It would have been unnecessarily divisive – and wrong. Roberts wasn’t shoved aside because Cogdell’s a man and she’s a woman. She was shoved aside by an overly ambitious politician who saw an opportunity and took it.

On related fronts:

-- Roberts said it’s “a misinterpretation” to say that she has suggested that women are discriminated against in politics. “What I have said is we govern ourselves better when we have the voice of women as well as the voice of men. Certain issues get more attention when women’s voices are stronger. … Where we can increase (the number of elected women) we usually have better outcomes because there are more diverse voices at the table.” She cited issues around child care and preschool education as one example of something that is harmed when women aren’t at the political table.

-- Women are underrepresented in public office in part, she said, because they sometimes have a harder time raising money than men. “I don’t know if it’s because you’re the newcomer, you don’t have that old guys network of people who are all in your law firm and they all give a thousand bucks.”

-- I told her it was notable that she said in her concession speech “I have kept my promises to the Democratic Party.” She said: “I do believe in being fair. I do believe in inclusion, not just racial, ethnic, religious, etc., but also sexual orientation. We need all those different voices and I don’t believe the Republican Party has that same sense that they celebrate diverse voices because diverse voices learn from each other. I don’t get that feeling from the Republican Party at all.”

She may have kept her promises to the Democratic Party, but emphasizing that party loyalty could make it harder for her to appeal to a broader base of voters in her next run for higher office.

-- Speaking of her next run, there might not be one in 2012. Roberts suggested she was eyeing higher office when she announced last month that she wouldn’t run for county commissioner again. This morning, she said that might be on hold. “I’m pretty sure I’m not a candidate in 2012 but I can’t say that for sure. I’m pretty sure I want to take that step back and be more deliberative. … You really need to step out every so often and keep your ideas fresh.”

-- Taylor Batten

How many politicians does it take to govern?

It’s hardly a popular springboard to higher office, but Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx has made merging Charlotte and Mecklenburg County governments one of his top priorities. At his and the City Council’s swearing in on Monday, Foxx renewed his push for it, saying government could work better, “perhaps even less expensively, for the people who pay the bills.”

We doubt that consolidation would cut taxpayers’ bills much. Mountains of research on other city-county mergers have found a mixed bag; indeed, costs went up a bit in Jacksonville, Miami and other places. In Charlotte, there’s little redundancy to root out. One government or the other handles most services for both city and county residents. City Manager Curt Walton said officials examining the idea in 1996 found a “few million dollars” in savings out of combined budgets of $3 billion.

Still, Foxx is on the right track. An independent commission should study how it could be done here, lay out approaches for the City Council and county commissioners and let voters decide.
Here’s why: One elected body and one manager overseeing one bureaucracy should be held accountable for the governance of our one community. Precisely because so much of local government has already been functionally consolidated, it is anachronistic to have (and pay) two boards of directors, with 21 elected officials, and two chief executives. Not to mention two budget directors, two human resources directors, two PR departments, and so on. Even if it doesn’t amount to much, those are salaries worth saving.

More than the money, though, is the accountability. Who do you call to fix that pothole in the road? What if your garbage doesn’t get picked up in the unincorporated area of the county? Who do you boot from office if you don’t like how much money schools have to spend? The average voter can’t be blamed for not being sure.

We’ve seen recently how having two governments over one area can hurt a community’s ability to set priorities, have flexibility in budgeting and react to crises. The city stepped in to help libraries, which are a county responsibility. The city and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools have disagreed over who should pay for school police officers. When the county was forced to cut $150 million from its budget over two years, it had limited choices. It couldn’t spread those cuts across city departments serving county residents.

This issue has been batted around in Charlotte for decades. Politics and public officials’ concerns about self-preservation have blocked it in the past. That’s why the planning this time should start there. Tackle the politics successfully and the rest will fall into place. Perhaps voters could agree to a plan that doesn’t kick in for a few years to ease some politicians’ and staffers’ fears that it could cost them their jobs.

Opponents worry about concentrating power in one government. But it’s not like the two current governments are checking each other’s power now. Better to have one body setting priorities, and one body that has to answer to voters.

Tricia Cotham: N.C. school superintendent?

Under the Dome, the politics blog of The Observer's sister paper, The Raleigh News and Observer, had some interesting news today. Apparently some folks aren't very happy with June Atkinson, North Carolina's state schools superintendent. And those folks are fellow Democrats.

