News India Times
February 12, 2016
6
– that’s all you need to know
U.S. Affairs
By Ela Dutt
s the race to the
March 15 North
Carolina Democratic
primary heats up,
Indian-American
candidate for state Senate Jay
Chaudhuri upped the ante
against his opponent, garnering
a slew of labor endorsements. If
Chaudhuri wins the primary
from the heavily Democratic
District 16, he would be as good
as elected before the November
general elections, making him
the first Indian-American state
Senator in North Carolina.
But it may turn out to be a
competitive race as rival Ellis
Hankins who was the head of
North Carolina League of
Municipalities for 17 years, gears
up to announce his own
endorsements over the coming
week, he told News India Times.
Chaudhuri announced Feb. 4,
he was endorsed by the North
Carolina AFL-CIO, the
Teamsters, the Triangle Labor
Council, the Raleigh Police
Protective Association and the
Raleigh Professional Fire
Fighters Association. The District
16 seat opened up when incum-
bent Josh Stein declared his run
for state Attorney General. To
date Chaudhuri has raised
almost $290,000 from 571 con-
tributors.
Hankins told News India
Times his cash-on-hand is
$130,000 from the Dec. 31 filing
and that “a good bit” had been
raised since then. “This is a very
competitive Democratic pri-
mary,” he acknowledged.
Chaudhuri said he hoped the
latest endorsements would
increase the grassroots machin-
ery he has working on his cam-
paign including some 40 volun-
teers who have helped make
some 62,067 calls and door
knocks to voters. Hankins said
he had “lots of volunteers”
engaged in putting up neighbor-
hood signs, and preparing for
monitoring early voting sights
and carrying out polling etc.
District 16 includes parts of
Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville and
westernWake County.
Morrisville has a rising number
of Indian-Americans and
Chaudhuri hopes they will come
out to swell his numbers on pri-
mary day. Chaudhuri said the
labor groups’ endorsement rec-
ognized his career fighting for
working families.”I have a track
record of getting things done
including taking on multibillion
dollar companies to protect chil-
dren on the Internet, and help-
ing recover more than $100 mil-
lion from life insurance compa-
nies,” he told News India Times.
Both candidates are focused
on public education and raising
teacher pay. Chaudhuri’s eco-
nomic platform to be
announced shortly, includes
growing the local economy and
reducing inequality, cutting taxes
for working- and middle-class
families, and ensuring women
receive equal pay for equal work.
He has been endorsed by nine
current and past elected officials,
including former state Treasurer
Janet Cowell, Raleigh Mayor
Nancy McFarlane, state
Representative Gale Adcock,
Wake County Commissioner
John Burns, Wake County
Commissioner Sig Hutchinson,
former Raleigh City Council
Member Rodger Koopman, for-
mer Raleigh City Council
Member Randy Stagner,
Morrisville Town Council
Member Steve Rao, and former
Morrisville Mayor Margaret
Broadwell.
His opponent has also been
endorsed by a few public figures
including former Mayor of
Raleigh Smedes York, who
praised Hankins for 17 years of
working with elected officials to
improve communities and his
dedication to public education.
“Several (endorsements) are
about to be announced and sev-
eral organizations are about to
consider (my candidacy),”
Hankins told News India Times.
Chaudhuri has a Masters in
international affairs from
Columbia University and a law
degree from North Carolina
Central University. He was a leg-
islative aide to Democratic U.S.
Senator Russell D. Feingold of
Wisconsin. From 2001 to 2009,
he was special counsel to North
Carolina Attorney General Roy
Cooper, where he is credited
with developing major policy
initiatives such as drafting the
statewide strategy to combat
methamphetamine; spearhead-
ing the AG’s Campus Safety Task
Force after the Virginia Tech
shooting in 2006; being involved
in the national multi-state inves-
tigation of MySpace and
Facebook, helping negotiate an
agreement between 49 state
attorneys general and MySpace
to create a task-force on online
safety tools.
From 2009 to mid-2015,
Chaudhuri was general counsel
and senior policy advisor to State
Treasurer Janet Cowell, where he
managed all corporate gover-
nance and legal matters for the
department which handled the
$90 billion pension fund among
other things.
Chaudhuri Ups The Ante In Upcoming Primary For North Carolina Senate
A
By Ela Dutt
C
ongressman Ami Bera, D-
California, the only
Indian-American on
Capitol Hill faced a roadblock
from within the Democratic
Party last week when local
activists did not give the District
7 representative, the majority
needed for an unqualified
endorsement. This Jan. 31 short-
fall in support came on the heels
of a rejection from his home-
town activists when the Elk
Grove-South County Democratic
Club, opposed him as a choice
for the Democratic ticket.
Bera, whose last two term vic-
tories have been won on
extremely slimmargins in one of
the costliest races in the country,
is now looking to get his
endorsement at the state
Democratic Party Convention
scheduled for Feb. 28. Since he
was elected four years ago, Bera
has been a target for
Republicans trying to gain a seat
in a district that is about evenly
split between the two parties.
Republicans are gleeful about
this setback.
The Congressman who repre-
sents District 7, met activists at a
regional endorsement party in
Sacramento Jan. 31, where he
secured only 61 percent of the
vote instead of the 70 percent
which would have put him over
the top for being the nominee.
Thirty nine percent opposed
him.
Dissatisfaction with Bera’s
vote for the controversial Trans
Pacific Partnership, a trade deal
with Asian countries led by
President Obama, has upset
labor groups; and his stand on
limiting refugees from Iraq and
Syria has put him on the wrong
side of many Democrats.
The Sacramento Bee called it
“a rare setback” for an incum-
bent though in Bera’s case, not
an unexpected one. Bera will
step up his efforts aiming to get
the okay at the state party con-
vention where regional clubs
and other local groups are not
invited and voting is conducted
through delegates and proxies.
“I think Congressman Bera
needs to do some soul searching
as to whether he’s a real
Democrat, or not,” the Bee quot-
ed Robert Longer of the
CommunicationsWorkers of
America Local 9421, saying.
Longer is one of Bera’s earliest
supporters, accompanying him
on door-knocking campaigns
over the years, McClatchy news-
papers reported.
In an email response to News
India Times, Bera said, “I respect
the diverse voices in the party
and take their concerns serious-
ly, but I’m confident that I’ll get
the party’s endorsement at the
convention later this month.
This will always be a competitive
seat and I’ll continue to do my
job and focus on serving the
people of my district.”
Since he received more than
50 percent of the vote, he is
moving forward in the endorse-
ment process and is confident
he will get the party’s endorse-
ment on Feb. 28 at the state con-
vention, his spokesperson told
News India Times.
Responding to the loss of sup-
port from within Democratic
ranks, Bera told McClatchy via
email during a visit to India late
December that “My job is to
serve my district and to address
the issues that matter to resi-
dents. Washington is broken and
I firmly believe that we must
work together, across the aisle,
to get things done and I will con-
tinue to do that.”
The Congressman has argued
that he had not supported the
actual TPP but rather only
President Obama’s ability to
negotiate it. But that has not sat-
isfied local activists.
If he wins the nomination,
Bera will be running against
Republican Sacramento County
Sheriff Scott Jones.
Stanford University political
scientist Bruce Cain warned
Democrats may lose the seat in
imposing a kind of ‘ideological
purity test’ on Bera. “Ami Bera
has just barely survived a couple
of these elections, and if you’re
going to win in the Central Valley
you’re going to have to make
some concessions to conserva-
tive social positions,” Cain told
McClatchy newspapers.
Rep. Ami Bera Faces Problems Within Party On Trade Pact Vote
