WTVD story sparks Democrat family feud on eve of runoff
WTVD NewsChannel11 has come out with an election eve bombshell suggesting that former Labor Secretary John Brooks — trying to retake his old seat — and the late senator, governor and liberal icon Terry Sanford are racists. Brooks and Marlowe Foster — who is black — are on the ballot tomorrow for the right to take on incumbent GOP state labor secretary Cherie Berry in November.
BlueNC.com, one of the state’s leading leftist blogs, is taking offense at the story, as presented by Foster and WTVD:
Pathetic Attempt by Marlowe Foster campaign to smear John Brooks!
Submitted by WakeVerifiedVoting on Mon, 07/16/2012 – 5:52pmDear Marlowe:
Really don’t know much about you since you haven’t really been a part of the Democratic Party in NC. I hear you used to work on a farm, and have been quite the lobbyist for big corporations. I’ve been going to meetings from the precinct level on up through state party conventions and SEC meetings, but I’ve never seen you or met you.
Like I said – I don’t know you, but I do know John Brooks. And this really is an act of desperation on your part to drag up stuff from decades ago to smear a good man.
[…]
I’ve known him from my work with the Democratic Party, and I’ve also known him from working with him in the Wake County Progressive Democrats, and the Progressive Democrats of North Carolina. Just like you – John Brooks worked on a farm in his youth. And he’s not a racist. In fact, he helped black voters in Durham get their foot in the door of the Durham County Democratic Party when it was largely a whites only organization. Hardly the work of a racist, wouldn’t you say?
And as Labor Commissioner, John Brooks worked to protect working men and women of ALL races. There is more precedent-setting case law on the books with his name attached than any Labor Commissioner before or after his previous 4 terms. And John Brooks has run for a variety of offices within the Democratic Party for decades, and no one here thinks he’s a racist.
There is no comparison between what John Brooks has done to help people of all races and working men and women compared to what you have done in your adult career as a corporate lobbyist. I’d love to see what you wrote to your corporate masters about how they could best overcome burdensome regulations designed to protect working men and women – but I assume that “work product” and you can’t produce it for us to look at, right?
You ought to be more positive – talking more about what you could do to help working men and women in North Carolina instead of mounting personal attacks on fellow Democrats.
You owe Mr. Brooks an apology for dragging his good name into the mud.
Sincerely,
Chris Telesca
Perhaps this is all part of a grander political strategy by DC Democrats. Ol’ Barry is struggling a little here in North Carolina. His team is going to HAVE to pump up the state’s black vote. They’ve already got a black nominee for lieutenant governor. It sure would be “helpful” to have another black face in their council of state slate for the general election. And you can throw in racism accusations to really stir things up.
Are you kidding?
It sounds like you’re saying that meeting you is a litmus test for being involved in politics or being a candidate that can win. Really?
My first instinct after reading your post is to vote for Foster, which is exactly what I plan to do tomorrow. And for the record, you might want to take a bit of your own advice.