That's right. It's her fellow Democrats who are apparently disaffected. According to the Dome, Progress North Carolina, a liberal advocacy group, is ticked off at Atkinson about her silence on Republican-driven education budget cuts this year. Today, as Atkinson appeared before a legislative committee, Progress NC sent a statement asking her for action. "As state superintendent, it’s her job to be the state’s biggest advocate for public schools," said Gerrick Brenner, the group's executive director. "Right now, June Atkinson is failing teachers and students, by not standing up to lawmakers who continue to hide behind false rhetoric after they slashed school budgets."

The Dome also said Mecklenburg Rep. Tricia Cotham seems interested in the job, and when I e-mailed her about that she said yes she was. If Atkinson decides not to seek reelection, Cotham said she plans to run for the job.

Cotham has been keenly focused on education issues ever since she was elected and began serving in the N.C. legislature in 2007. Her interest is well-rooted. She's a former teacher and assistant principal in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. The youngest female to ever hold public office in North Carolina, she is vice-chair of the education committee and has co-sponsored or sponsored several pieces of legislation on education and children's welfare over the years.

All that's to say that she has great credentials for the job.

As for Atkinson, she battled mightily for the job when Gov. Bev Perdue tried in 2009 to elevate state school board chair Bill Harrison to CEO of North Carolina's schools and relegate the elected school board job to a largely ceremonial role. Atkinson sued on constitutional grounds, arguing that Perdue did not have the authority to put Harrison in charge of schools. She won that case, but Harrison remained as chairman of the state school board.

This editorial board has posited that the case really didn't answer a long-lingering question of who ought to be in charge of public schools - and thus who ought to be accountable to the public. Atkinson as Superintendent of Public Instruction at least nominally has that authority, but the legislature also regularly makes education policy by what it chooses to emphasize. And as a top adviser to Perdue as he chairs the Governor’s Education Transformation Commission which oversees the state's $400 million in federal Race to the Top funds, Harrison still manages to have more clout and visibility than Atkinson anyway.

This editorial board still thinks the N.C. education governance system is screwy, and that the job of superintendent of public instruction should be appointed - not elected. Cotham though does have the legislative skills, education background and the outspokenness to give the job a higher profile than it has now - and get more done to benefit North Carolina's children.

Posted by associate editor Fannie Flono

Money, money, money - and politics

Good morning. I'm associate editor Fannie Flono, host today on the Observer's O-pinion blog.

So what are the pundits talking about today? Money, money, money - and politics, of course.

The conservative National Journal is touting a new survey it did with United Technologies asking Americans about their views on the extending that payroll-tax cut that Congress - surprise! - is divided on.

No division among a majority of Americans though. According to this poll, most support extending the payroll-tax cut despite concerns that an extension of the short-term reduction would increase the federal budget deficit.

As the Democratic-controlled Senate and the GOP-led House advance competing plans for extending the payroll-tax reduction, the new poll shows that 58 percent of Americans think Congress should extend the tax cut. Just 32 percent think they should not extend the tax cut.

Support for extending the payroll-tax cut—despite concerns about the budget deficit—is broad and bipartisan. Democrats favor an extension, 68 percent to 25 percent. Half of Republicans think Congress should extend the payroll-tax reduction, while 39 percent think they should not. Among independents, 57 percent favor an extension, while a third do not.
Gentlemen and gentlewomen of the Congress, are you listening? Don't be a Grinch. Extend that tax-cut before Christmas.

Speaking of Grinches, Newt Gingrich (What? It is Grinch-like to want to ditch child labor laws) was also in polling news today. The National Journal quoted two polls showing he leads the field of Republican presidential contenders in the key early states of Iowa and South Carolina.

Gingrich leads the field in the Hawkeye State with support from 33 percent of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released early on Tuesday. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, are tied for second place, with 18 percent each.

In South Carolina, which holds its primary on Jan. 21, Gingrich held a significant lead over Romney of 38 percent to 22 percent, according to a Winthrop University poll. Perry was third, with 9 percent, followed by Cain with 7 percent, Bachmann at 5 percent, Paul at 4 percent, Santorum at 3 percent and Huntsman at 1 percent. Nine percent of likely primary voters are undecided.

It's great to see national news outlets giving the survey from nearby Winthrop University in Rock Hill the nod as a significant poll.

