{"id":9433,"date":"2011-11-06T09:58:51","date_gmt":"2011-11-06T14:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=9433"},"modified":"2013-03-25T10:13:50","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T14:13:50","slug":"hill-refutes-claims-of-forced-bussing-as-runoff-hits-final-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2011\/11\/06\/hill-refutes-claims-of-forced-bussing-as-runoff-hits-final-stretch\/","title":{"rendered":"Hill Refutes Claims of \u201cForced Busing\u201d as Runoff Hits Final Stretch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Hill (D) and Heather Losurdo\u2019s (R) campaigns are entering the home stretch of a runoff election that is the culmination of the most hotly contested school board elections<\/a> in Wake County\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

NOVEMBER RUNOFF
\n \"\"<\/a><\/center>
\nElection Day:<\/strong> Nov. 8
\nPoll Hours<\/strong> 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.<\/div>\n

Tuesday\u2019s election will decide whether a liberal or conservative majority takes control of the Wake County Board of Education\u2014and, ultimately, a new student assignment plan that will be the deciding factor in the future of Wake\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n

Both candidates claim that they won\u2019t depart from the framework of the choice assignment plan that Superintendent Tony Tata developed and the board recently adopted<\/a>. However, Losurdo has built her runoff campaign on the argument that a vote for Kevin Hill means a return to forced busing.<\/p>\n

Losurdo\u2019s campaign manager Dennis Berwyn justifies the claim with two reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne, [Hill\u2019s] voting record shows he supports it,\u201d Berwyn said.<\/p>\n

The number two reason rests on an \u201cif\u201d claim. If the four other diversity supporters on the board decide to reinstate the diversity policy, Hill will vote with them, Berwyn said.<\/p>\n

Christine Kushner is one such diversity supporter; she was elected into the District 6 school board seat Oct. 11. While it may need some adjustments, she said, \u201cI\u2019m optimistic with the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill has said repeatedly the old diversity policy is water under the bridge and as to the charge he\u2019ll bring back forced busing he said, \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely false. The plan we have is the plan we will have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill voted against the new plan because, he said, it didn\u2019t have set aside seats at the high-performing schools for children in low-performing nodes.<\/p>\n

Hill said in a radio show<\/a> this week that such a caveat doesn\u2019t represent a return to forced busing, because the plan still gives parents the choice of where to send their children. He just wants to make sure the seats are available.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does keep saying it, but he doesn\u2019t mean it,\u201d Berwyn said.<\/p>\n

Ads and Campaign Mailers Go Hard<\/strong>
\nIn four of Losurdo\u2019s six campaign mailers she accuses Hill of representing a return to forced busing.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Hill has sent three mailers, only one of which confronts Losurdo directly: \u201cA vote for Losurdo = A vote for John Tedesco for Chair.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, a group called Common Sense Matters has sent a flurry of mailers attacking Losurdo for being linked to the Tea Party. Another group called Progress Action NC set up a website denouncing Losurdo as the \u201cqueen of extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Losurdo\u2019s mailers reads, \u201cHill wants to balance performance, not raise it.\u201d However, the new plan itself seeks to balance performance in schools, a cornerstone conservative board members and candidates had previously expressed doubt over.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re spending an awful lot of money and have more room to grow their vote,\u201d said Hill\u2019s campaign consultant Perry Woods of the Losurdo campaign. \u201cOne of the great things about local elections,\u201d he added, \u201cis that money is not the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berwyn, however, said the Losurdo campaign is garnering support beyond money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a Wake County citizen who is down in Dominica and he\u2019s making phone calls for us,\u201d Berwyn said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people have already made up their mind,\u201d Woods said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a question of who shows up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dems Come Out Heavy in Early Voting<\/strong>
\nIf early voting results are an indicator of who will come out to vote in the runoff then they speak very highly for Kevin Hill.<\/p>\n

In each of the 5 school board races in October, early voting results predicted the top vote getter.<\/p>\n

As of Friday, in the one stop voting of the District 3 run off 463 Dems, 263 Republicans and 177 unaffiliated have voted. Even if every single unaffiliated vote swung for Losurdo, it wouldn\u2019t be enough for a majority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The school board elections have seen historic amounts of money flowing in as well as historic voter turnout. As the Hill and Losurdo campaigns enter the last few days before the runoff election in District 3, we size up the politics and the turnout that are driving the race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":9328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[214,15,23,55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}