RALEIGH -- An effort by public employee unions to organize a new political party in North Carolina has fallen short.
But the group, backed by the State Employees Association of North Carolina, still hopes to recruit an independent candidate to run against 8th District Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell of Biscoe.
The group had hoped to collect 84,600 signatures, enough to get on the November ballot. But the deadline for submitting signatures to the county election boards for verification passed Monday, with the backers having failed to meet their goal.
"We are continuing the effort," said Kevin LeCount, political director for the state employees group. "We are looking at 2012."
The third party supporters coalesced in part to punish Democratic members of Congress who voted against the new health care law. The party was to be called North Carolina First.
If they had succeeded in getting their party on the ballot, they had hoped to run a slate of candidates against three North Carolina Democrats who voted against the health care overhaul - Reps. Kissell, Heath Shuler of Bryson City and MikeMcIntyre of Lumberton.
But even without a new party on the ballot, LeCount said, the state employee-backed group was still trying to recruit an independent to challenge Kissell in the fall.
They are focusing their efforts on Wendell Fant, a Cabarrus County resident who was Kissell's deputy district director until last week. Fant said he was asked to leave Kissell's office in a dispute about his making a personal veteran's claim.
Fant, 42, said he would wait and see whether the new party collected enough signatures to get him on the ballot as an independent candidate before deciding to run.
"I'm flattered by them asking me," Fant said. "I'm interested in how this will come out."
LeCount was confident that his group could collect 16,900 signatures in the 8th district by the deadline, June 25.
The effort by SEANC has drawn national attention because it showed that the spirited health care debate did more than create a reaction from tea party conservatives.
The state group has the backing of Service Employees International Union, a 2.2 million-member union, which is putting $1 million into the effort, according to Dana Cope, SEANC's executive director. SEANC is a local affiliate of the national union.
Labor leaders have pledged to set up a separate party in North Carolina by 2012 to run candidates in races in which they think neither the Democratic nor Republican candidates take positions that favor working people.
