The curious campaign of Constance Coram

If we’re being honest as voters, we would acknowledge that some elections matter to us more than others.

That’s why more people turn out when, say, it’s time to choose a governor, senator or president.

But if we don’t participate in every race — and aren’t informed about the candidates — we run the risk of putting someone in office who demonstrates a frightening lack of qualifications for that position.

So today, we need to talk about who should be Wayne County’s next Register of Deeds.

Now, let’s forget about the fact that Judy Denning Harrison has 36 years of experience in the courthouse — and has been the county’s Register of Deeds for the last five years. Simply being the incumbent or having experience should not necessarily result in an endorsement.

But when your competition is someone who seems to be running simply to win something — you know, because she lost a bid to serve on the City Council a few months ago — you deserve the upper hand.

So, what makes challenger Constance Coram the wrong choice for this post?

Let’s start with her behavior during her City Council campaign.

It was, frankly, less than couth. She made statements on her public Facebook page about Goldsboro and its leaders that were alarming and racially charged.

Like a post on June 21 that called Goldsboro a “red neck, Jim Crow, kind of city,” characterized downtown as an “area that is not doing much of anything,” and referred to the current city leadership team as a “Massa.”

And if that isn’t enough reason to discount her — spoiler alert: it should be — then look no further than her campaign website.

Don’t have the time? No worries. We’ll walk you through it. 

The first paragraph — the VERY FIRST paragraph — on her homepage was lifted off the Internet. Now, she was smart enough to change it when she was called out on Facebook for plagiarism, but on what planet does a candidate find this type of behavior acceptable?

Here it is:

Go ahead. Highlight it and paste it on a Google search. You’ll see it — verbatim.

Did she give the person who wrote those words credit? No.

If that had been an assignment turned in by a WCPS high school student, he or she would get a zero and would be suspended for plagiarism.

So, why then shouldn’t we hold someone running for a taxpayer-funded office to the same standard?

And just because she got caught and changed it doesn’t make the offense any less alarming.

Speaking of standards, there are significant grammatical errors throughout the rest of her “platform.”

We know what some of you are thinking.

“We’re all human. We all make mistakes. Don’t be petty.”

That’s fair in some cases. But not for this particular job. The Register of Deeds handles birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, real estate documents and more.

We can’t afford a lack of attention to detail or, worse yet, someone who simply isn’t capable.

And if your campaign literature is full of errors, we have every right to expect similar problems should you make it to the courthouse.

Some of these errors are egregious.

Take this one, for example:

“Wayne County is a very transit area.”

What does that even mean? Transient, maybe?

How about this one?

“Genealogy is stored adoptions information.”

Umm … no it isn’t.

Genealogy is a line of descent traced continuously from an ancestor.

And there are incomplete sentences, like this one.

“eliminate time spent in the office.”

That’s right. We are starting sentences — well, to be fair, sentence fragments — with lowercase letters.

The misuse of punctuation marks and capitalization of words that shouldn’t be capitalized run rampant.

Even her bio listed, under “Community Involvement,” that she has been an advocate “against corporations take over’s.”

Again, we understand that some might take these observations as petty. But the Register of Deeds is responsible for significant documents that have an impact on nearly every important aspect of residents’ lives.

Not knowing that takeover is one word — and erroneously placing an apostrophe — is a big deal.

She was called out on that, too, and changed it, but still got it wrong.

For those playing at home, it should say, “corporate takeovers.”

If that wasn’t bad enough, Coram also makes blatantly false claims on her site.

Like, that “Wayne County’s population has increased substantially in the past several years” and the “diversity” in the county has “shifted.”

Wrong.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county only experienced .5% growth from 2010 through the completion of the last Census in 2018.

So, why make misstatements about things that can be easily debunked like population?

It seems that for Coram, the answer is simple.

She goes on to tell voters that there has been a dramatic shift in the demographic makeup of Wayne.

That sure sounds like a dog whistle for, “Harrison should be disqualified because she’s white.”

Disgusted yet?

You should be.

Because here’s the truth.

Race should NOT determine who holds an office in Wayne County or any other county.

Blacks, Hispanics, Asian Americans, whites, Native Americans, etc., are equally capable of serving our community with integrity.

So, even if the demographics have, indeed, shifted — they haven’t, as the county is still nearly 63% white — it shouldn’t matter.

And if you are going to play the race card to get elected, at least have the decency to get your facts straight.

There is a lesson to be learned from campaigns like the one Coram ran in the fall and seems to be continuing now.

We warned you about it during the City Council races.

The race-baiting isn’t going away. There are still people who seem to think there is something to be gained by manufacturing unrest.

Don’t fall for it. And don’t reward this behavior by sitting this election out and hoping those who are above the dangerous politicking will win.

Instead, ensure that they do. Early voting continues through Saturday, February 29.