The North Carolina Democratic Party pauses today to mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. King was murdered at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead sanitation workers on a protest against low wages and unsafe working conditions.

This grim anniversary comes at a time when Democrats are poised to elect the nation’s first African-American or female President.

We carry the embers of Dr. King’s unfinished work as Democrats have successfully worked to increase state and federal minimum wage rates.

Statement from the Rev. Dr. William Barber, President of the North Carolina NAACP:

"The light of Christmas has shown on the dark nightmare that James Johnson has suffered for 42 months in a false incarceration on murder, rape, and kidnapping charges without a trial. Tonight the special prosecutor dismissed all murder, rape and kidnaping charges against him. It is a major victory for truth and justice.

"James is an innocent young man who was falsely accused. It is not yet a total victory because one count of accessory remains, but we will celebrate tonight, and pick up the fight tomorrow for James' full exoneration tomorrow."

To read full media coverage of the case and to add your comments, go to
http://www.ncprosecutorialmisconduct.com

By Angela Mack, Wilimington Star
William Barber expects state civil rights activists to get a second wind this week in their race to end racial disparities.

More than 1,000 NAACP members representing North Carolina's 100 counties are expected to attend the 64th annual N.C. State NAACP Convention in Wilmington from Thursday through Saturday.

"Members that come to this convention will get a fresh instillation, a fresh anointing, a fresh call to commitment," said Barber, state NAACP president. "We still have work to do."

Local NAACP officials believe hosting the convention will shed light on local issues. City leaders say the event will not only be a boost to the local economy but may also provide new ways to increase diversity and bring change to the city.

At a time when the leading Republican presidential contenders have refused to even appear in front of a number of groups including African American, Hispanic and young voters, the promises of an inclusive "compassionate conservatism" seem to be a thing of the past. While Bush's low approval numbers account for some of the overall damage to the GOP brand, poll numbers show that the problems Republicans are facing run deeper than President Bush.

As the Wall Street Journal noted, "recent voter surveys, including private polling done by a leading Republican strategist, suggest a broader erosion of Republicans' appeal. In particular, three groups crucial to Mr. Bush's goal of a 'permanent Republican majority' are drifting away: younger voters, Hispanics and independents." [Wall Street Journal, 9/5/07, http://online.wsj.com/]

Even more revealing, poll numbers show the Republican Party's base is shrinking. A recent study by the Pew Research Center indicates two traditionally GOP-leaning groups are now moving away from the Republican Party: young evangelicals and economic conservatives. At the same time, more Americans are identifying with the Democratic Party and trust Democrats on key voting issues.

Candidates Are Urged to Attend Forums Sponsored by Minorities
by Perry Bacon Jr., Washington Post

Key Republican leaders are encouraging the party's presidential candidates to rethink their decision to skip presidential debates focusing on issues important to minorities, fearing a backlash that could further erode the party's standing with black and Latino voters.

The leading contenders for the Republican nomination have indicated they will not attend the "All American Presidential Forum" organized by black talk show host Tavis Smiley, scheduled for Sept. 27 at Morgan State University in Baltimore and airing on PBS. Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) all cited scheduling conflicts in forgoing the debate. The top Democratic contenders attended a similar event in June at Howard University.

NCDP Chair Jerry Meek announced today that state Democrats would participate in an unprecedented 50-state election protection program to prepare for the 2008 election.

North Carolina will participate in an in-depth nationwide survey to collect critical data on the often confusing and complex sets of administrative practices and decisions governing our nation’s elections. We will work with election officials throughout the state to help identify potential issues so they can be resolved well in advance of the 2008 election.

More specifically, we will work with local election officials to answer critical questions about voter registration, centralized voter databases, voting systems and absentee voting, provisional balloting, polling place procedures and Election Day preparation.

Data collected from the survey will be analyzed to determine the needs of each election locality and the next steps for strengthening the election process in that locality.

“North Carolina Democrats will not rest until every single eligible North Carolinian can register to vote, cast their ballot without fear of intimidation or harassment, and have confidence that their vote will be counted fairly and accurately,” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek.

