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DURHAM – The Friends of Durham on Thursday announced that it’s endorsing the re-election bids of Mayor Bill Bell and City Council members Diane Catotti and Eugene Brown.
For the third council seat up for grab on Nov. 8, the group is backing challenger Steve Schewel, Friends leader David Smith said.
The group is also endorsing one of the two sales-tax referenda County Commissioners have placed on the ballot, which would allow officials to levy a half-percent surcharge to support public transit.
Smith said the Friends’ internal debate yielded “a close vote” against the second levy, a quarter percent for public education.
The group settled on its support for Bell and Brown without serious dispute.
Speaking of Bell, Smith said Friends leaders “thought his experience and knowledge was better suited for the job than his opponent,” minister and financial adviser Sylvester Williams.
As for Brown, “we’ve been real pleased with him,” Smith said.
But the decision on Catotti and Schewel produced another close vote, as Friends leaders also considered giving a nod to challenger Donald Hughes.
In the end, the group opted to go with Catotti and Schewel because they’re “very knowledgeable and committed,” whereas Hughes is “more of an unknown,” Smith said.
“We hope that he will continue to stay active,” Smith said. “But we went with the experience.”
The group’s support for the transit tax came because it believes the rail system officials are planning will open future economic development opportunities, similar to those seen around Charlotte’s rail corridor, Smith said.
Members also regarded transit as a matter critical to Durham’s ability to entice more businesses to locate here. “Companies coming to the area, one of the things they look for is, do you support mass transit,” Smith said.
The education levy lost out because members were concerned its state-dictated ballot language doesn’t oblige County Commissioners to spend the revenue on schools.
Commissioners have said “that’s what it’s going to be used for, but they can change their minds, or we can get different commissioners on there” who would be free to use the money elsewhere, Smith said.
Moreover, Friends leaders believe the Durham Public Schools are too costly.
“Our schools, per student, are very expensive,” more so than in most places in North Carolina, Smith said. “And our local charter schools are running [with] a lot less per student than the [DPS] schools.”
The Friends of Durham is generally regarded as the most conservative of Durham’s big-three political groups. Its leadership includes both Republicans and Democrats.
The other groups, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People and the People’s Alliance, are more tightly aligned with the Democratic Party.
The Friends mayoral and council slate nonetheless was identical to that of the People’s Alliance. The Durham Committee, meanwhile, supported Bell, Hughes and City Council challengers Solomon Burnette and Victoria Peterson.
Thursday’s Friends announcement gave the transit tax a clean sweep of the big-three referenda endorsements. The Durham Committee and the People’s Alliance were united in also supporting the levy for schools.
