Dollar calls Dems' mailer 'patently false'

N.C. Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican, is being hit with a mailer paid for by the N.C. Democratic Party that claims he's no friend to military veterans.

The mailer shows a man with a prosthetic arm -- its pincers clasping a small U.S. flag. "He Served With Honor," the ad says. "But Nelson Dollar Cut His Benefits."

Dollar said the claim is "patently false." The mailers fail to cite any bills or votes to back up the claim, said Dollar, who is seeking his third term in a race against Democrat Al Swanstrom of Cary.

"The Democrats have used images of our veterans and men and women in uniform in a way that is disrespectful of their service to our nation," Dollar said in a news release.

He said he supported legislation that helped the military, including a property tax break for disabled veterans included in this year's state budget.

Democratic Party spokeswoman Kerra Bolton said the party stands by the mailer. She cited his vote against the previous year's budget, which included money for programs that benefit military families, but she did not mention anything that amounted to a cut in veterans' benefits.

TENNIS VS. LAWN: What's more sacred at Broughton High School, the tennis courts or the front lawn?

At Wednesday's Comprehensive Planning Committee meeting, Raleigh City Council members asked about several alternatives to paving over much of the school's front lawn to provide more parking. Councilwoman Nancy McFarlane asked about removing one or more of the tennis courts to make room for more parking.

Gerald Core, the school system's project manager on the parking lot expansion, said he had asked Broughton about that alternative. The school did not consider that an option, he said, because Broughton's long history of tennis excellence made the courts an integral part of the school's identity.

"Apparently, so is the front lawn," McFarlane replied.

NOT ELECTED QUITE YET: At a work session last week, Orange County Commissioner Mike Nelson said he was looking forward to working with Steve Yuhasz, Pam Hemminger and Bernadette Pelissier when they join the board in December.

Nelson chuckled when a reporter pointed out later that Pelissier would first need to defeat Republican Kevin Wolff on Tuesday.

"This is an overwhelmingly Democratic county, so even in the best of years for Republicans, I don't think a Republican could get elected to the county commissioners, and this is not the best of years for Republicans," Nelson said.

Wolff said Friday that Nelson's comments were "prejudicial" and that he was disappointed.

"I am hopeful that citizens of our county ... look beyond 'labels' to the credentials, experience and capability of each candidate to select the best person for the job, me," he wrote in e-mail.

CHOOSING JUDGES: One of lawyer Betsy Wolfenden's arguments in her campaign to replace District Court Judge Alonzo Coleman in Orange and Chatham counties is that the incumbent reaches the mandatory retirement age of 72 next June, less than a year into his four-year term if he is elected. Members of the local bar would then nominate three people from whom the governor would make an appointment.

"I believe that you should elect the judges who serve you, not politicians and attorneys," Wolfenden writes on her campaign Web site. "Politicians and attorneys represent a small, privileged group of society that already has too much power and influence."

But Coleman's campaign manager, Chellie Joines, said other lawyers are best equipped to choose judges, and the appointment that would follow Coleman's retirement is actually a benefit because "the people with direct and frequent experience of all the candidates select the nominees the governor considers."

Joines also said an appointment would give the citizens a chance to test-drive Coleman's replacement before that person would have to seek election in 2010.

"Judges are not -- and are not supposed to be -- policy makers, so it is not easy for people to select a judge based on candidates' statements on policy positions," Joines said. "What you want in a judge is someone who is fair, who is respectful to the parties in court, who listens, and who knows and applies the law. You learn these things from how a sitting judge does his job."