On today’s show, we're talking to Rebecca Zimmer Donaldson and Jason Smith, the Democratic and Republican candidates, respectively, running for District Attorney in Prosecutorial District 6 — that’s Pender and New Hanover counties.
Since 2004, the office has been held by Ben David.
Back in 1999, David was hired by then-DA John Carricker — a Democrat who hand-picked David as his political successor five years later, when he abruptly announced his retirement halfway through a four-year term.
There were political grumblings, particularly from Republicans, that Carricker was trying to subvert the lowercase-d democratic process — but David had a tough campaign. He first faced three other Democratic candidates in a special primary election, and then Republican Jennifer Harjo in the general election.
Harjo lost in a tight race, by just over two points, and would go on to open New Hanover County’s Public Defender's office, one of the first in the state. David would go on to win five uncontested elections, in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022.
Last year, David announced he would, like Carricker, retire halfway through his term. But the timing was slightly different. While Carricker resigned at the end of July, David’s retirement took effect on the first business day of September — and that changed the shape of the upcoming election.
While back in 2004 there was a special primary election, this year, due to the timing of David’s election, candidates for the Republican and Democratic parties were chosen by prosecutorial committees of the state parties.
Both parties chose a prosecutor currently working in David’s office
Democrats nominated Rebecca Zimmer Donaldson, a member of the well-established Zimmer family, born in Wilmington, she served as a prosecutor in Kings County, New York — perhaps better known as Brooklyn — before returning to work in David’s office four years ago.
Republicans nominated Jason Smith, a retired U.S. Army Captain who has worked in David’s office for fourteen years, including many years running the day-to-day operations in Pender County.
Earlier this week, Governor Roy Cooper appointed Donaldson to serve as interim District Attorney until either she or Smith wins the general election and is sworn in to serve out the final two years of David’s term.
That kind of appointment can be beneficial — Carricker himself was appointed back in 1995 to replace disgraced DA Jerry Spivey. After Spivey was caught using a racial slur at a Wrightsville Beach bar, he earned the ignominious distinction of being one of very few DAs ever removed from office in North Carolina. Carricker, who brought an understated calm to the office, helped soothe the scandal, and was reelected in 1998 and 2002.
But an appointment isn’t always an anointing — while Carricker recommended David for interim, then-Governor Mike Easley appointed someone else, instead. And, of course, the real benefit of appointment to a vacant position is name recognition, and it’s not clear if two months as interim DA before the election will give Donaldson a definitive boost.
It’s worth noting here that while District Attorney elections are technically partisan, and there is always politics at work — they aren’t quite political in the same way as, say, state representatives or school boards.
Running as a Democrat might make sense in liberal-leaning Wilmington, but David has seen consistent support across party lines in the broader, and more evenly purple, New Hanover County region — and in conservative-leaning Pender County. Across the river, his twin brother Jon, has served Bladen, Brunswick, and Columbus counties as a Republican for nearly fourteen years. And while Jon David's prosecutorial district is far more conservative than his brother's, it’s hard to map traditional political ideologies onto the way they’ve run their separate offices.
But that’s not to say DAs are politically inert administrators — they’re often political animals, and Ben David in particular has gone above and beyond his elected office, exerting influence everywhere from the general assembly to local community conversations.
And, while DAs are sworn to uphold the law and prosecute those who break it — they also have a lot of discretion, which, over time, can sort of take the form of precedent. Take the prosecution of cannabis offenses, which David has steered towards treatment and probation instead of prison time, or New Hanover County’s pioneering use of H and I court — a reference to lower-level felonies which, with buy-in from the victims, defense attorneys, and prosecutors, can be dealt through guilty pleas quickly and without a trial.
So, in short, we’re talking about a powerful, influential office — a position that has an impact not just on the dozens of prosecutors and staff the DA oversees, or the thousands of people who go through court every year, but on the broader community. And that office is, for the first time in twenty years, up for grabs.
