Ballance filed on Tuesday just before noon and less than three hours later was hit with a political exocet missile at the waterline. New details of his involvement in shielding a convicted federal sex offender from registering with the state as required by NC law emerged from a veteran Super Etendard crew. His campaign structure lacked the capacity to withstand this catastrophic explosion and he quickly sunk like a stone.
Now the battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic party begins in eastern North Carolina. Those who crown Justice Butterfield as the presumed front runner have completely missed the mark.
With four black candidates tightly grouped geographically (three from Wilson and one from Snow Hill) and ranging the entire spectrum of the Black Caucus, white candidate Sam Davis (2002 primary runner-up) from Elizabeth City indeed holds front runner status.
Butterfield will find like Janice Cole that the shift from Judical electioneering to Congressional stumping is a brutal transition. Until this year Judges were not allowed to say much more than their names and party affiliations while campaigning under state ethics rules.
Butterfield is a soft candidate and will be unable to succeed in his quest to win this primary on the inside while campaigning by press release. Ballance furious with his old "friend" for cutting his legs out from under him after the recent sex scandal emerged and encouraged First District Chairman and Snow Hill mayor Don Davis to enter the race as his surrogate.
This primary battle and the probable ensuing August runoff will roil the Democratic party for years to come...
Just as French hegemony in Indochina ended at Dien Bien Phu in a stunning defeat, so too has the Democratic party's headlock on eastern North Carolina been terminated in most spectacular fashion. Bravo to the GOP shock troops that executed this classic post-modern battleplan. What will they think of next?
J
Frank Ballance created the John Hyman Foundation while a state senator and then used it as a political slush fund fueled by more than two million tax-payer dollars during a span of more than ten years. He voted the Foundation the money each year through the Department of Corrections and then as Chairman of the Foundation not only authorized the expenditures to his political operatives but personally signed the checks.
They then "contributed" these monies to his campaign...
Ballance thought he could tough it out until State Senator Robert Holloman sold him out in the Federal Grand Jury. Holloman, caught red-handed receiving and kicking back more than $30,000, had no choice and chose to bargain for a lighter sentence in exchange for being the first to be indicted later this political season.
Ballance still thought he held the ace of trumps but by then the Democratic party knew the out of control despot would collapse the entire ticket in November if he wasn't taken out. Senior Democratic elements in Wilson and Pitt counties -- long at odds with the old-line Black Caucus that Ballance used as a political sledgehammer -- drew their daggers and sliced his jugular with the Lisa Hayes affair.
Mortally wounded and with no place to hide, Ballance had to withdraw 72 hours later...
Frank Ballance beaucoup dinky dao...
J