Greensboro 2022 Postmortem

So, the results are in: Nancy Vaughan has held off Justin Outling in the mayor's race. All of the people who were in office in the other seven contested seats will be returning as Zack Matheny will join them for a second tour of duty after officially running unopposed in District 3. The two biggest surprises are Hugh Holston and Tammi Thurm. 

In the at-large race, Holston made it 4-for-4 with fill-ins being elected to full terms. Greensboro voters will always find a way to boost unremarkable people. Katie Rossabi jumped up to fourth while Linda Wilson remained in sixth. Meanwhile, Tracy Furman slipped from third to fifth. Her electability has to be questioned at this point. She lost to Justin Conrad in the 2018 county commissioner's race, and now, she's blown a lead to a bland, propped-up candidate and to a dangerous woman.

In District 5, Thurm held off Tony Wilkins. This means that there's been a demographic shift that no longer favors Republicans or right wingers in that part of town.

In short, the establishment fielded a clean sweep tonight. Also, the people who really run the Gate City love it when the City Council appoints someone to fill unexpired terms because it makes it easier for their candidates to win the following election.

Missed Opportunities and a Gloomy Future

Greensboro Rising and others fighting police brutality could have taken cues from the People's City Council's Los Angeles chapter as the latter fielded candidates in that city's municipal races last month. Instead, mostly inaction in the Gate City led to the right-wing filling a void and shifting the discussion towards the ridiculous notion that Greensboro police somehow didn't get any support when the status quo City Council gave them more money after George Floyd's name faded from the headlines. 

What it means for 2025 is that I completely expect the right-wing to mainstream William Marshburn's position on policing and other issues as well--ergo, I wouldn't be surprised to see Rossabi or Thurston Reeder, Jr. to move even further to the right three years from now and to have some success riding that wave.

What needs to happen now is for those of us who are tired of business as usual together around the groups I mentioned in April. They can continue as their respective groups for nonelectoral proposes, but when it comes to electoral politics, they need to form a group similar to the Richmond Progressive Alliance.

They need to come together and let the public know just how out of touch the City Council is because the local press is in bed with not only these elected officials but the people who fund and prop up the politicians.  

This is reason enough for me to punt on Greensboro politics until 2025. It's time for other groups to join WHOA to shut down the Greensboro City Council and expose them and their funders as the forces who are really driving the city into the ground

Moving Away From Creative Focus

After viewing this year's races in Greensboro, I have to seriously review how I look at who's running and what they stand for.

Greensboro should be ripe for a creative revolution...but yet, there are roadblocks, some of which I've seen over the past six years. My guess is that half of the community has some type of association with the very people they ought to be opposing--they're either related to members of the moneyed elite, work for them or take funding from them. 

Three candidates technically fit the criteria as being members of the creative class, but I disqualified one of them for being just as reactionary as more established candidates and being so rabidly anti-defund the police that I will have nothing to do with her in the future.

Starting in the fall when I analyze the Raleigh races, I will no longer be focused on the creative connection, and it's also worth noting that the Triangle scene is full of clashing egos, so it's easier for me to merely focus on the political.