Thursday, June 8, 2006

Candidate For High Court Puts Robinson At A Loss For Words

By Scott Sexton
JOURNAL COLUMNIST

Other than the good folks at the League of Women Voters and trial lawyers, who really knows anything about candidates for the N.C. Supreme Court?

The answer, sadly, is not many of us.

There is one candidate who is out to change all that - but not in a good way.

The campaign antics of one Rachel Lea Hunter, a lawyer from Cary, are changing the perception of staid, nonconfrontational judicial races. She is running against Associate Justice Mark Martin for an eight-year term on the state's highest court.

Hunter's latest stunt involves our own Vernon Robinson, the former city-council member and current Republican candidate for the 13th Congressional District.

In a rambling e-mail that she signed and distributed Tuesday, Hunter writes about Robinson's decision to remain in the Republican Party despite being soundly beaten last year in his quest to become the state party chairman.

"Like a good slave, (Robinson) has returned to the plantation," wrote Hunter, a registered Democrat who is white. "I am sorry to use that metaphor, but his actions are like that of a slave saying 'I'll be good from now on, Massa.' A real leader would have told the NC GOP to shove it and would have resigned from the party after how he was treated."

Unwelcome at the party

Not that it was a surprise, but the N.C. Democratic Party wasted no time responding. Party officials said they would withhold any endorsements for Hunter.

Jerry Meek, the state Democratic Party chairman, said that the "racial epithet has no place in any political dialogue, even directed toward someone as contemptible as Vernon Robinson."

Hunter's statement is so offensive that it rendered Robinson nearly speechless. Reached by cell phone yesterday, Robinson was uncharacteristically quiet.

"It was forwarded to me a couple times," Robinson said. "I'm not worried about it. I'll worry about talking to voters in the district, and that's about it."

Imagine that -Vernon Robinson taking the high road.

Connie Mack Berry Jr., Hunter's husband and campaign manager, shrugged off the whole thing, attributing it to partisan politics. He said that state Democratic officials have been angling to boot Hunter out of the party for months because she is a lightning rod who tells it like it is.

"If you'll look, Hillary Clinton said the same thing about Republicans on Martin Luther King Day," Berry said. "Everybody jumped on her, and it lasted about a week.... Jerry Meek, he tried to make us out to be racists. Hell, Rachel's Jewish. "That really hacked us off."

If Rachel Lea Hunter sounds vaguely familiar, here's why:

First, she attempted to get the nickname "Madame Justice" printed on the ballot. The State Board of Elections shot that one down in March.

She drew attention again last month when her campaign used a photo of her with Dean Smith under the quote "As a loyal Democrat to another loyal Democrat. Win Rachel! Win!"

There was just one problem. Smith didn't remember meeting Hunter or saying anything remotely resembling an endorsement.

It can get worse Berry said yesterday that hackers caused that whole mess by altering Smith's quote on Hunter's Web site. "There is an investigation into that, and we did put a call in to the authorities," he said.

Alrighty.

We have an amateurish attempt to use a goofy nickname, dragging the good name of Dean Smith into a judicial campaign and a racist slap at Vernon Robinson.

So what's next? How about some homophobia?

Don't laugh. It happened in an e-mail exchange last month when Nathan Tabor, a religious conservative from Kernersville, wrote Berry to tease him about the Smith fiasco.

"Is it true that you and Vernon have made up and sleeping with other as brokeback repub buddies?" Berry wrote back.

Justice Martin couldn't have asked for a better foil if David Duke moved here from Louisiana to run. And this is only June.

o Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com