The North Carolina Republican Party has sent hard-hitting campaign mailers to voters in two competitive Mecklenburg County state House districts.
The mail pieces say the Democratic candidates are supported by those who want to legalize prostitution and hard drugs.
Mecklenburg has two House races that — for Democrats — are keys to breaking the Republican legislative supermajority.
In southeast Mecklenburg, the GOP has sent a mailer urging people in District 105 to vote for incumbent Tricia Cotham. It says that Democrat Nicole Sidman is “backed by radicals…who…want to legalize prostitution and hardcore drugs like heroin and meth.”
Stephen Wiley, caucus director for the state’s House Republicans, said that language comes from the state Democratic Party platform. The platform states a “concerted review of all laws should be conducted to remove discriminatory practices, including decriminalizing sex work, gambling, homelessness, and narcotics use.”
“We’re just highlighting what their own party platform says,” Wiley said. “So, if they don’t like what’s on there, they shouldn’t have supported the party platform.”
The platform calls for decriminalization — not legalization. When a drug is decriminalized that usually means law enforcement can’t arrest someone for it. Instead they can usually only write citations.
Sidman said the ad is not serious.
“They have a Photoshopped picture (of me),” she said.
She said issues about prostitution and drugs is “not what I’m hearing about at the door and reflected about anything I have ever said or my policies.”
When asked whether she supports decriminalization of hard drugs, Sidman said we need a holistic approach and that “study after study shows that just throwing people who have drug addiction into jail doesn’t help them and doesn’t stop the problem. We need to stop the people who are selling the drugs, stopping the people who are bringing in the drugs … and not focus on criminalizing people who need our help.”
Donald Trump narrowly won the district in 2020.
Cotham was elected to a similar district in 2022, but switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party last year. That gave the GOP a supermajority in the General Assembly.
A similar mailer was sent to north Mecklenburg voters in District 98, where Democrat Beth Helfrich is competing against Republican Melinda Bales in an open seat.
That mailer went further. It said she "supports" legalizing hard drugs and prostitution.
Wiley said the GOP made that leap because Helfrich sought out and received the endorsement of the Progressive Caucus of the state Democratic Party. The caucus supports decriminalization.
Helfrich said the mailer is a "cheap shot."
"I've had a lot of folks approach me about these mailers over the past weeks: Turns out when someone takes the time to Photoshop your face and think up alliterative scare tactics, it gets people talking," she said. "Some are furious on my behalf. Others are amused."
She said that families who have experienced addiction and overdose deserve better.
When asked about the state Democratic Party’s platform, she said in a statement that she supports “common sense reform. Of course, there is a place for law enforcement, and there is also an urgent need for a humane and holistic approach to help people recover. This is the strategy currently underway in Mecklenburg County, and I am committed to supporting those efforts.”
It’s common to try and tie candidates to less-popular members of their own political party.
The Majority Rising PAC has sent a mailer against Bales, tying her to Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor. It says she will help Robinson pass his “dangerous agenda.”
