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Democrats face uphill battle for Corbin’s seat
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR
North Carolina’s 50th Senate District remains a bastion of Republican power in the west; nonpartisan mapping site davesredistricting.org puts it at more than 62% red, utilizing a composite of actual vote counts from 2016 through 2020, rather than simple voter registration totals.
Combine that geographical advantage with a sensible, experienced legislator who has friends across the aisle and that makes for yet another difficult election cycle for Democrats in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain and Transylvania counties — but it won’t stop them from trying to unseat incumbent Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Franklin).
“I remember when George Bush the first was running, and we watched the Democratic and Republican conventions on TV and I just loved the patriotism at those rallies,” said Karen McCracken, a Jackson County Democrat running against Corbin. “I was like, wow, that seems like fun.”
McCracken was born and raised in Sylva. In seventh and eighth grade, she was elected to student council, and in high school she participated in something called Girls State, a civic leadership program hosted by the American Legion.
“Those helped me understand that when we work together, we can plan and organize and we can do great things,” McCracken said.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in religious education from Gardner-Webb University and then a Master of Divinity at Campbell University’s Divinity School. After a few years teaching, McCracken worked at ConMet and now sells radio ads for Sylva-based WRGC radio.
According to McCracken, her top three priorities are education, inflation and Medicaid expansion.
“What’s going on is the House and the Senate each keep passing bills, but they won’t agree on a bill,” she said. “With more folks going to Raleigh who are committed
to getting it passed, we have a better chance of actually putting the bill across the finish line to go to the governor.”
On education, McCracken wants to see full funding of the Leandro plan, the recruitment of
more diverse teachers and a better pay scale to promote teacher retention.
To combat inflation, McCracken supports a living wage, prescription drug price caps, stronger estate taxes and subsidized childcare to free up family caregivers.
Corbin, meanwhile, has been dealing with many of these issues throughout a lifetime of public service that began when he
was elected to the Macon County School Board at just 22 years old. He went on to serve 20 years there, including 16 as chairman. After four years out of politics, he was appointed to the Macon County Commission and then won a full term, and also chaired that body. From there, he served two terms in the House, and has since completed his first term in the Senate.
His primary concern right now is Medicaid expansion, a cause he took up before it became fashionable for General Assembly Republicans to do so.
“I was one of the first Republicans in the building to favor Medicaid expansion and begin to share that with my colleagues and in the end the Senate did put it to a vote, and we did it with just two ‘no’ votes,” Corbin said of the Senate bill that’s currently awaiting House action. “Two years ago, most people would have found it impossible to believe that the North Carolina Senate would even hear Medicaid expansion, much less pass it by an overwhelming bipartisan majority.”
In both the House and the Senate, Corbin has been one of the key players in pushing for the expansion of rural broadband.
“We started the great GREAT (Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology) grants about four years ago, and we’ve been putting $10 to $15 million a year into that,” he said. “This year, we put $400 million into it, so that has grown exponentially.” Serving in the General Assembly isn’t just about staking out philosophical positions or producing pragmatic solutions to the problems that plague dogging this overwhelmingly rural district; Corbin said an equally important function of the office is to provide constituent services.
“I take that very seriously. So when people call our office, Cindy [Hobbs] is the one that fields the calls. When she went to work for me six years ago, I told her that when a constituent calls and has an issue, drop whatever you’re doing, we’re going to take care of it,” Corbin said.
Constituent issues usually concern the three D’s — the DOT, the DMV, and the DOR — and Corbin says his office has been able to solve about 95% of them.
Inflation remains a concern and Corbin thinks North Carolina is already in a recession, however a recent ranking by CNBC as America’s top state for business and his party’s relentless pursuit of lower taxes, both corporate and personal, will do a lot to blunt the impact of rising prices.
“I think just keeping our own house in order, you have to recognize what you can and can’t do and we can’t control what they do in Washington,” Corbin said. “We can control what goes on in Raleigh, and that’s what we’ve done.”
Karen McCracken.
Kevin Corbin.
— Karen McCracken
— Kevin Corbin
Man pleads guilty to crimes in two-county, high speed chase
A homeless man who stole a pickup truck in Bryson City and led officers on a two-county, high-speed chase pleaded guilty this week in Swain County Superior Court, District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch said.
On the afternoon of June 23, 2020, James Caviness, 52, stole an unoccupied pickup truck that was idling in front of a service station. He sped west out of Bryson City onto U.S. 19, then exited U.S. 19 for U.S. 74.
During the approximately 30-minute chase, in rainy conditions, he drove at speeds that at times exceeded 100 miles per hour.
In the Nantahala Gorge with state Highway Patrol Trooper T.S. Cochran in pursuit, Caviness ignored the double-yellow line, passing a truck hauling large, round hay bales. A short distance later, he turned around into the eastbound lanes, speeding back toward Bryson City.
The tires on the pickup truck disintegrated as Caviness drove over stop sticks officers placed on the road. He continued to drive on the rims. At one point, he drove in the westbound lanes, facing oncoming traffic.
Caviness turned toward Sylva at Exit 85. He entered the downtown area and, driving on Haywood Road, went into Dillsboro. The chase ended in a restaurant parking lot.
In addition to the Highway Patrol, officers from Bryson City, Swain County, Sylva and Jackson County assisted in the pursuit.
In court, Superior Court Judge Todd Pomeroy ordered Caviness to serve a minimum prison sentence of 120 months and a maximum prison sentence of 166 months.
He pleaded guilty to felony larceny, felony flee to elude, six counts of injury to personal property, driving while impaired and habitual felon.
Habitual felons are sentenced four classes higher than the underlying felony convictions, based on North Carolina’s structured sentencing law.
Cherokee man sentenced for second-degree murder
Michael C. Scherck, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division, and Chief Carla Neadeau of the Cherokee Indian Police Department joined U.S. Attorney King in making the announcement.
According to filed court records and court proceedings, on Dec. 13, 2019, Sadongei and the victim were at the residence of a family member of the victim, located on the Qualla Boundary. Over the course of the evening, Sadongei and the victim argued before Sadongei shot the victim in the chest, and the victim died as a result of the gunshot wound. Court records show that, after shooting the victim, Sadongei fled the scene, then visited the home of another member of the victim’s family to explain his version of what happened. On the way, he attempted to dispose of the firearm. Law enforcement later recovered the firearm Sadongei used to shoot the victim, a Hi-Point 9mm handgun, and a magazine.
Sadongei is in federal custody. He will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.
In making today’s announcement U.S. Attorney King thanked the FBI and the Cherokee Indian Police Department for their investigation of the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Pritchard of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville prosecuted the case.
