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Local politics have been a bit chaotic of late here in New Hanover County. So, this week, a recap and update on a very messy March (with April also off to a hell of a start).
Democratic school board primary — It’s been a month since we broke the story about Democratic school board candidate Rick Southerland, who had opted not to notify his party or the public that he was living with James Osborne, a registered sex offender. The decision, which was almost universally unpopular, had a particularly negative resonance in New Hanover County, where the school system is still recovering from years of child sex abuse by teachers, some of which was covered up, or at least aggressively downplayed, by former administrators.
Much of the media attention has recently shifted to Osborne, who is now facing federal charges for voting while on supervised release as part of a felony sentence (which is illegal in North Carolina). As I wrote last week, this intersects with the story of embattled New Hanover County Elections Director DeNay Harris, who allegedly failed to investigate Osborne’s eligibility – although, notably, Osborne voted three times, in two different counties, under three different elections office administrations (Brunswick County in 2024, New Hanover County under temporary county staff management in 2025, and this year’s primary under Harris’ supervision).
Much hay has been made about Osborne’s illegal voting. And while his story has been used as a springboard for some thoroughly unfounded claims about widespread voter fraud, it’s still worth trying to understand how he slipped through the cracks. The criminal case against Osborne might shed some light on that, but we’re looking into how it all works at a more system-wide level.
All of this superseded the story we had originally been preparing for, which was the outcome of the primary election — which, as I write this over the weekend, is still not totally decided. We know the four Republican school board candidates going to the general election in November: Pat Bradford, Josie Barnhart, Dr. Amy Dunning, and Chris Suttton. But we only have three confirmed Democratic candidates: Wendy Dale, Jerry Jones, Jr., and Brittnei LaRue.
The fourth candidate is slated to be picked at a meeting of the New Hanover County Democratic Party on Monday evening. Several candidates plan to throw their hats in the ring, we’re told, so we’ll have an update on that early this coming week.
New Hanover County Elections Office — Speaking of the elections office, we expect that this week will be the deadline for Harris to respond to the petition to remove her, filed on March 24 with the unanimous and bipartisan support of the county’s Board of Elections.
State law gives elections directors 15 days to respond, but since we’re not sure exactly what day the petition was delivered to Harris (it first goes to state election staff, who then relay it to the director facing removal), we don’t know exactly when the deadline will be.
After that, the law gives North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes 20 days to make a decision. Sometimes, the state does overturn local petitions, especially if the local board makeup has changed, or if there’s been a split vote to remove a director. In this case, the same board that hired Harris now unanimously seeks to remove her. (Similarly, the state’s election board very occasionally overrules the executive director, but that’s unlikely in a case like this). Still, it’s technically possible that Harris could be afforded a hearing with witnesses and other evidence in front of the state board.
Based on our on and off-the-record conversations with sources familiar with this situation, the outcome is fairly certain: Harris will be removed and replaced, at least in the interim, with a current staff member.
The long-term prognosis is less clear.
There’s been a lot of negative news coverage around the elections office, including repeated clashes between County Manager Chris Coudriet and the elections office, the departure of former director Rae Hunter-Havens, who was almost certainly pressured to retire under the pretense of health issues, and the dysfunctional transition from temporary county management to Harris’ brief tenure, which devolved with almost shocking speed. That’s undoubtedly going to make recruiting another elections director difficult – or, rather, more difficult, given the pressures of the job and the relatively limited pool of candidates.
I don’t think there’s a lot of appetite to have the county run the elections office again, even on an interim basis, and I also think that any sane candidate would, after a little light Googling, have some second thoughts. So, as both a journalist and citizen, I’m really hoping that whoever the local elections board promotes to the director position sticks the landing. Because if we don’t have reliable local elections, well, we’re in a really bad place.
I’ll note that situations like this are something journalists have to reckon with all the time: it’s important to hold local governments accountable and provide transparency to the public about what’s going on in important institutions. But, it can’t be ignored that reporting can hurt those institutions’ ability to recruit fresh blood and put bad chapters behind them. I’ve personally seen this with the New Hanover County Schools district and the Wilmington Housing Authority,
The solution isn’t to ‘go easy’ on government; that way lies madness. But it’s worth making sure that we follow up and also report when governments are trying to course correct.
New Hanover County Democratic Party allegations — Last weekend, I was leaked a copy of a grievance filed by the local Democratic Party (NHCDP) against David Andrews, a Wilmington precinct chair, who had previously served as manager for Pender County, Boiling Spring Lakes, Carborro, and Oro Valley, Arizona.
