An admission and an about-face by candidate Moore

David W. Moore, the Democratic nominee for NC House District 74 in Forsyth County, says he is back in the race.

He acknowledged in an interview on Memorial Day that a Facebook update two days earlier had made it sound like he was bowing out: He said at the time he was “ending all campaign activities.”

“My campaign committee grabbed me by the ear, and others in the neighborhood as well,” Moore said. “We’ll discuss further options come this week. The candidacy has not ended. I’m putting my campaign on hold.”

The reason for Moore’s rash announcement and current holding pattern is a Winston-Salem Journal article published on Saturday.

Among the candidate’s many legal difficulties reported by the Journal were convictions for assault and driving while intoxicated in Texas in the late 1990s. The article quotes Moore as saying he doesn’t recall the DWI and that the two convictions might have referenced another person by the same name.  

“I had a DWI when the collapse of my business [happened], and did a successful probation,” Moore told YES! Weekly. “I believe I had a scuffle back in them days.” 

“It happened in a period of life when I was having to readjust to a lot of changes,” he added. “That’s probably not unfamiliar to most people.” 

Asked if voters should weigh his assault conviction in deciding whether to support his candidacy, Moore said, “I would hope they’re going to consider a lot of things…. I’m not a career politician, that’s for sure. I’m just an average person who had the economic situation yank the rugs out from under me that had to adjust and pull myself up by the bootstraps. I answered the court and did the probation and did what was expected. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing. Every day in the Forsyth County judicial system there are hundreds of young and middle-aged people going through the same ordeal.” 

Moore faces Republican Debra Conrad in the November general election. 

UPDATE: Reaction from Forsyth County Democratic Party Chair Susan Campbell: "We're not really prepared to comment. We're still exploring our reaction and what the party may do. I don't quite understand the on-again-off-again campaign. We certainly wish him well."