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Friday, January 14, 2011

Part 2: Fact Checking finds Faison leading Smear Campaign against Parker

Only about a dozen people joined in on a live statewide conference call with Bill Faison Tuesday night, January 11th,  to hear why he wants to be the next Chair for North Carolina Democratic Party. What came out was one hell of a well-rehearsed smear campaign against Faison's opponent, front-runner David Parker.

Ironically, not two days later,  Faison issued a statement claiming Parker was attacking him!  NCDPpolitics did some digging into this war of words and found some surprises.  Both Faison's accusations made during the teleconference, and our research findings are detailed below. Overall, we have found evidence disproving Faison's allegations so it does appear  Faison is conducting a smear campaign against Parker. So, is Faison simply confused and merely mistaken -- or is he lying (something Alexander Haig once defined as "tactical misrepresentations")? You decide:
  
Fact-Checking Faison's Talking Points

Raising Money
  • Faison nebulously claimed "many people who know David Parker say they don't believe he can raise the money the state party will need to win elections in 2012." Result: False.
Facts: Parker
David Parker knows how to raise money. He raised $2.5 million running Terry Sanford's 1992 U.S. Senate campaign. Elected to the Iredell-Statesville County School Board in 2002, he raised money for schools. Parker hosted dozens of fundraisers in his home for local, statewide and national Democrats including Kay Hagan, Joe Biden, D.G. Martin and John Edwards. In 2010, Parker was instrumental in leading the drive to allocate $250,000 from the Tax Checkoff moneys directly through District Chairs for grassroots' and county support.  Parker has also served on several Finance Boards (YMCA, Mitchell Community College, Fort Dobbs historical site) to raise funds. 
Facts: Faison  
Faison knowns how to loan himself money. Faison supposedly "raised" a total of $347,036 for his own campaigns (2003-2010) but 45% (or $156,474) of those funds came out of his own pocket. In 2010, Faison raised only 17% of his funds from individuals -- the key donor category our state party will need to pursue aggressively over the next two years. Removing PAC's, party money and loans to himself, Faison has reported just $55,000 from individual donors over the last six years, an average of less than $10,000 a year.

Winning Elections
  • Faison told listeners "I don't believe David Parker has held elected office in a great many years."  Result: Misleading.
Facts:
Parker served four years on the Iredell-Statesville School Board (2002-2006), just five years ago. Faison was elected in 2004 and has six years of public service, a two-year difference. Parker, elected in 1995 as a NC Super-Delegate, has consulted or managed "innumerable" local and Congressional campaigns.

  • Faison claims he knows how to win elections because he's serving his fourth term in the state House and beat a Tea-Party candidate in 2010.  Result: Incredibly Misleading.
Facts:
Faison has been "elected" four times but he has run unopposed in 3 out of 4 general elections and all but 1 primary between 2004 and 2010. His name was the only name on the ballot in 3 of the 4 elections so he wins automatically.  Faison did beat a Tea Party opponent in 2010. However, District 50 is heavily "blue" -- 59% of voters are registered democrats -- and his opponent was significantly outspent. Republican Rick Smith challenged Faison in 2010 spending just $6,400 to Faison's $98,693.  According to a national report on the Tea Party's effect on 2010's State Elections, 98% of incumbents won their primaries, a figure unchanged from the last five elections. 


Endorsements
  • Faison claimed 8 of the 13 congressional district chairs who've endorsed Parker were duped by Parker's "scare tactics" and "misinformationResult: False.
Facts:
Faison explained in vague terms how the Campaign Finance Amendments bill (HB1111) included a last-minute amendment to provide both parties' state chairs an 11 additional appointments to the Tax-Checkoff committee. Armed with extra appointees, the state chair, his party treasurer and two existing appointees could out-vote the 13 district chairs on the committee and take control of how these funds are allocated to the party. In 2009, that fund netted NCDP $250,000. Parker was asked to intervene an settle a brewing coup to remove NCDP Chair David Young from office.  Ultimately, Parker's efforts helped district chairs to receive half the money directly to support their county parties and grassroots expenditures. Faison voted to approve the bill with this 11-appointee amendment.




  • Faison claims he has the support of several key officials after talking with Governor Bev Perdue, Joe Hackney, Wayne Goodwin, June Atkinson, Jim Hunt and many others. Result: False.
Facts:
Faison carefully avoided using the word "endorsement" on this matter during the teleconference. As of this writing, the endorsement page on Faison's website is completely blank. If these political heavy-weights have actually endorsed him, wouldn't this be posted on Faison's website by now? Additionally, Faison has yet to respond to a point-blank question posted on BlueNC.com asking specifically if Faison has theses actual endorsements.

In contrast, Parker's website has more than 70 names posted on his endorsement page. The list includes everyone from county chairs to district chairs and SEC members to current state party officers and super-delegates.

Leadership 
  • Faison accused Parker of not doing more to fix the state party whom Faison called "irrelevant" for failing to help get democratic state legislators elected. He then qualified his comment adding he couldn't identify a single legislator in his six years in office that would disagree. Result: Misleading.
Facts:
Six years ago, Jerry Meek became the state party chair. Meek served two, 2-year terms before stepping down in 2009. David Young, whom Meek recruited to run for chair, was elected Meek's successor.  If you do the math, Faison's concerns with the state party's failure to support state democratic legislators coincided with Meek's tenure as party chair and continued under Meek's protege, David Young. 

During these years, David Parker was a Super-Delegate, not the state party's leader. Parker performed his own duties and then some as previously stated in this article. Disparaging Parker in this manner backfired on Faison and ironically revealed Meek's own leadership short-comings as the state party chair.

  • Faison claims a sitting legislator can lead the state party without issue. Result: False
Facts:
Faison refers to four previous NCDP chairs  were simultaneously sitting legislators, the most recent being Herbert Hyde in 1991-- twenty years ago. Things have changed a great deal since then including party regulations and political fundraising laws.  For example, when the state legislature is in session, a sitting legislator -- who's also chairing the state party -- would be prohibited from accepting contributions from PACs and special interest groups. This compromises the party's ability to raise money giving Republicans a financial advantage, opportunities for law suits and negative media stories. 
  • Faison claims each time the state has had a sitting state legislator as party chair Democrats returned to victory and seen a resurgenceResult: Misleading.
Faison claims he can rebuild the state party and get democrats elected just as Hyde did in 1991.  Faison omits important differences between himself and Hyde. Faison readily admits he has absolutely no party experience or involvement. Hyde, however, had an illustrious 30-year long record of party involvement including service as precinct chair and county chair before seeking the state chair role. During Hyde's term as chair, Democrats controlled the State House and Senate. 2010 couldn't be more different. 

Those are the facts. Clearly, Faison's talking points are designed to win this campaign for North Carolina's Democratic Party Chair -- and to fool voters into believing anything but the truth.  


Faison has lost credibility and been exposed. It's time for Bill Faison to withdraw from this race. 

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