Earl Jones, a veteran Greensboro politician with close ties to the Simkins PAC, faces his first Democratic primary challenge for the NC House District 60 seat since he first won it in 2002. Thirty-five-year-old Marcus Brandon grew up down the street from Jones, and became active in politics and activism at an early age in emulation of his uncle, Lewis Brandon, a widely respected activist and photographer who played a seminal role in the 1960 Woolworth’s sit-ins. A political consultant who works on national campaigns for progressive Democrats, Brandon moved back to Guilford County last year after living in Washington, DC.
Brandon said in a recent interview that Jones’ representation of District 60, which covers south Greensboro, Pleasant Garden and central High Point, along with rural parts of Guilford County in between, has fallen short, particularly with regard to the sitting representative’s advocacy of video poker.
“Very few people I talk to [in the district] are in support of this measure,” Brandon said. “They talk about how they haven’t worked in six or seven months, their house is about to go under foreclosure. They have illnesses that they can’t address because they haven’t been working and don’t have insurance.”
Some of Brandon’s claims about the impact of video poker do not bear out. Brandon’s statement that “video poker brings not one single job into our district” could be countered by evidence that a single owner-operator doing business in District 60 also resides in the district. And Brandon said that a shooting last summer at a betting parlor on Randleman Road near Rocky Knoll Road discouraged business in a shopping center to the extent that “if you go there now it’s almost empty because everybody has moved out.” A visit on a recent Saturday revealed that more than half of the storefronts on the right flank of the shopping center referenced by Brandon were vacant, but overall the area was bustling with commercial activity. Brandon argued that his opponent’s promotion of video poker doesn’t represent the values of the district. “We have a policy that will deteriorate our community, and preys on people with addictive personalities,” he said. Brandon said, if elected, his representation would mark a shift in emphasis.
The candidate cited a recent announcement by the White House that the state of North Carolina will received $540 million in federal funding to develop a light rail system. Brandon said District 60’s representative in Raleigh needs to be proactive about getting those dollars for Guilford County by making the case that the Triad’s central location in the state makes it a logical place to start building new rail infrastructure. The candidate added that he would like to see 30 percent of the jobs created go to unemployed people and to racial minorities and women, and to ensure that rail lines are aligned to accommodate those who rely on public transit to get to employment and education centers.
“The whole eastern seaboard is connected; it goes all the way from Boston down to northern Virginia, and then it stops,” Brandon said. “When I lived in DC, I could go out of my house with my suitcase, go two blocks to the train station, go to Union Station, get on Amtrak and go to New York, get on the subway, and then get off two blocks from my aunt’s apartment in Harlem. We in North Carolina are second to Texas when it comes to spending on roads. We need to reconfigure how that works.”
Jones has retained political consultant Bill Burckley, and the two are known for engaging in bare-knuckle politics. If the Jones campaign were to try to spring a late-game disclosure on the voters to knock the challenger off balance, Brandon said he has a good idea what it would be. “The biggest skeleton in my closet is the fact that I have some speeding tickets,” he said. “That’s the reason I am pushing for mass transit: I am a horrible driver.” Brandon has had a dozen traffic offenses in Guilford County since 1995, including charges of speeding, improper equipment and failing to stop at a red light.
The candidate was scheduled to be in court on Monday on charges of driving while license revoked and operating a vehicle with no insurance; he said he would ask for a continuance. The charges stem from a traffic stop last July. Brandon said that he had paid a fine for speeding in Ohio earlier in the year, which resulted — unbeknownst to him — in the revocation of his license and suspension of his insurance. Although he is a proud progressive, Brandon said he hopes conservative rural voters will give him a chance. Like conservative 6th Congressional District candidate Billy Yow, Brandon attended Southern Guilford High School. He said that many of the present-day Tea Partiers in southern Guilford County “have been my neighbors and mentors all my life.”
Considering that healthcare reform appears to be stalled at the national level, Brandon said he believes it is both practical and constitutional to pass legislation in Raleigh to set up a statewide singlepayer healthcare system.
“I believe healthcare is an uncompromising human right; I get in trouble for this,” he said. “We provide healthcare for the mass murderer sitting on death row. And we do that because we have a responsibility to treat them humanely. We owe that to the single mother, the mass murderer and the illegal immigrant.”
Brandon is currently registered to vote at his parents’ house in south Greensboro, but he lives in High Point near the Morehead Recreation Center.
“I have no problem saying I moved to High Point for this campaign,” Brandon said. “I did. Those people have been unrepresented for years. Greensboro is represented, but not represented in our ideas and values.” !
