Realtor-funded group rips candidates

Ripped from the front page of the Raleigh News & Observer:

Realtor-funded group rips candidates
Two mailers have been sent against a Wake commissioner candidate. A state lawmaker is also a target.

A land transfer tax has never appeared on the ballot in Wake County, but you wouldn't know it from the money the state's real estate agents are spending to influence voters. A group called the N.C. Homeowners Alliance is using a direct-mail campaign and automated phone calls that depict Stan Norwalk, a Democratic candidate for Wake commissioner, as a serial tax raiser.

The group also has sent fliers to Wake voters attacking state Rep. Ty Harrell, who represents a district in the western part of the county, for not supporting a 2007 bill that would have required members of the Wake County school board to be elected at large, rather than in districts. The bill, backed by Republicans, never came up for a vote and died in committee. When he saw the mailer, Harrell, a Democrat, said he was confused.

The alliance's president is Mary Edna Williams, a Raleigh real estate agent who is also the president-elect of the N.C. Association of Realtors. When called about the alliance's ads, Williams referred all questions to Julie Woodson, the director of public affairs for the Realtors Association.