State employees PAC endorses in races for NC governor, Triangle seats. Who they picked.

The political arm of the State Employees Association of North Carolina has made a slew of endorsements in races for executive office and legislative seats in the state, including for governor and in Triangle-area state Senate and state House races.

SEANC is a 46,000-member association of state employees and retirees that lobbies at the General Assembly for current, retired and future state employees.

Meanwhile, the SEANC Employees Political Action Committee (EMPAC), which is member-led and nonpartisan, supports legislators and politicians, including via campaign contributions. EMPAC has its own treasury that is separate from SEANC. For endorsements, the PAC attempts to interview each candidate.

“Our membership tends to focus on the governor’s race and the treasurer’s race, more than the rest,” but “our members work in all of the state agencies and all of the universities and community colleges and public schools, so they’re interested in all of it,” SEANC Executive Director Ardis Watkins said.

“I think it’s fair to say, we will have members volunteering in all of these races all over the state. ... The enthusiasm we are hearing from our members about getting involved in elections this year is off the charts,” she said.

EMPAC on Monday announced its endorsements for Council of State and on Tuesday added its endorsements for legislative races.

SEANC governor endorsement

At the top of the ticket for Council of State races is the one for governor . In that race, EMPAC endorsed Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein over Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.

“Stein has proven that he is a champion for working families and is ready to take on the state’s leadership. As attorney general, he has shown a willingness to work with SEANC on several employee-related issues,” according to a news release sent out by EMPAC. Robinson did not respond to multiple interview requests from EMPAC, according to the news release.

Republican secretary of state candidate Chad Brown and the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, Hal Weatherman, also did not respond to interview requests, according to SEANC spokesperson Jonathan Owens.

SEANC endorsement for State Treasurer

EMPAC endorsed Democratic candidate Wesley Harris for state treasurer over Republican challenger Brad Briner. EMPAC in its news release said it had endorsed Harris in the primary election and would continue to support him in the general election.

SEANC has been a strong supporter of the current treasurer, Dale Folwell, who is a Republican and ran unsuccessfully for governor in the primary.

Asked about the support for Harris, Watkins said Harris’ “views that he has shared with our PAC are much more closely aligned with Treasurer Folwell’s views when it comes to making sure the average state employee’s money is protected from Wall Street and other corporate interests” that “try to get fees that are too high or just take advantage of those systems.”

“It really was the strong belief of the people on our PAC that Wesley Harris is the person to follow Treasurer Folwell in protecting those benefits,” she said.

No Labor Commissioner endorsement

One Council of State race that did not receive an endorsement was the one for labor commissioner . That race is between Democrat Braxton Winston II and Republican Luke Farley.

On the lack of endorsement in that race, Watkins said while those candidates were both interviewed, “there just wasn’t a plurality of people that were seeking to endorse either candidate.”

“Being a democratic process, with a little D, it can be the case that one person doesn’t emerge as somebody that they want to get behind in the way that Josh Stein was so clearly a full-throated endorsement. Just everyone in the room was excited about that,” said Watkins.

Other SEANC Council of State endorsements

Here are the rest of the Council of State endorsements by EMPAC:

• Lieutenant Governor: Democratic state Sen. Rachel Hunt. She is facing off against Weatherman as well as Wayne Jones from the Constitution Party and Shannon Bray, a Libertarian. Robinson is the current lieutenant governor.
• Attorney General: Democratic U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson. He is facing Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop. Stein is the current AG.
• Commissioner of Agriculture: Lo ngtime Republican Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler. He faces Democratic candidate Sarah Taber and Libertarian Sean Haugh.
• Commissioner of Insurance: Republican Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey. He’s facing Democratic state Sen. Natasha Marcus.
• Secretary of State: Lo ngtime Democratic Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. She’s challenged by Republican Chad Brown.
• Superintendent of Public Instruction: Democratic candidate Maurice “Mo” Green. He’s up against Republican Michelle Morrow, who defeated the incumbent state superintendent, Catherine Truitt, in the Republican primary.
• State Auditor: Democratic incumbent Jessica Holmes. She’s facing off against Republican Dave Boliek and Libertarian B ob Drach. Holmes was appointed state auditor after longtime Auditor Beth Wood, a Democrat, stepped down after she drove a state-owned vehicle into a parked car. Wood recently threw her support behind Boliek.

General Assembly endorsements

On legislative endorsements, Watkins said there are always at least one or two that surprised her.

That’s “part of the beauty and the challenge sometimes of being truly member-run,” she said. For legislative endorsements, SEANC members at the local level make recommendations, which are then confirmed by the statewide committee.

“People in the home districts will sometimes have a very different opinion than the staff might have in certain races. But the thing is that our members make those decisions and that we as a group stand behind those decisions and move forward,” she said.

Asked about any that surprised her this year, she said she preferred not to say, as she said she doesn’t “know the candidates from those areas necessarily, in the same way the folks do who live in their district. So many times they have surprised me, they have endorsed somebody, and that person ends up becoming a huge friend of SEANC.”

“In terms of the people that they get behind, they are very, very often the winners,” Watkins said.

In state House races, EMPAC made 85 endorsements. Of those, 46 were for Republicans and 39 were for Democrats. Many of the endorsements were for incumbents.

In the Senate, EMPAC made 35 endorsements, 19 for Republicans and 16 for Democrats. The General Assembly currently has a Republican-supermajority.

“Our members are as good a representation of just how purple this state is as any group I can think of,” she said.

EMPAC made endorsements in Triangle-area races. Here are its picks:

Durham County races:

• House District 2 - Incumbent Democratic Rep. Ray Jeffers
• Senate District 20 - Incumbent Democratic Sen. Natalie Murdock
  
  
• Senate District 22 - EMPAC did not make an endorsement in this race between Democrat Sophia Chitlik and Libertarian Ray Ubinger. This district is currently held by longtime Democratic Sen. Mike Woodard, who lost his reelection bid.

Wake County races:

• House District 11 - Incumbent Democratic Rep. Allison Dahle

• House District 21 - Incumbent Democratic Rep. Ya Liu

• House District 33 - Democrat Monika Johnson-Hostler

• House District 34 - Incumbent Democratic Rep. Tim Longest

• House District 35 - Democrat Evonne Hopkins

• House District 36 - Incumbent Democratic Rep. Julie Von Haefen

• House District 37 - Incumbent Republican Rep. Erin Paré

• House District 40 - Incumbent Democratic Rep. Joe John

• House District 41 - Incumbent Democratic Rep. Maria Cervania

• House District 66 - Incumbent Democratic Rep. Sarah Crawford

• Senate District 13 - Incumbent Democratic Sen. Lisa Grafstein

• Senate District 14 - Incumbent Democratic Sen. Dan Blue

• Senate District 15 - Incumbent Democratic Sen. Jay Chaudhuri

• Senate District 17 - Incumbent Democratic Sen. Sydney Batch

• Senate District 18 - Democratic Rep. Terence Everitt

Johnston County races:

• House District 26 - Incumbent Republican Rep. Donna McDowell White
  
  
• House District 28 - Incumbent Republican Rep. Larry Strickland
  
  
• House District 53 - EMPAC did not make an endorsement in this race between Democrat Kevin Thurman and Republican incumbent Howard Penny Jr.
• Senate District 10 - Incumbent Republican Sen. Benton Sawrey
  
  

Orange County races:

• House District 56 - Incumbent Democratic Rep. Allen Buansi
  
  
• Senate District 23 - Incumbent Democratic Sen. Graig Meyer
  
  

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