Otterblog

Imagine if Coke or Pepsi wasn’t allowed in its advertising to urge people to drink soda? If they weren’t allowed to say that an ice-cold cola is awesome and refreshing and makes your day? What would the ads say? Drink Coke. It’s brown and sweet. OK. You see why I’m in the news business, not advertising, but you get the idea.

That’s the situation facing Howard, Merrell & Partners of Raleigh, which won (if that’s the right word) the $8 million contract for advertising of the N.C. Lottery. The lottery legislation spells out the restrictions, including that no ad “may have the primary purpose as inducing persons to participate in the lottery.”

Winston-Salem’s own Mullen ad agency also competed, but didn’t get the job. Our reporting suggests that the agency’s ads played up the possibility of big wins, another no-no.

It’s hard to sell a product with one ad tied behind your back. And my guess is that there will be a lot of disagreement over the meanings of the words “primary purpose” and “inducing”. With $1 billion on the line every year, it’s likely that the definitions will get looser over time.

Winston-Salem lost a good man yesterday with the death of Pete Oldham. His real name was Warren, but everybody knew him as Pete. It was a childhood nickname he picked up as a kid in Indianapolis.
Pete Oldham was a lot of things—coach, university official, legislator—and he did all of these jobs the same way, modestly and purposefully, always keeping in mind whether a particular course of action was the right thing to do.

I remember Doug Wilder, the former governor of Virginia and now the mayor of Richmond, telling me that in Pete’s day, he was one of the premier running backs in college football. It wasn’t the sort of thing Pete bragged about, but even toward the end, he carried himself with the step and confidence of a former athlete.

Pete Oldham and I came to the General Assembly at about the same time during the early 1990s, him as a freshman legislator, me as a rookie statehouse reporter. So we bonded over the insanity of the legislative process, the characters that still controlled life in Raleigh, and the pomp and circumstance that envelopes life at the capitol.

Pete Oldham didn’t make waves as a state representative, but he understood his role in the process: to stand firm on the things he believed in at his core; to be flexible on other matters; and to know the difference between the two.

For nearly 10 years, Winston-Salem has been at Ground Zero of the battle over the wisdom and legality of giving incentives to businesses. First came the lawsuit by Bill Maready. That went all the way to the N.C. Supreme Court, which ruled that incentives were OK. A more recent lawsuit is challenging the massive incentives package that the state, Winston-Salem and Forsyth County ponied up to get Dell to build its computer-assembly plant in southeast Forsyth County. A resolution on that is probably years away.
In the meantime, as we reported today, companies are expected line up for incentives as part of the FedEx project at Piedmont Triad International Airport. The companies who will use the cargo hub need to be close to the airport, but they can choose from several counties and cities in which to locate. That means pitting Guilford against Forsyth, High Point against Greensboro, Winston-Salem against ... you get the idea. Not exactly the ideal arrangement for bringing a region together.
My suspicion is that there are several good reasons why the Triad is such an incentives hotbed. But basically it comes down to a) our economy has been battered more than the other major metro areas of Charlotte and the Triangle; and b) We still have enough municipal wealth to offer sizable incentives.
Look for incenties to be an issue in our local race for the 31st State Senate seat held by Ham Horton, who died last week. A polling person called me the other night from an outfit called Tel Opinion, and asked all sorts of questions about incentives and how I felt about the three Republicans who have said they are interested in the seat: Pete Brunstetter, Gloria Whisenhunt and Nathan Tabor. The person didn’t know who the client was. 

Twenty-six years is a long time to hold the same job. But that’s how long Bill Stuart has been city manager in Winston-Salem. Now, he’s retiring.

There are a lot of tough jobs out there in the world; Being manager of a city as complex as Winston-Salem is one of the tough ones. This is a resilient city, to be sure, but it’s been through the wringer. During Stuart’s tenure, the economy has shifted from a reliance on tobacco and textiles to one built around financial services and health care. The demographics of the city have changed as well. We’re more diverse, less insular, more demanding, more politically divided.

