With apologies to Mr. Wolfe
Now that he’s not working the campaign trail, John Edwards and family are a lot more visible around town. He was close to courtside in the comfy seats at the Smith Center during last week’s Boston College game and he’s been making the rounds lately to thank the staff and hometown volunteers and supporters.
And if you were strolling by Milltown the other night, you might have heard the former senator – or someone who sounds just like him — belting out a Bon Jovi number during the karaoke challenge at a party for the staff. The tune was “Who Says You Can’t Go Home.†Here’s the chorus:
Who says you can’t go home
There’s only one place they call me one of their own
Just a hometown boy, born a rolling stone, who says you can’t go home
Who says you can’t go back, been all around the world and as a matter of fact
There’s only one place left I want to go, who says you can’t go home
It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright
Indeed. Welcome home, John.
Campaign finance
Nothing wrong with a nice dinner, but when a candidate in a local race drops $6K on a fundraiser at La Rez, well, it’s gonna get noticed.
There are all kinds of tidbits of information in the local campaign finance reports if you peruse the recent filings on the OC Board of Elections website. Of the recent filings, Chapel Hill Town Council candidate Matt Czajkowski’s was by far the most interesting.
The largely self-financed candidate, who edged out Cam Hill by 60 votes, dropped $5979.17 for an early December “victory party and fundraiser†at the lovely Rosemary Street establishment. That’s a hefty chunk of the roughly $20,000 the newcomer spent overall and three times the amount he raised from contributors throughout the race.
Friends of Bill?
It wasn’t lost on several observers that a board of aldermen item to schedule breakfast with the state legislative delegation included a yes or no poll about extending Rep.
William Faison (D-Cedar Grove) an invitation. Not sure if someone at the town knows that Faison is simply not a breakfast eater (he’s 0 for 3 returning our phone calls, so I didn’t bother asking) and doesn’t want to force him. But the item did cause some residents to wonder if there was a move to snub Faison, who presents a couple of precincts in northern Carrboro, over his support for a bill to de-annex The Highlands and that derailing last session of the town’s campaign finance bill.
A few aldermen objected to the poll saying it didn’t seem right and noting that Faison had attended similar events before. So, the poll was removed and Faison, like the rest of the delegation, is on the invite list.
HKoJ
The acronym really reminds me of something you’d buy at an IKEA, but the Historic Thousands on Jones Street is an annual gathering in Raleigh that brings together a coalition of groups fighting for civil rights, a better health care system, labor issues, a cleaner environment and a number of other causes.
The event is Saturday with a rally at Chavis Park at 11 a.m. and a march to the General Assembly at 12:30 p.m.
More than 5,000 people representing 75 organizations attended last year.
—Kirk Ross