Please vote in this Poll:
http://forums.charlotte.com/n/mb/messag ... 36.1&ctx=1
Please vote for Chipp Bailey for Mecklenberg County, NC Sheriff.

What’s at stake:

The administration of a 1,400 person department operating on a $104 million annual budget. Also, the operation of one of the most respected and successful 287(g) programs in the entire country.

Listed below are the candidates qualifications:

Candidates:

Chipp Bailey,
Police officer in Charlotte for last 35 years, Chief Deputy Sheriff for 13 years. Exemplary record and service. Has served as second in command to Sheriff Jim Pendergraph, who has recently taken a position at DHS in Washington, DC to show Chertoff how to administer the 287(g) program. Chipp Bailey was instrumental in the success of and the daily operation of the Mecklenberg Counties 287(g) program.

Nick Mackey,
Police officer in Charlotte for 13 years, resigned in 2003 because he was about to be fired. He had been brought up on disciplinary charges of declaring hours that he had never worked and for using his city issued computer to send pornographic material, including pictures to various e-mail addresses. Has declared a past bankruptcy alleviating him of over $370,000 of debt to creditors.

Warren Turner,
Served 4 years as city councilman and probation officer. No police experience.

I suppose you wonder why I listed the race of the candidates. That’s because the Democratic Party Executive Activists (313 of them) who will be voting on the replacement sheriff), have made it about race. I kid you not! Absolutely ridiculous and alarming. A number of activists claim that since Charlotte is mostly back in population (approx. 80%) that the sheriff of the entire county should reflect Charlotte’s ethnicity. Haven’t we moved beyond race in these issues? Apparently not in Charlotte and Mecklenberg County. If should not be about race, it should be about the BEST candidate with the BEST qualifications for the position. Furthermore, there are many of these Democratic Activists who would like to severely weaken the county’s 287(g) program, while others would like to see it removed entirely.


I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
---Martin Luther King, Jr.


The Democratic Committee will vote tomorrow (Thursday) on the replacement sheriff. Please vote in the above poll right now!

For further information and details, please see these two links:
http://www.charlotte.com/671/story/391716.html

http://www.charlotte.com/171/story/387654.html