Andrews, the husband of Wilmington City Councilwoman Salette Andrews, was credibly accused of sexual harassment and misconduct, at times while intoxicated, by Democratic candidates, party officials, a superior court judge, and a prominent community leader. In an email, David Andrews told me he forcefully denies all of these allegations. And to be clear, there are currently no criminal charges or civil cases related to this grievance, which is an internal political party process, not a court issue.
I had hoped to take a more investigative approach to the grievance, contacting the people who had signed the grievance to get more context and backstory, but on Sunday night, WECT ran a story, essentially laying out the key allegations. At that point, the cat was out of the bag, so to speak, so we did our best on Monday to provide what context we could. That included the fact that Andrews had filed his own complaints prior to the party grievance, including allegations that NHCDP Chairwoman Jill Hopman had inappropriately supported Dr. LaShonda Wallace over Salette Andrews in the Democratic primary for county commissioner (Wallace won one of two spots, Andrews did not). Hopman, for her part, denied endorsing Wallace or anyone else, and noted that even if she had, it would not be a party policy violation.
Unshockingly, conservative pundits, including Nick Craig, had a field day with the story, ranging from schadenfreude to outright glee over the back-to-back scandals in the “Democrat” party (Republicans just can’t seem to manage that last “ic” syllable). And it’s certainly fair to say it’s been a rough month for NHCDP.
What struck me, though, is that while Democrats were almost universally in agreement on the handling of Rick Southerland after the party condemned his dishonesty and called for him to step down from the campaign, there was a deep divide over the grievance against Andrews.
We received several emails from Democratic Party members, voicing frustration — even anger — that this story had ended up in the press, as opposed to being handled internally by the state party’s review committee. Andrews himself voiced frustration that the grievance had been circulated to NHCDP’s executive committee (which includes over a hundred members), which he felt could prejudice his case in front of the state party. Some suggested this was part of a smear campaign by Chairwoman Hopman, intended to harm Salette Andrews’ political fortunes.
I understand the frustration that the grievance was leaked to the press, and I didn’t want to use the cop out that it was “already out there” when we ran our story on Monday. In truth, I was already planning on running a story, irrespective of what WECT did, because once I did have a copy of the grievance, in which victims and witnesses signed their names to the accounts of Andrews’ behavior, I felt I had a journalistic obligation to pursue the story. The fact that it was being ‘handled internally’ wouldn’t dissuade me from reporting on it, regardless of whether it was the Democratic or Republican Party, a government organization, a prominent business – hell, I don’t care if it was the Audubon Society. I might have perhaps handled it differently, and had time to vet out other allegations that don’t appear in the grievance, but – on those accounts – my hand was forced, at least for an initial story (we're still looking into some follow-ups).
There was plenty of positive feedback from folks who felt we were as fair as possible with a sensitive story, noting these were allegations, avoiding sensationalism, and giving both Hopman and David Andrews a say.
But I have to admit I was a bit surprised at some of the reactions I received, both privately and publicly, to the reporting — criticism voiced exclusively by women (men, perhaps, sensed they should keep their heads down on this one). Some of the feedback came from people I know and respect, and all of it was delivered in thoughtful, civil ways – I’m not denigrating their points of view, and I appreciate them sharing their thoughts. Still, it’s notable that, almost a decade after #MeToo went fully viral, things seem very different. It is hard to imagine this story getting the same reaction in 2017.
So, I don’t know whether to attribute some of this week’s feedback to the fading luster of the MeToo movement, a specific sensitivity to the party’s public image, loyalty to Salette Andrews, or distaste for Hopman — there’s probably a Venn diagram.
All that said, these remain allegations — though serious ones — and we’ll have to wait and see what the state Democratic Party comes back with. As I understand it, next steps might be presented as early as Monday, so we’ll have an update when we know more.
“The gloves are off” — During Wednesday's New Hanover County School Board meeting, Republican Pat Bradford read aloud a text message from an unnamed board member, who was offering to trade votes on upcoming issues. She asked Republican Board Chair Pete Wildeboer to investigate this board member’s alleged “quid pro quo” as a potential policy violation.
As my colleague Rachel Keith reported this week, that text came from David Perry, who recently switched his party affiliation from Republican to Libertarian.
