Nifong fends off two challengers

DURHAM -- Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong on Tuesday won a bitter political battle over his handling of the Duke University lacrosse rape case. He next must fight the case in a courtroom.

With all but provisional ballots counted, Nifong, a Democrat, had 49 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results. County Commissioner Lewis Cheek, who lent his name to an effort to unseat Nifong through gubernatorial appointment, received 39 percent. Write-in ballots accounted for about 12 percent of the vote, and it was unclear how many of those went to lawyer Steve Monks, the only official write-in candidate.

As in the primary, when Nifong also had two challengers, he won the election without a majority of the votes. On Tuesday, whoever had the most votes was the winner; there will be no runoff.

Nifong said that the fact that he didn't get a majority of the vote would not change anything for him.

"What decides what I'm doing is what I think is the right thing to do," Nifong said. "I'm not somebody who rules by referendum."

Throughout Durham on Tuesday, voters said they cast their ballots on strong opinions about Nifong and the case.

Beverly Meek, 56, and her husband, Dennis Meek, 57, work for Duke and voted Tuesday evening for Nifong. Both are Democrats.

"I think that he's doing his job," she said. "I think he's just following the law."

Nifong's win sets the stage for a war in the courtroom. The lacrosse defense team is a formidable collection of lawyers, and they are likely to soon clash with Nifong over issues such as a controversial lineup procedure in which the accuser picked out the three indicted lacrosse players. Nifong plans to continue the case.

"This case should be decided by a Durham County jury," he said Tuesday.

His opponents in the political fight were unready to surrender.

"I hope the North Carolina State Bar will do what the Durham citizens could not," said Beth Brewer, spokeswoman for the leading anti-Nifong group.

Robb Myers, 31, voted for Lewis Cheek Tuesday, saying he's frustrated with Nifong's handling of the Duke lacrosse case.

"Basically everyone in the country thinks it's a joke and thinks Durham's a joke," said Myers, a Republican.

In the few campaign mailings or appearances Nifong put forward, he tried to emphasize the many duties and responsibilities a district attorney must discharge in a four-year term. But the lacrosse case and Nifong's behavior have always been at issue.

When news of the investigation into rape allegations at a March lacrosse team party became public, Nifong began a blitz of news interviews denouncing the lacrosse team and promising to prosecute harshly.

Nifong ended his media interviews about the facts of the case when players were indicted.

After Nifong won the primary, attorneys for the lacrosse players and news reports turned up the pressure on Nifong, highlighting weaknesses and problems in the prosecutor's case. That's when separate petitions began circulating in Durham to get Cheek and Monks a place on the ballot.

Cheek, a Durham Democratic stalwart and civil lawyer, announced that he would not take the job. A committee campaigned against Nifong, using Cheek's name as a placeholder. On Tuesday, unindicted lacrosse players, their parents and girlfriends and other Nifong critics gathered at the county commissioners' chambers to watch the results.

As the election neared, Monks' and Cheek's supporters accused one another of keeping the other from winning, and they argued over who should quit. On Tuesday, Cheek's backers said that Monks kept Cheek from winning.

"We've told him for weeks that he could end up being the one that spoiled it, and he was," said Brewer, the anti-Nifong spokeswoman.

Monks said Tuesday that the people who voted for him wanted to vote for an actual candidate.

"If they hadn't voted for me they would have voted for Nifong," Monks said. "I know that's the case because I talked to them."

Nifong*49.1%

(26,116)

Cheek39.3%

(20,875)

Write-in11.6%

(6,193)

100% PRECINCTS REPORTING

*INCUMBENT