Most of the General Assembly members who represent parts of Iredell County are running unopposed. An exception is in the 42nd N.C. Senate District, which lies mostly in Catawba County but also includes parts of west and north Iredell.

Incumbent Republican Austin Allran is facing Democrat challenger Lyndon Helton. Both are Catawba Co. residents.

Helton’s main campaign issue appears to be his disagreement with Allran’s vote against the current state budget. The measure Allran opposed increases spending by nearly ten percent. State lawmakers chose to use a $2.4 billion dollar revenue surplus to fund new and expanded programs, rather than to roll back recent tax increases. Any fiscal conservative would have voted against the budget.

In his campaign literature, Allran asserts: “I am Pro-Life, Pro-Traditional Marriage and I am a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment”

In the not-too-distant past, local Democrat leaders were considerably more conservative than their national counterparts. It appears that times have changed.

Delegates to this year’s Iredell County Democrat Convention adopted a resolution titled “Protection of Women’s Medical Rights”. Without directly saying so, the resolution opposed any restrictions whatsoever on the right to an abortion, even a “partial-birth” abortion.

The convention also passed resolutions endorsing the “Murtha Plan” for pulling troops out of Iraq. Another successful resolution called for universal health care coverage. It did not specify how the coverage would be paid for.

The delegates did defeat a resolution calling for the impeachment of Pres Bush.

The Iredell Democrat party’s web site has links to the far-left MoveOn organization and to several other “progressive” news sites.

The United States is almost sure to have its first Muslim Congressman next year, and he will be a Democrat. The story has received little attention in the mainstream media.

On September 12 Minnesota state lawmaker Keith Ellison easily won a four-person primary in the Minneapolis-area Fifth Congressional District. He is all but certain to win the November election in the heavily-Democratic district.

Ellison is a criminal defense lawyer who converted to Islam as a college student. He was once a follower of black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan, but has since denounced the Nation of Islam leader’s anti-Semitism.

Ellison appears to flaunt his Muslim affiliation. The first item at the top of the home page of his web site is headlined “Ramadan Mubarak! (Happy Ramadan)”.

On other issues, Ellison appears to be a typical left/liberal.