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New Hanover and Pender County District Attorney Rebecca Zimmer Donaldson has turned up the heat on the race to keep her new job with just weeks to go before Election Day.
Donaldson’s Democratic campaign for district attorney recently released attack ads against her Republican opponent (and subordinate) Assistant District Attorney Jason Smith. The ads and website, jasonsmithfacts.com, paint Smith as being light on crime. Smith says the ads are grossly misleading.
This latest twist makes it one of the nastiest political fights in the region, or at least in close competition with the contentious state Senate District 7 race.
Gov. Roy Cooper appointed Donaldson to the temporary position last month after 20-year District Attorney Ben David resigned. Smith previously told The Assembly he felt Cooper’s appointment was political.
David had privately signaled his support for Smith, despite their party differences, though publicly chose not to endorse either candidate. But Donaldson’s ads have brought David off the bench: David told WHQR he thinks his former assistant district attorney’s ads are in bad taste, inaccurate, and harm the reputation of the office.
About two-thirds of the office’s prosecutors agree with that sentiment. In a recent petition to their new boss, prosecutors urge Donaldson to cool it with the ads and disparaging comments about Smith. Donaldson told WHQR that the office’s decisions are separate from her campaign.
Donaldson intends to roll out another round of ads and says both her and Smith’s records speak for themselves.
Read the full story on WHQR.
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Paradise & Parking Lots
The N.C. Court of Appeals issued a split ruling this week on the first of two Bald Head Island-related cases on its docket.
Bald Head Island Ltd., the company that owns the island’s transportation system, had threatened to sell segments of its operations in pieces to the highest bidders. This came after the company’s efforts to sell the system to a state-created authority derailed in 2021 under pressure from the small village government. The threat prompted the municipality, which itself wants to purchase the transportation system, to file a complaint with the N.C. Utilities Commission. The village urged the commission to regulate parts of the transportation operation—its parking and barge operations—outside the commission’s purview.
Soon after that 2022 filing, Bald Head Island Ltd. and SharpVue Capital, a firm co-founded by UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts, entered into a purchase agreement. SharpVue has since purchased some assets on and near the island but its acquisition, the second of the cases before the N.C. Court of Appeals, was also challenged by the village.
A 2-3 majority of the N.C. Court of Appeals on Tuesday found the commission overextended its authority. The commission had ruled last year that the company’s parking and barge operations should also fall under its oversight; currently, only the ferry and tram are regulated.
The majority ruled Bald Head’s barge operations don’t qualify as a public utility because it doesn’t meet the state definition. It also concluded the commission’s authority over parking operations is permissible but should be curtailed; the commission had ruled for more expansive oversight.
The ferry parking business in Southport is profitable and subsidizes the typically money-losing ferry operation. The company has acknowledged it uses its parking rates to assist its overall ferry financials, and the court ruled this relationship was enough to warrant commission approval over a sale transfer, but agreed with the companies’ assertion that parking lots should not typically fall under state public utility jurisdiction.
The judges invoked a 1983 N.C. State Supreme Court case involving the Southern Bell telephone company: Southern Bell’s Yellow Pages advertising revenue was part of the calculus in setting public utility telephone rates, therefore entangling that aspect of the business under state oversight. Much like the interdependent ferry and parking operations, phone lines weren’t much use without phone books, and vice versa.
In a dissenting opinion, Chief Judge Chris Dillon agreed that the parking operation should be regulated under the narrow conditions ascribed by the majority but wrote that barge operations could be considered a separate public utility.
The village has until next month to decide whether to appeal. A spokesperson for the village said it is reviewing the order. Representatives for SharpVue and Bald Head Island Ltd. declined to comment. Until then, it’s business—peppered with uncertain litigation—as usual.
–Johanna F. Still
Around the Region
Buzz Kill: The state is investigating a large mosquito-spraying operation in Brunswick County that allegedly killed bees and other wildlife, Port City Daily reports.
Unaffordable Housing: Proposed insurance rate hikes threaten to make government-subsidized affordable housing development projects in coastal areas nearly impossible, WHQR reports.
Vance Prance: Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance campaigned in Wilmington Wednesday afternoon. StarNews was on the scene for the rally.
Around the State
Mark Robinson Sues CNN, Former Porn Shop Employee for Defamation
Experts say Robinson’s case will be tough to prove—and the complaint likely violated state law.
Bringing Home the Bacon
In the last four years, lawmakers gave $2.3 billion to hundreds of organizations without a competitive process. Will the next auditor do anything about it?
Western N.C. Lawmaker: “The Emergency is Still in Place”
A Q&A with state Sen. Timothy Moffitt on the $273 million relief package.
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