My lovely and talented wife Jinni and others attended a meeting of the Greensboro Chapter of the NAACP last night to hear a presentation on the baseball debate.  Since baseball is decidedly not a Black concern (3% of the fan base) I was wondering why the NAACP would take up meeting time to air the issue.  Jinni and others in attendence said that after the presentations, Simkins PAC leaders Joe Williams and Steve Bowden were urging the rank-and-file NAACP membership to vote against the referendum.

Although I wasn't there, my understanding is that the gist of their urging was because of the jobs it would create for the Black community.  Williams told the crowd that he was promised written, contractural "guarantees" from the stadium crew (presumably DGR,LLC.Bryan Foundation) that certain construction contracts - especially masonry jobs - would be awarded to minority contractors.  I guess that Williams and Bowden translate the guarantees to mean black contractors and not Hispanic or female.

I have never accused the pro-stadium guys of being ignorant of the political process, but I have accused them of extreme arrogance.  However, they may have hit a home run by mobilizing the Black electorate against the referendum in exchange for jobs... or more accurately the promise of jobs.

This pretty much confirms my information that the powerful Simkins PAC is going to recommend voting against the referendum at the upcoming primary but they are going to hold their City Council picks until after the primary.  I do question if they are a registered "Referendum PAC" and will call the Board of Elections to find out, but they usually know and play by all of the rules.

Many elections and referendums hinge on the Simkins PAC endorsement... we will see what effect it will have on the baseball stadium question.

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We had a great fundraising party last night at the home of Gene Cline on North Elm Street.  Susan Edwards and Gene put on some great food and drink.  Cars were lined all the way down the street, about 100 in attendence and we raised a good amount of cash.  I had to leave the festivities about one hour early to get the Jaycees forum. 

I went and checked on things this morning and Gene reports that many folks were so supportive of my campaign that they just wouldn't leave and he finally closed it down around midnight.

I noticed that the vermouth bottle left on the bar was sucking air, but I'm sure that alchohol was not the reason for the late night, I am convinced that they were extolling my virtues to each other and just could not tear themselves away.

Tonight the crew is going to make some decisions on ad placements.  It is unbelievably expensive. We are also lining up 100 folks to help work the polls on October 7th.  If you have the time go here and let me know.

A great friend and neighbor, Louisa Lauver, printed up some stickers and passed them out to all last night.  Here is the text:

Get High On The Hogg

Hoggard4Council.com

Damn... I love these people!  I might have to change my whole marketing plan.

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After 2 1/2 hours no minds were changed but I got some good face time at the Jaycees debate on stadium issues last night at UNCG.  As the N&R reported, the event was sparcely attended despite some heavy promotion by the local media during the last two days leading up to the event.

My guess is that everyone has made up their minds about the issue and just tired of talking about it, as I am.

A couple of good Hoggard quotes are contained in the article above.  Regarding the claims of economic development that stadiums stimulate, I retorted:  "How has the area around War Memorial Stadium resisted this development for 77 years?"

I have heard it claimed too many times from stadium boosters that people were "duped" into signing the petition that prompted the referendum,  I cleverly stated that, "Anyone who feels they were duped has a chance to come out on Oct. 7 and say how duped they were."

On a related note, Charlotte's City Council Primary, was held yesterday.  Long term incumbent Lynn Wheeler came in fifth out of five candidates.  She states in this morning's Charlotte Observer that her defeat was, "because I led the charge for the (new uptown) arena," Wheeler said Tuesday night. "And so I took the hit because of it."

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