Arianna Huffington gives her take on Gingrich's chances of taking the nomination in a Huffington Post column today. She says Gingrich's main opponent isn't just Mitt Romney but Gingrich himself. "This task is complicated by the fact that there isn't just one Gingrich," she writes. "He's a very Walt Whitmanesque candidate -- he celebrates himself, he sings of himself, he is large, and he contains multitudes."

And what's that about President Barack Obama trying to channel Republican president Teddy Roosevelt in a speech today on the economy on the 100th anniversary of a speech the former president gave on a similar topic? Ron Fournier doesn't think Obama lives up to Roosevelt's legacy just yet.

But NPR and other news outlets report that President Obama will try to follow in the footsteps of Teddy Roosevelt when he delivers an economic speech in Osawatomie, Kan., the same city where Roosevelt issued a famous call for a 'New Nationalism' more than 100 years ago.
"For Obama, this is a 'connect-the-dots' speech," said NPR's Scott Horsley. "White House spokesman Jay Carney said it's a chance to show how the president's various economic proposals — from stricter banking oversight to payroll tax cuts — fit together, as Obama prepares for a re-election battle."
Roosevelt's speech — delivered after he had left the White House and as he was beginning a bid to return there on the Bull Moose Party ticket (he didn't succeed) — has become known for his words about "the square deal."

"I stand for the square deal," Roosevelt said. "But when I say that I am for the square deal, I mean not merely that I stand for fair play under the present rules of the game, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a more substantial equality of opportunity and of reward for equally good service." Read more of the 26th president's speech at NPR. Read the entire speech here: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=501.

Locally, fireworks are still expected at the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners meeting where Democrats Harold Cogdell and Jennifer Roberts will duke it out for board chair. And a new Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority chief is on board. Tom Murray takes over the job Dec. 15 after Tim Newman was demoted to an executive sales position following a series of controversies. Newman's salary is $240,000 and Murray's will be only $30,000 more at $275,000. Ummm. If Tim stays on - and at his present salary, will Tim and Tom be duking it out too to see who actually runs the CRVA and who just holds the title? Just asking.

Posted by Fannie Flono

'Harold has sold his soul'

By Wednesday morning, Harold Cogdell will likely be chair of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. Nothing is certain, of course, as we learned last year when Cogdell bowed out at the last minute and allowed fellow Democrat Jennifer Roberts to retain the gavel. But we're told Roberts has called the four Republicans on the board asking for their support again this year, and only two have returned her calls. Those two told her that she wouldn't get their vote.

Democrats are furious at Cogdell's power grab - first because of the naked ambition behind it, but also because of how it might impact board votes in the coming year. The ambition charge is a little dubious - yes, Cogdell is covetous of the more powerful seat, and he shoved aside protocol in grabbing the chair from a fellow party member who got more votes than he did the last time they ran, in 2010. But Roberts isn't devoid of ambition. She's likely running for higher office soon and knows that being board chair will bring her a very public stage when the Democratic National Convention comes to town next year.

Still, Democrats are rightly concerned with how Cogdell's maneuvering will steal power from the 5-4 majority they have on the board. By pledging to Republicans that he'll consider a more conservative view on taxes and spending, he may be committing himself to a worldview that doesn't fit with the rest of his party.

That'll be critical in 2012, with commissioners facing possible cuts to schools and programs for the poor. Will Cogdell feel obligated to side more with Republicans on tax rates and spending cuts than he previously has been? Democrats and Republicans in Mecklenburg tell us yes. Said one: "Harold has sold his soul."

What did he get in return? We're not sure. He'll have plenty of cameras pointed his way in this busy upcoming year for Charlotte. But if his aim is to use that exposure to propel himself toward higher office, he'll have to do so without the support of his party's establishment, which believes he's shown himself to be about Harold first, everyone else later. He also shouldn't expect much loyalty from Republicans, who are embracing him only for the possibility of policy support. Privately, they don't really trust him, either.

That's not a reputation you want for your next citywide, countywide - or perhaps bigger - election. But it's what Cogdell has brought himself. He'll get tomorrow what he's wanted for two years. But it's going to be a very lonely throne.

Peter St. Onge

A primary focus on South Carolina

UPDATED: 10 A.M.: Good morning, and welcome to O-pinion, the Observer's home for perspective and discussion on the issues of the day. I'm Peter St. Onge, associate editor of the O's editorial pages, and I'll be your host today.

