“3 things happening in NC” is Cardinal & Pine’s weekly guide to the people, storylines, and events driving the news this week in North Carolina. Here’s what you’ll find below.
- Will NC’s Chuck Edwards be censured?
- Will new election rules take effect before midterms?
- High Point hosts John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival
Let’s go back a month to Aug. 3, when the congressional Committee on Ethics released its 60-page report on allegations of harassment by staff members of US Rep. Chuck Edwards, who represented western North Carolina in the NC Senate from 2016 to 2023 before joining the US House of Representatives.
The report laid out some uncomfortable details about the allegations, giving the term “guns ‘n’ roses” a new meaning as it described how he had lavished gifts on women who worked under him, including designer bags, flowers, guns, cash, tech, vacations, tickets to performances, and one-on-one dinners.
He also responded in a way that I think I can objectively call weird when one staffer turned him down for dinner, stating, “It’s disappointing to feel something that used to be easy has gotten complicated.”
This is all valuable context as we look at three stories and events to look forward to in North Carolina this week, beginning with Edwards’ colleagues considering a vote on censuring him.
Will NC’s Chuck Edwards be censured?
A lot has changed since the release of a Committee on Ethics report detailing allegations of inappropriate behavior by US Rep. Chuck Edwards.
After vehemently denying any wrongdoing for about a full day following the report’s release, Edwards dropped his bid for re-election. Far from having admitted to any transgressions, Edwards is once again claiming innocence as his colleagues consider a vote to censure him, a recommendation that came straight from the Ethics Committee’s report.
In a 22-page letter on Thursday, Edwards pleaded with his fellow lawmakers to “look beyond the conclusion of the Ethics Committee’s report against me” and examine the evidence, insisting that a censure vote would require an “extraordinary analytical leap.”
“I recognize that Members may view some of the interactions described in the report differently,” Edwards wrote. “I am not asking anyone to approve of every gift, compliment, friendship, social interaction or personal communication described in thousands of pages of material…I am asking you to distinguish between conduct that someone, examining isolated excerpts after the fact, might consider unconventional and conduct that actually establishes sexual harassment.”
The House is expected to vote on Edwards’ censure when it returns from recess on Aug. 31. It takes a majority of Congress to censure a member.
While a censure would not carry any official punishment such as removal from office, it would be considered an embarrassment for an outgoing elected official.
Will new election rules take effect before midterms?
New rules that could make it easier for state elections officials to toss mail-in ballots stirred up plenty of opposition and controversy when the NC Board of Elections passed them in July, and this week we should learn whether a last-ditch effort to halt those rules will be successful.
According to reporting from NC Newsline, when 10 or more people write acceptable letters of objection to such rules at the NC Rules Review Commission, the effective dates are delayed until legislative review can be carried out during the General Assembly’s next regular session, which is not set to occur until 2027.
As of Wednesday, NC Newsline reported, the proposed rules for photo ID and voting site conduct had received more than 10 objection letters—including NC Gov. Josh Stein—as did one section of a proposed rule on recounts, and that was with two days left until the deadline on Aug. 28 at 5 p.m.
“Making the rejection of voters’ ballots a partisan decision will undermine voters’ trust that their ballots will be counted,” Stein wrote in his letter to the N.C. Rules Review Commission on Wednesday.
If lawmakers don’t return sooner, then the new rules won’t go into effect before Election Day. Stay tuned.
High Point hosts the 15th annual John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival
Sept. 23 will mark the 100th birthday of American saxophonist, bandleader, composer, and jazz icon John Coltrane, born in Hamlet, North Carolina in 1926.
What better reason to travel 85 miles up Interstate 74 from Coltrane’s hometown to High Point, where a slate of great musicians will conjure the spirit of Coltrane’s influence on jazz, blues, R&B, rock, and hip-hop, onstage for the annual John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival?
Set at Oak Hollow Park on Sept. 5-6, this year’s two-day fest includes Ledisi, Victor Wooten & the Wooten Brothers, The Lao Tizer Band, Ravi Coltrane and many more. Pro tip: I highly recommend you make it a point to catch the John Coltrane Youth Jazz Workshop on Saturday.