According to the text messages turned over by the district to WHQR (in a record-breaking five minutes after we requested them), Perry wanted Bradford’s vote to help make his proposed committee on employee benefits and retention into a permanent committee, instead of a weaker advisory one. In exchange, Perry offered to swallow his reservations and vote in favor of an agreement with LifeWise Academy, a controversial group that wants to take students off-campus for Biblical instruction during the school day. The district is expected to present a memorandum of understanding with LifeWise for a vote in the coming months.
In her text response, Bradford wrote in part, “David, I am absolutely shocked that you sent this offer to me. Let my answer be crystal clear never ever is my vote for sale.”
After the meeting, Perry posted on the NHC Educational Justice page, writing in part, “Pat is a vindictive Bitch and has done everything in her power to try and bring me down since I was elected, even when I was still a Republican. And now the gloves are off since I switched to the Libertarian Party.”
Side note: Perry also accused Bradford of using the images of school children on her campaign social media account, an apparent violation of the board’s conduct policy. Bradford later replaced the images with ones where the students’ faces are not (or are at least far less) identifiable. Advocates from NHC Educational Justice have been hounding Wildeboer for a week or so about posts of school children on the campaign accounts for Bradford and fellow Republican Josie Barnhart, but he has declined to weigh in besides saying “it all seems to be in compliance with our policy.”
Bradford rejected Perry’s allegations – and also noted that her mind was not made up on LifeWise.
Okay, so there are a few things I want to say about this story.
First, Rachel and I had hoped that this week’s story would focus on the school district’s financial situation. Superintendent Dr. Chris Barnes gave a budget update ahead of a presentation at the end of this month, and the board discussed a resolution, imploring the state’s Republican-controlled General Assembly to get its act together and pass a budget (nine months into the fiscal year, North Carolina is the only state in the nation without a fiscal year 25-26 budget). It’s a delicate situation for GOP board members, who don’t want to be unduly critical of Republicans in state office, but who also have to reckon with the fact that North Carolina sits near the bottom of state rankings in public school funding.
While we resisted the childish urge to put “vindictive Bitch” in the headline, Perry’s clash with Bradford did chew up some bandwidth. I’ll say we can — and do — ignore plenty of petty nonsense: side-eyes, huffings and puffing, sarcastic and under-the-breath mutterings, etc. But when board members are taking time to assail each other’s integrity — or just cuss each other out — unfortunately, that’s also news. It’s also not a one-off, but a systemic problem that’s plagued the Board of Education for years. As I’ve said elsewhere, grab any elected official, regardless of party, from any board except the school board, and ask them about it. They’ll tell you they’re glad it’s not their circus.
Next, is Perry’s “vindictive Bitch” post worthy of moral opprobrium in the Trump era?
President Donald Trump is beloved by his base for dispensing with what they see as politics' fake veneer of civility. From their point of view, he simply says in public the kinds of things that LBJ, Nixon, and others were recorded saying in private. He often gets a special dispensation to be crude, misogynistic, and bigoted — “that’s just Trump being Trump,” I frequently hear.
That’s been a convenient argument for Republicans who would like to hold everyone else to moral account. Take, for example, those demanding the theater-wide reputational carpet bombing of everyone who spoke ill of Charlie Kirk after his assassination, but shrug when Trump takes to social media to celebrate the death of Robert Mueller.
We could debate whether Trump has helped cause our present incivility or just taken maximum advantage of it — it’s likely a bit of both. But it’s hard to argue the bar isn’t lower; I’ve seen folks all across the political spectrum enjoying the obscene relief of the low road (and yes, I count myself among them, once in a while).
All that to say, I don’t think Perry will pay a high cost for his words. In fact, there are clearly those on the left with PBDS — Pat Bradford Derangement Syndrome — who dislike her and her politics so deeply that they were happy to cosign Perry’s post. (Long gone, it seems, is that inspirational Michelle Obama quote.)
And perhaps that’s just social media, the trickle-down decadence of the current administration, or a weariness from being the Charlie Brown of civil discourse. Again, there’s probably a Venn diagram.
And lastly, whatever you think of Perry’s language, I think he had a fair point when he told Rachel Keith, “I was willing to make a deal, and that's what people do all the time, right? [...] I mean, don't they do that kind of thing in Congress and the General Assembly all the time?"
I can certainly respect Bradford’s insistence that her vote will be her own; that is a noble sentiment. But her pearl-clutching over Perry’s offer, which was par for the political course, if a bit ham-fisted, is another matter.
Bradford is smart, and she's been in politics for a while now, and covered plenty of local government as a reporter and editor before that. So it’s hard to take her Captain Renault routine — “I am shocked! Shocked to find vote trading is going on in here…” — seriously