Here's a roundup of what people are talking about this morning:

The primaries are coming, and the GOP's eyes are turning to ... South Carolina? Maybe. The Associated Press reports today that Newt Gingrich understands what Republicans have known for three decades - the winner of the South Carolina primary goes on to win the GOP nomination.

Some years, that's simply a matter of the Palmetto State giving a nod to the clear GOP frontrunner, but this year, S.C. should play a pivotal role in nudging someone to the front. The Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses are up for grabs, with Gingrich leading Ron Paul and Mitt Romney in a Des Moines Register poll this weekend. New Hampshire will likely give the nod on Jan. 10 to former neighbor Mitt Romney, who leads comfortably there.

UPDATE: Those numbers could change quickly, however, with another potential boost for Gingrich today. FOX 5 in Atlanta is reporting that Herman Cain will endorse Gingrich, and that details for an announcement are being worked out. ABC's The Note, however, is reporting that no such endorsement will come today.

Should Gingrich take Iowa and Romney grab New Hampshire, that leaves South Carolina to perhaps sort things out on Jan. 21. Gingrich is making a big push there, opening five offices and hiring nine staffers, the most of any Republican candidate. The latest polling shows him in a strong position, leading Romney 38-15 in an Insider Advantage poll taken last week before Herman Cain dropped out of the race.

Romney had seemed to overcome South Carolinians' reluctance - he led in earlier polls before Gingrich's national surge. Romney abandoned the state in 2008 before finishing fourth in the primary won by John McCain. Romney went on to lose to McCain in Florida and drop out 10 days later.

Romney seems undecided thus far about South Carolina. He only has three paid S.C. staffers, according to AP, and he hasn't visited the state much. Expect Romney to continue a recent push in Iowa, where he had his first TV spot last week, and where voters consider him the most likeable and electable in a general election. If Romney can win Iowa and New Hampshire, that would mute the impact of a Gingrich win in S.C.

The Weekly Standard says that Romney TV spot left no doubt Romney is "playing to win" Iowa by appealing to Iowa's conservatives.

The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne says Gingrich's emergence makes sense, if you understand Republicans.

And finally, here's Ron Paul's fun, new in-your-face TV ad, up in Iowa and New Hampshire.




Closer to home

In today's Observer editorial, we wonder (along with others) why the Democrat-led N.C. Board of Elections prematurely shut down an investigation into Gov. Bev Perdue's campaign. A Wake County grand jury issued indictments to campaign staffers last week.

Our letters to the editor focus today on what to do about our economic hard times, including one approach that comes from way back in 1621.

This week in politics: Newt and Trust.

We began the week with two frontrunners for the Republican nomination for president. We ended the week the same way - yet there are lots of folks still not ready to believe it.

It's not that any other candidates are threatening to make a run at Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Rick Perry is still being Rick Perry. Herman Cain is finally thinking about taking a knee under the weight of his alleged past. (You know it's time to go when previous scandal-ridden politicos say "It's time to go.")

As for Michelle Bachmann - voters nationally may be fickle in the flings they have with candidates, but once they knock you from double to single digits, they rarely give you another good look. Ask Ron Paul, who had his moment four years ago.

So that leaves Mitt against Newt to run against the very vulnerable Barack Obama. Obama did get some good news this week - his approval ratings rose slightly in November, putting him better than where Jimmy Carter was in his third November as president, but worse than everyone else.

Romney, who has run a textbook primary campaign, had his first stumble this week, offering testy answers on immigration and health care in an interview with Brett Baier of FOX News. Worse, he complained to Baier about the aggressiveness of the questions (which were, by the way, fair and representative of what FOX's largely conservative viewership would have asked.) Romney will have to do better, because with the GOP field narrowing, the focus will intensify on policy and how his conservatism differs from Gingrich.

Still, some prominent conservatives are wary of Gingrich's politics and demeanor. The Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer speculates that Gingrich might be a moderate who came late to conservatism. And, said Krauthammer:

Gingrich has a self-regard so immense that it rivals Obama’s — but, unlike Obama’s, is untamed by self-discipline.

That leads to the biggest question on Gingrich. Yes, he's smart and has legitimate conservative chops (despite his occasional forays across the ideological aisle), but can Republicans trust him not to say something politically lethal next September?

Here's Newt on poor children this week, via FOX News:

“Really poor children, in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works so they have no habit of showing up on Monday,” Gingrich claimed.

