Does Anyone Here Understand This Campaign?

I suppose as a lawyer and former appellate judge it is natural to appreciate a good question. Whether cross examining a witness or framing the "question presented" for an appellate brief or probing the argument of counsel from the bench, a well directed question is both a skill and necessity to the process. While on the Court of Appeals I observed two lawyers at oral argument struggling with a complicated boundary line dispute when finally, Chief Judge Fred Hedrick, leaned back and interruupted them: "Either of you two lawyers actually understand this case?" With chagrin they looked at each other and answered "No, your honor."

Applying all of this to the race for governor and the various campaigns going on, the question might be "Does anybody actually understand this election?" From the questions asked or should I say not asked, one might well conclude that the answer is also "no". The format of the campaigns provide little opportunity to ask tough, probing question of the opposition. To the extent a campaign does attempt to do so it is usually through a press release. We tried that the other day questioning aspects of Pat McCrory's transportation plan - but to the best of my knowledge not a single media entity picked it up. Even Under the Dome's blog which can stretch to incredible lengths to find something to write about (see the Princess Diana dress story) didn't run it.

And out on the campaign trail, the press rarely ask good questions, particularly the kind that makes a candidate defend a position taken or explain his or her criticism of comments made about an issue. In defense of the press, I'll admit that TV nightly news is only interested in 30 seconds (ususally if a murder or wreck has taken place) and print journalism is undergoing a major transition to blogging and website journalism. And of course, reporters are not lawyers nor trained in the art of grilling politicians.

For example if I could get Hiz Honor the Mayor under oath and on the witness stand, I've got lots of questions I'd like answered. Here's a general one that lends itself to some good follow up: "With all your talk about leadership, what have you really accomplished in your business and political career?" The answer I suspect would be "Lots." but that's when you start probing. Pat's a mid-level manager at Duke Energy after 30 plus years and it seems to me he's spent a lot of time being the mayor. But isn't the job of Mayor of Charlotte really more ceremonial with a City Manager form of government and an active Council that really makes the decisions?

I confess the press has asked very little if anything in the way of substantive questions about the numerous proposals that our campaign has put out ranging from education reform to transportation to healthcare to economic development. The only challenge to any of my positions or what I would consider tough questions occasionally comes from the fringe of the debate. (I recently was taken to task by the healthcare expert over at the Justice Center for my debate comments on there being too many mandates on health insurance policies in NC). And you know what? He's made me go back and research the issue further which is exactly what tough questions are supposed to do.

I'm prepared to engage in the challenge of asking and answering tough questions and the other candidates should be too. To do so as a candidate, however, requires a degree of preparation and a perseverance in getting real answers from the opposition. Likewise, for the press, it requires a real determination to make candidates answer substantive questions about their records and their proposals. Thirty second soundbites won't get the job done. Is anyone else up for it?

Great Article But Who's Reading It

This morning's Asheville Citizen-Times had a great article by Jordan Schrader about my judicial record and its relationship to my run for governor. Jordan spent a lot of time in preparation for this story researching my opinions from both my 8 years on the Court of Appeals and 10 years on the Supreme Court. As I told him it always makes me nervous when reporters, particularly those without a legal background start trying to report on the cases I participated in as a judge. The brevity of the news media doesn't lend itself to giving a complete picture of the record of the case, briefs filed and arguments presented that go into reaching a decision.

That being said, I thought Jordan did an excellent job in summarizing several key cases and reporting on my observations about them. One pleasure I take from the campaign is the press and opposition needing to research my background and thus the necessity of reading all those opinions I wrote over the course of an 18 year career as an appellate judge. Folks, that's great reading, particularly if your having trouble sleeping. But as I once told Professor Doris Betts, the wonderful creative writing instructor at UNC-CH and distinguished author, I'm her most published former student.

Back to Jordan's story and who's reading it. Now hopefully everyone who gets a copy of the paper will be drawn to the story but I guess there's no way to adequately determine who's reading the hard copy. But the web story does have a number count and it's both informative and maybe encouraging along with a healthy dose of discouragement.

In the first 12 hours that the story has been posted,well over 400 "hits" on the story have taken place. The good news is that I'm running ahead by a few votes of the story about the young Wisconsin deer hunter who had his hat shot off but wasn't injured. The bad news is I'm trailing the story about an 81 year old woman punching a police officer in the face. Ok, so as I'm plotting my massive media campaign expect to see occasional references to deer hunters and angry 81 years old grannies.