Power to the party

Election '09 | Democrats and Republicans in Kinston, N.C., plan their next move against a federal veto of nonpartisan elections | Jamie Dean

Handout

In the small town of Kinston, N.C., B.J. Murphy did something extraordinary on Election Day: The 29-year-old sales director for a local real estate company became the first Republican elected as the town's mayor since Reconstruction. He won by 61 votes. "I'm excited," a beaming Murphy told supporters at the local Board of Elections.

But Murphy's win wasn't the only remarkable dynamic in the eastern North Carolina town of 23,000 people: Less than three months before Election Day, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) overruled the town's plan to hold nonpartisan elections—a plan approved overwhelmingly by Kinston voters last November.

The reason stunned many: DOJ officials in the Civil Rights Division said the plan would hurt black voters by hindering their ability to elect Democratic candidates. The federal intervention riled both Republicans and Democrats in Kinston, and left legal experts wondering: Is the DOJ defending minorities or the Democratic Party?

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November 21, 2009, Vol. 24, No. 23

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