“They have no habit of staying all day, they have no habit of I do this and you give me cash unless it is illegal,” he added.

That might fly with the far right of his party in December 2011, but it will hand the White House back to Obama 11 months from now.

Peter St. Onge

It's time to finally end online tax advantage

While millions of courageous consumers donned elbow pads and confronted Black Friday crowds last week, more shoppers than ever decided Monday to work through Christmas lists the newfangled way – with swipes and clicks on their favorite electronic devices.

Cyber Monday 2011 was the best online shopping day in history, with online sales rising 22 percent to $1.3 billion this year. That’s good news for our sluggish national economy, but for brick-and-mortar businesses closer to home, it’s the season once again to rue revenue that might’ve been.

Last year, local businesses across the country lost billions in sales – and North Carolina lost $190 million in fiscal year tax revenue – because online retailers are not compelled to collect state taxes on purchases. That puts brick-and-mortar businesses at a 5- to 10-percent disadvantage when shoppers start comparing prices, says the Alliance for Main Street Fairness, a national collection of mom-and-pop retailers that’s been joined in their online outrage by retail giants such as Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy.

On Thursday, four N.C. retailers from the group participated in a conference call with reporters to protest the advantage current laws give to online retailers like Amazon.com. The group’s complaint is this: States, including North Carolina, obligate consumers to pay state sales taxes on online purchases, but under a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, only merchants who have a physical presence in a state are required to collect those taxes. That means states are collecting mostly from consumers who add up all their uncollected online sales taxes and include them on their tax forms each April. You can guess how that’s working out.

Retailers say that physical presence in a state, called a “nexus,” should be redefined in the modern marketplace. Andrew Riddle, owner of Aging in Place in Hendersonville, explained why Thursday: When an Iinternet retailer sells brass bars for a shower to an N.C. consumer, he said, our roads are used to deliver those goods, and our landfills are used for the boxes that are thrown away. That constitutes a nexus, yet the online retailer doesn’t have to collect the sales taxes that Riddle would if he sold the same brass bars.

Now, after years of wrangling with online retailers, Congress is on the edge of a breakthrough, with bi-partisan bills in the U.S. House and Senate. The Senate bill even has the early, critical backing of Amazon.com. The bills would allow states to compel Internet retailers to collect taxes, but they would require those states to adopt streamlined and simplified rules that make it easier for online retailers to collect from different states.

The bills each would exempt smaller online retailers from collecting sales taxes. Companies with less than $500,000 in annual online sales get the waiver in the Senate bill. In the House version, which is co-sponsored by N.C. Rep. Renee Elmers, the threshold is $1 million in annual sales.

Those exemptions might elicit a rightful humbug from brick-and-mortar businesses, who receive no such break on collecting sales taxes. But the legislation, overall, is fair, and it would end years of an unlevel playing field. The bills haven’t progressed past the committee stage yet, so there’s no hope for passage this holiday season. But we urge Congress to provide prompt delivery on a new law.

Bill James: We all say stupid things

When Observer cartoonist Kevin Siers draws a particularly scathing cartoon of Mecklenburg County commissioner Bill James, the Republican James doesn't hold a grudge. In fact, he usually gets a laugh out of it and asks for a copy.

It's that outlook on politics that allows James to support Democrat Harold Cogdell in his fight to be chairman of the board despite a recent dustup between the two of them. John Grooms over at Creative Loafing calls Cogdell's attempt to dethrone Jennifer Roberts "shameless" and reminds readers that Cogdell lashed out at James recently but now seeks his support.

In August, Cogdell called James "an embarrassment to Mecklenburg County," and said: "It continues to mystify me that you are repeatedly provided the privilege of serving Mecklenburg County in elected office. Especially considering you so rarely offer any value to any productive public discourse or dialogue, but rather seek every opportunity to incite polarization and divisiveness.”

Cogdell now seeks James' vote for chairman, and James is happy to provide it. Observer reporter Fred Kelly and I separately asked James about that. "It is a fact that human beings often react inappropriately with excess passion or language on occasion," James responded. "In politics you can’t hold grudges or dwell on slights. If you do, it damages you and your ability to get things done. I don’t know anyone in politics that hasn’t said something or done something that they later thought could have been said better (myself included)."

The man has a point there. And it's an attitude that could win Cogdell the gavel.

-- Taylor Batten