Cities grow or die. They grow by bringing in more revenue, i.e. taxes, and by adding people. The first is done by increasing the tax rate or the tax base. The second is done by either being a desirable place to live that attracts new residents, or by annexation. Stuart has used all these arrows at various times. He’s angered many with his unapologetic support of annexation without the consent of the annexed.

City managers have enormous power under our system of government. While technically they just work at the behest of elected officials, the relationship is much more subtle. They guide, they teach, they push back, they stand up for their beliefs.

For better or for worse, depending on your perspective, Winston-Salem’s shape and scope reflects Stuart’s vision—and his longevity. In some cases, he just simply outlasted his adversaries. It’s doubtful his successor will hang around for a quarter century.

We learned Tuesday afternoon that Sen. Ham Horton had died of cancer.

Ham Horton was far from perfect, but he was in many ways a journalist’s dream senator. He understood issues, gave good quotes and wasn’t afraid to be on the wrong end of a losing battle against what many people considered progress. And he saved country ham as we know it.

I thought of Ham Horton when I watched the president’s State of the Union speech last night and the way the Democrats and Republicans rarely seemed to stand at the same time. Our system is one of partisan politics. People talk about making it less partisan, but that’s hard to do. If you read our obituary today, it’s clear that Ham Horton had friends on both sides of the aisle.

Realistically, what works best is partisan politicians who also revere the institution in which they’re elected to serve. In my book, that puts Ham Horton in the same category as U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W. Va. You may not agree with their votes or their positions, but they have respect for the rules of their chambers, are frequently entertaining and enlightening to listen to, and at their best make our government seem more noble.

It’s not quite in the category of Dewey Defeats Truman, but most newspapers headlines—particularly in early editions—missed the Hamas Party’s victory over the Fatah Party in the Palestinian elections. Through most of the night, exit polls showed Hamas surging but Fatah holding a plurality. Only after 1 a.m. did the wires change and report of the Hamas win.

Its victory raises some interesting questions about terminology and how the media defines groups.

The United States and many western nations have condemned Hamas as having ties to terrorism, and that position hasn’t changed. The Associated Press and other wire services typically call Hamas a “militant” organization. Sometimes they call it “radical.”

This debate over terminology is familiar ground in the Middle East. One person’s insurgent is another one’s militant is another one’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.

That’s why words matter. It’s not to say the truth is whatever you want it to be or can call it. A duck is not a chicken. But where you are coming from and where you are going quite often changes the view of what you are looking at.

Our story this morning on Osama bin Laden’s latest tape recording struck a nerve with many readers—in print and online. Our online poll, although not scientific, hints at how worried many Americans are about his plans and intention. And reader reaction is strong.

We received over 15 pages of messages. Amazing. There’s a continuing debate among U.S. policymakers and in newsrooms about the news value of Osama bin Laden. One argument is that he’s no longer particularly relevant. As a hunted terrorist, he’s in deep hiding, marginalized to the point of nonimportance. The other view, suggested by what readers say, is that we care about bin Laden. He’s a symbol for the war on terrorism, it successes, shortcomings and its duration.

Got the word this afternoon that Vernon Robinson is considering a run for Congress against Mel Watt. Vernon is a smart guy, often entertaining, and his brand of take-no-prisoners politics often makes for good newspaper stories.

The problem for him is one of demographics. Watt’s district, the 12th Congressional, is a serpentine patch of land that stretches from Charlotte to Greensboro. According to the State Board of Elections, it’s among the most heavily Democratic districts in the state, with Ds outnumbering Rs more than 2-1. In addition, it covers two major broadcast markets, which increases the cost of campaigning and makes it difficult for a challenger, particularly one who is not from the Charlotte area.

Robinson ran a credible campaign against Earline Parmon several years ago, but he’ll have a hard time against Watt, who is tough and smart and well-connected as the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. The first question for Robinson—and for the Journal—is figuring out whether he will be able to get National Republicans to pay attention to this race and give him some financial help. If not, he could end up with a megaphone but not enough batteries.

That raises another question for journalists: how much attention to give to races that aren’t very competitive. It’s the same situation in the 5th Congressional, now that Allen Joines has shied away from challenging Virginia Foxx. The Democrats will probably find somebody to run, but they won’t have the stature that Joines would have brought to the race.