More from the Jan. 13 Wright/VanderKlok exchange, which establishes that the elections field is a small world in the state of North Carolina, and the State Board of Elections keeps pretty close tabs on employees in county offices.
Here former Forsyth County Board of Elections employee Rebecca VanderKlok and state board General Counsel Don Wright discuss Chris Duffey, formerly the deputy director at the Davidson County Board of Elections and now an employee in the Forsyth elections office. Wright wants to know VanderKlok's opinion of Duffey. The exchange also reveals a degree of instability in the Davidson elections office, which is given as the reason for Duffey's migration to Forsyth.
Then, the former employee and state lawyer discuss the politics of the three members of the Forsyth County board in the context of how county Elections Director Rob Coffman has managed to keep his job. Both VanderKlok and Wright appear to have a pretty good understanding of how the votes are stacked up.
VanderKlok: “Chris ought to be director of that office.”
Wright: “Well, he’s got the experience to be a director somewhere. We don’t know where he will end up. We’re aware of his situation.”
VanderKlok: “And Chris may go back, you know?”
Wright: “Well, he was expected to stay there and take over. Things [are] rather shaky in Davidson County in view of the recent activities down there.
“And you are aware of the fact that on the [Forsyth County] board you have [Democratic chair] Linda Sutton, who has thoughts on Rob that are not necessarily shared by [Republican member Jerry] Jordan and [Democratic member Frank] Dickerson. There’s three people on the board.”
VanderKlok: “Mm hmm. I know.”
Wright: “And one should not assume that they all think the same. But you know as well as I do it takes two members of the board to do something.”
VanderKlok: “Well, and I’m really kind of surprised about Frank not acknowledging, nobody acknowledging. I’m really, really surprised about that, because I know Frank’s wife. We played golf together. Frank knew me. Of course, we didn’t have any kind of camaraderie.
“Frank asked me, he came to me one day, and it was about two months after he had been on the board. And he said, ‘I want to ask you something.’ He said, ‘How’s the atmosphere in here?’ Well, you know, I got along with Rob. I was a Rob fan. You know, you have to play Rob’s game, you know? I said, ‘Everything’s fine in here.’ Which was a lie. I said, ‘I think Linda Sutton just has it out for Rob.’ Because at that time you could tell that there was tension between ’em.
“But that’s kind of been smoothed over, and you would think they were best buddies. So something — I don’t know — something’s not right there.”
Wright: “Do you regret lying — or not stating the truth?”
VanderKlok: “Yeah. Yeah because you want to stay on the good side of Rob.”
Wright: “Well, the thing is, Dickerson’s taken a lot of that to heart. And what feelings Sutton has isn’t necessarily shared by Dickerson, and she’s outvoted. Jordan is firmly — there’s no secret — firmly behind Rob. But Dickerson is with Jordan. And so Linda, she can rant and rave….”
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