“Our commitment stands in stark contrast to what we’ve seen from Republicans both here in North Carolina and across the country,” Meek said. “From false reports of voter fraud and restrictive voter ID proposals to voter purging and voter intimidation tactics, Republicans want to place a variety of roadblocks that keep countless Americans from exercising their right to vote."

Last week, the Senate Rules Committee heard testimony on the Ballot Integrity Act of 2007 (S. 1487). Senators Diane Feinstein and Christopher Dodd are the bill’s chief sponsors, but Senators Biden, Boxer, Brown, Clinton, Inouye, Kennedy, Leahy, Menendez, Leahy, and Obama have also signed on. While much of the bill is taken up with voting equipment standards, a significant number of voting rights issues are also addressed. These include increased safeguards for voters from being purged, uniform requirements for training poll workers to a set of minimal standards, and equitable allocation of polling place resources. Most importantly, the bill prohibits states from restricting voter registration drives.

Voter registration drives by nongovernmental entities play a critical role in the health of our democracy. They have been effective vehicles through which eligible Americans from traditionally disenfranchised communities have become registered to vote. According to the US Census, 12 million Americans have registered to vote through a voter registration drive, accounting for 8.5 percent of all registered voters. Minority voters, in particular, rely on the voter registration drives. Fifteen percent of Blacks, 15.5 percent of Latinos and 12.5 percent of Asians registered to vote through a drive compared to 8.6 percent for White non-Hispanic voters. In fact, Blacks and Latinos are 65 percent more likely to have registered through a voter registration drive than Whites.

Another week, another missed opportunity for Republican presidential candidates to address diverse audiences. This week the major Republican presidential candidates cited 'scheduling conflicts' to avoid standing before the National Urban League's Annual Conference in St. Louis and to avoid the National Council of La Raza's Annual Conference in Miami Beach. Only "long shot" candidate Mike Huckabee, the former Governor of Arkansas, and Rep. Duncan Hunter will represent the Republican Party in St. Louis, while as a group in recent weeks the GOP candidates have ignored major organizations that represent important communities, including America's teachers, young people, African Americans and Hispanics. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 7/25/07; AFP, 7/23/07; BET.com, 7/26/07; Bloomberg, 7/26/07]

Almost every Republican running for President has ducked major conferences of the NAACP, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO), the National Education Association (NEA), the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the Young Republicans National Convention, and even the College Republican Convention. In each of these cases, just one or two of the 10 Republican candidates accepted invitations to address these organizations and their members.

By contrast, not only is the field of Democratic presidential candidates the strongest and most diverse in history, as a group they have accepted the opportunity to address Americans of all backgrounds. All eight Democratic candidates accepted invitations to address the NAACP convention, seven addressed the NALEO convention, seven addressed the NEA, five are addressing the College Democrats of America convention this weekend, and four are addressing the National Urban League.

"It's hard to blame Republican presidential candidates for shying away from defending their President's and their Party's abysmal record with young people and minorities," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda. "But the Republicans' snubs say as much about the future as they do about the past of the Republican Party. If the Republicans' top candidates believe they can say 'no' to entire groups of Americans, then they'll find those Americans saying 'no' to them too."

U.S. Representative Melvin L. Watt (D-NC), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, today announced a hearing to consider the implications of the growing use of credit-based insurance scores for consumers. Specifically, the hearing will review a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report to Congress entitled, "Credit-Based Insurance Scores: Impacts on Consumers of Automobile Insurance" and examine its key findings. The hearing will also study the efforts underway by the States to regulate the use of credit-based insurance scores.

"Instead of spending time with the people she professes to represent, Senator Dole's spending her time in places like Montana trying to save one of the most crooked Senators. Even worse, she's defending racial profiling," said North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Jerry Meek. "North Carolinians deserve a Senator who will do her day job and support an increase in the minimum wage, not a crony of Jack Abramoff."

This week, as North Carolinians head back to school, fret over high gas prices, and worry about the cost of health care, the state's senior Senator is off in Montana spending part of the congressional recess defending one of the country's most crooked Senators instead of listening to the concerns of her constituents.