Even with polls and analysts predicting a blue wave, the State Senate District 7 race outcome was a bit of a surprise. Democratic challenger Jessica Bichler, a political newcomer, defeated Republican incumbent Michael Lee by a strong margin — despite Lee’s broad base of support and multi-million-dollar war chest.
On Wednesday, Bichler said she’d be cautiously optimistic.
"I was cautiously optimistic because I've been disappointed in the past with our election results. But at the same time, I just was feeling such strong energy from people in early voting and at the polls and in general around the community as my name recognition started to grow," she said. "So I felt really confident that we had enough people who were advocating on my behalf to help turn people out to the polls that we could really do it.”
Heading to Raleigh will mean a learning curve, Bichler said, but she wants to get to work rolling back the state’s controversial Opportunity Scholarship, which redirects public money to private schools, and supporting legislation to protect drinking water.
Bichler said that, while campaigning, she recognized a lot of issues that crossed party lines — and said she hopes to work across the aisle in the state Senate.
"It's absolutely my intention not only to work in every way that I can to fulfill the policy and platform positions that I put forth, but really that I hopefully start to break some of the animosity across party lines, and focus on the good of our community," she said.
Other races were more predictable. Republican incumbent Charlie Miller won his race against Scott Nasiff for House District 19, covering parts of coastal Brunswick and southern New Hanover County. And long-term Republican incumbent Frank Iler won his race against Democratic challenger Dennis Breen for House District 17 — which covers north and western Brunswick County, including Leland.
Iler politely declined to comment on his victory, saying he wanted to see how the state senate races shake out; the Democrats took the House, but the GOP will likely keep the Senate, though several key races are still within recount range.
In House District 18, longtime Democratic incumbent Deb Butler will continue to represent large parts of Wilmington.
Butler, a founding member of the Progressive House Caucus, said they’re focused on mainstream issues.
"We're focused on deliverables. We don't want to fight culture wars. I've had conversations with leadership and the governor — we're not interested in fighting rehashing these culture wars," she said. "We're interested in fixing some metaphorical potholes for people."
Butler said she hoped to take on a leadership role — and may well throw her hat in the ring for House speaker. She wants to combat corruption and increase transparency, particularly around the state budget, which is currently negotiated in private and released for a vote before most legislators or the public have had a chance to see it. Butler also said she wanted to stop the practice of putting new policy decisions into the budget.
Another issue is the new state Constitutional amendment putting an as-yet unspecified cap on local property taxes, which critics like Butler say will hamstring local government. She added that, though it’s not a silver bullet for the state’s funding woes, she wants to address corporate taxes.
“The first thing I think we need to do is achieve parity with corporate income tax and personal income tax. In no way in the world should corporations pay less than people," Butler said.
In House District 20, a seat left open by the retirement of longtime Republican incumbent Ted Davis, Democratic school board member Dr. Tim Merrick currently has a narrow 101-vote lead over Republican county commissioner Dane Scalise.
Scalise respectfully declined to comment on the close race, but in a Facebook post said that if the final tally doesn’t go his way, he will “accept that with grace” — and return to his work as a county commissioner.
Like other Democratic candidates, Merrick said he had been hopeful, but was surprised at the extent of his party’s victory across the state and the country.
Merrick acknowledged there’ll be some challenges learning the ropes, not just for him but for the large cohort of freshman House Democrats. But he said he had plans, both large and small, if the numbers hold and he ends up in Raleigh — including tackling North Carolina’s status as something of a Dillon’s Rule state, where local government has much less power, for example, the recent local property tax cap that Butler criticized.
“I mean, some of the ideas I have are really much larger in scale, and it will take more finesse and more time and more coalitions, to break down what we call the abusive preemption of Raleigh, right, the Dillon State, inability to allow local governance, to have that sort of agency, to manage their own communities," Merrick said.
"But on a smaller level, we want to do something about affordable housing. Well, how about we start by making sure that the housing fund is fully funded on a renewable basis," he said.
Merrick also said that he would, like Bichler, like to end the Opportunity Scholarship program, but acknowledged it could be an uphill battle depending on how the state Senate shapes up.
Vote totals will be finalized at the county canvasses on Friday, November 13. But, while there are still some close races, it’s clear the General Assembly will look very different in the next session.
