A Sometimes-insider’s History of the Chatham Coalition, parts of which may even be true. Part 1: 2002, A Desperate Need

(note: if you are coming into this series in the middle, please at least read the introduction to clarify the level of journalism or not as opposed to storytelling, that is contained herein)

In 2002 I was working on Gary Phillips’ re-election campaign and David LeGrys’ campaign for commissioner.  It was my first significant immersion into Chatham County politics after moving here from Cary in 1999. 

There was a core of us who did most of the grass roots work on David and Gary’s campaign.  I will probably leave some names off for which I apologize but I remember most of the work being done by myself, Will Sexton, Nancy Brown (who officially challenged Bunkey’s residency in district 4), Bruce Alexander, Mark Barroso (who provided videotaped proof that Bunkey did not live in district 4 which was ignored by the county board of elections), Karl Kachergis, and Barbara Ford.  As far as I could see we were the core workers of the  Phillips/LeGrys campaign besides the candidates themselves.  

The county commissioners led by Phillips had just turned down the Briar Chapel mega development and the developers of Briar Chapel, a California based company named Newland, and the rest of the development community were up in arms and determined to get rid of the commissioners who would stand in their way of doing whatever they wanted in the county.   The campaign they ran was unprecedented in Chatham County, it included push polls, expensive mailings, PACs formed and run by developers and realtors to push the Bunkey campaign, and culture wars attacking the incumbent’s religion and marriage.  In retrospect we really didn’t stand a chance.

To be fair it must be said we weren’t helped by the candidate at the top of our ticket, Gary Phillips, who separated from his wife in the middle of the hotly contested primary season, and who had overstated his educational and divinity credentials. These two things inflamed the county’s conservatives. 

Another thing that didn’t help us was complacency among county liberals and their allies caused by the sheer perceived ridiculousness of Bunkey Morgan’s campaign.  A lot of people who should have known better didn’t think he had a chance of winning a Democratic primary because he had run and lost as a Republican in another district 2 years ago so wasn’t a real Democrat, and he didn’t really even live in the district he was running to represent. 

A lot of people who should have paid more attention or helped defeat him dismissed Bunkey as a joke and thought we were being silly, or paranoid, or just trying to get money or volunteer time out of them by playing up the Bunkey threat. 

One incident I distinctly remember that illustrates this attitude was trying to get the News and Observer’s Chatham beat  reporter (hard to believe now that such a thing would exist, but it did) interested in Bunkey’s business history of being sued for nonpayment by suppliers and the IRS.  This was important because a major part of his campaign message was that he was a successful businessman who had shown an ability to make a payroll and get the bills paid with what he had available.   The reporter listened to what I laid out and then said “None of this matters because face it Bunkey is a joke and he doesn’t really stand a chance in this Democratic primary,  so it’s not a story.” 

After Bunkey won the primary and the Republicans pulled out of the race, a lot of people were shocked that it had happened and realized too late that complacency and letting others do the hard campaigning work wasn’t going to be a winning strategy. 

The fact of the matter was we were a handful of people up against a purpose-built big money political machine and we got bulldozed by that machine.   What we really needed was a political machine of our own.