Mintz to run as Democrat

State Rep. Russell Capps of Raleigh will be getting a most unusual Democratic challenger next year -- the president of the Wake County Republican Mens Club.

Chris Mintz, a Raleigh financial planner, is not only resigning as club president, but is changing his registration to Democrat.

Mintz, 30, said he decided to leave the Republican Party because he thinks it is too focused on social issues rather than on economic issues. He also said the GOP is becoming less tolerant of different viewpoints.

"The Republican Party appears to be going further and further to the right," Mintz said. "It's really not the party for me any longer. I'm not bitter. I have a lot of friends who are Republicans."

"I think we are ignoring issues that are important - like education, economic development and health care," he said.

Mintz said he thought his political views were pretty much in the middle, where most North Carolinians are.

Mintz has worked in numerous Republican campaigns, most notably the gubernatorial campaigns of Richard Vinroot in 1996 and Patrick Ballantine in 2004. He recently put on fund- raisers for Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison and U.S. Rep. Walter Jones.

He said the difficulty in raising money for Jones -- because of his call for a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq -- was the "straw that broke the camel's back."

Mintz said he took some flak in GOP circles when The News & Observer recently published a letter by Mintz in which he defended Jones.

Earlier this year, Mintz had said he might run as a Republican for the seat if Capps, a five-term incumbent, were to retire. But Capps, 74, has indicated he will likely seek another term to the 41st District seat that includes northwestern Wake County.

To face Capps, Mintz would have to win the Democratic primary. Ty Harrell, a Duke University fund-raiser, has already announced plans to run for the seat. Harrell, 35, was finance director for Erskine Bowles' U.S. Senate campaign in 2002 and was Howard Dean's southern regional finance director last year.

"Clearly, there are going to be questions about his [Mintz'] motives from good, solid Democrats who have been with the party the whole time," said Rob Black, a Harrell campaign consultant. "Those are questions he's going to have to answer."

N.C. Educators aid Garwood

Among those cheering when state Sen. John Garwood of Wilkes County missed the lottery vote last summer was the N.C. Association of Educators.

Garwood's absence -- he was recovering from a staph infection in his leg -- enabled the lottery to pass the Senate. Garwood, a Republican, had been wavering on the lottery issue, and the NCAE had run radio ads in his district encouraging his constituents to contact him.

On Tuesday, the NCAE headquarters in downtown Raleigh will be the site of a fund-raiser for Garwood. That has raised a few eyebrows, since the NCAE is primarily supportive of Democratic candidates.

NCAE president Eddie Davis said, though, that too much shouldn't be read into the Garwood fund-raiser. He said the NCAE was renting space to Garwood as it does other candidates and organizations.

But he said the NCAE would likely contribute to his re-election campaign at the appropriate time.

No holiday cheer at mansion

It will be a moldy Christmas at the Executive Mansion this year.

The first family has vacated the official residence near downtown Raleigh while workers remove the mold. That means the mansion is also closed this year to Christmas tours.

Choirs and orchestras that provide the traditional mansion holiday entertainment will be in the state Museum of History instead. The live music starts Tuesday at noon and continues through the week.