CANDIDATES WIFE ALLEGEDLY REMARKS ABOUT PROTECTING ”CAUCASIAN MAJORITY”

State Sen. Peter Brunstetter and Wife

The former acting campaign manager for 12th District congressional candidate Matt Newton alleges that the wife of State Sen. Peter Brunstetter (R- Forsyth) was overheard by poll workers for other candidates at a Winston-Salem early voting site telling voters, ”…that her husband sponsored legislation to put the marriage amendment [against same-sex marriage] on the primary ballot ‘to protect the Caucasian race,”’ reports The Yes! Weekly Blog, a Triad area alternative online weekly.

Chad Nance, that campaign manager and area freelance journalist, says he later caught up with Jodie Brunstetter, Sen. Brunsletter’s wife, and got her to confirm on video that, ” …she used the term ‘Caucasian’ in a discussion about the [Amendment One] marriage amendment, but insisted that otherwise her comments had been taken out of context by other poll workers,” Yes! Weekly added.

”During the conversation, Ms. Brunstetter said her husband was the architect of Amendment One, and one of the reasons he wrote it was to protect the Caucasian race. She said Caucasians or whites created this country. We wrote the Constitution. This is about protecting the Constitution. There already is a law on the books against same-sex marriage, but this protects the Constitution from activist judges,” the report continued.

”Nance said he recruited a friend, who works for the Coalition to Protect All North Carolina Families, to witness his interview with Jodie Brunstetter,” Yes! Weekly added. ”He said Brunstetter reluctantly acknowledged that she had used the term ”Caucasian” and then repeated the statement previously attributed to her, but substituted the pronoun ”we” for ”Caucasian. Nance said Brunstetter insisted there was nothing racial about her remarks, but could not
explain why she used the term ‘Caucasian.”’

A transcript of the video interview quotes Mrs. Brunstetter saying, when pressed, that it would be ” a little hard” to explain why she used the term, though she insisted it wasn’t racial.

Rev. William Barber, president of the NC NAACP, was disturbed by the story.
”If true, this is just another example of the cynical rationale behind this amendment, Rev. Barber said in a statement. [Amendment One] is backed by groups, like the Family Research Council, identified as hate groups. The National Organizatiion for Marriage’s secret plans have been revealed that their entire intent is to split black and progressive community in order to defeat the Democratic Party.”

”The amendment undermines the fundamentals of equal protection under the law and sets a dangerous precedent of putting constitutional rights up for a vote,” Rev. Barber continued. ”Its sponsors have fought the civil rights community on voting rights, educational rights, and economic justice at every turn. And now this– the allegation of a blatant reference to a twisted race-based rational for it being written in the first place.”

”North Carolinians must reject the ultra-conservative, mean-spirited regressive agenda. We must be better than this as a state and as a people who make glowing claims to our belief in justice and fairness,” Rev. Barber concluded.

Blogger Pam Spaulding of ”Pam’s House Blend” wrote, ”I hope all the black folks here in the state who haven’t yet gone to the polls take note of the Brunstetter’s worldview.”

But the story doesn’t end there. On his Facebook page, Nance writes that he resigned from the Matt Newton campaign after the candidate objected to his revealing to the news media what Jodie Brunstetter allegedly said.

”With much regret I must announce that I, Chad Nance, will no longer be acting campaign manager for the Matt Newton for Congress campaign,” Nance wrote.

”Today, May 1st, it came to my attention that a member of the North Carolina Senate’s spouse has been at the polls telling voters that her husband pushed Amendment 1 in order to ensure what she described as a ”Caucasian majority.”

When I told Mr. Newton that I had given my information to local press he became irate and screamed that it would ruin his campaign if the African-American vote were to be galvanized and increased because of this incident. This was personally disappointing to me.”

Newton, a ”Charlotte attorney with connections to the Occupy Charlotte movement, [who] left the movement in January to establish the People’s Coalition of the Carolinas,” according to The Charlotte Observer, is a white Democrat challenging incumbent 12th District Congressman Mel Watt, an African-American, in the May 8th primary.

Thus, Newton’s alleged concern about the black vote being ”galvanized.”

”While I have been a paid employee of the Newton campaign,” Nance continued, ”I am not a mercenary who would even consider suppressing this information in an attempt to ensure a low African-Ameri-can turnout at the polls. If this means I am not fit to play in the political game then so be it. I will not work for just another politician…which sadly, Mr. Newton is.”

The Wilmington Journal e-mailed the Newton campaign for comment. Timothy Smith, of the campaign, replied with the following statement:

Mr. Nance was a volunteer for the campaign. The title of campaign manager was an affectation given to Mr. Nance for the purpose of scheduling appointments for, and making occasional appearances on behalf of, Mr. Newton. In essence…an unpaid staff position. We don’t know why he chose to ”resign” a position that was more or less and honorary one, nor was Mr. Newton present for anything Mrs. Jodie Brunstetter allegedly said.

An extensive vetting on Mr. Nance was never done (as he was a volunteer for a campaign of limited means) but his rather colorful past–and sudden demands for money he claimed he was owed by the campaign–made it impossible for us to continue with him in any role, volunteer or otherwise. Despite his repeated assurances he had ”been around” several campaigns, we have yet to find any campaigns he has actually been employed by.

As to whether or not his resignation had to do with Mr. Newton’s supposed reaction to comments Mrs. Jodie Brunstetter allegedly made, Mr. Nance seemed to indicate in his resignation letter that his publicly-stated reason (on his Facebook page) for resigning would be dependent upon the campaign reimbursing him for expenses he claims to have incurred, but has been unable to verify or produce proof of.

As Mr. Nance put it, the afternoon we received his letter, ”I expect my full expenses of $775.43 by 5:00pm. That is when I will be sending out a press release and announcing that I have left. I will explain this situation in detail or I will just make a lame ‘family’ excuse”.

The Matt Newton for Congress campaign would like it to be made perfectly clear that at no time was Mr. Newton concerned about any ”political implications” of Mrs. Jodie Brunstetter alleged comments. Mr. Newton was upset that Mr. Nance, who is apparently now a self-described ”freelance journalist’, was demanding payment for being present at a polling location when he was, in fact, preoccupied with what he called, ”a conspiracy between white supremacists, pro Amendment One advocates, and state lawmakers which went all the way to the top”.

This campaign’s focus continues to be about bringing generational change to the NC 12th. We would like to apologize for any unnecessary confusion which has been caused by our former volunteer. Matt Newton will continue to urge all citizens in the NC 12th to vote…and to vote their conscience on May 8th.

At presstime, Chad Nance said he was working with a local television station to air the video.