Halifax County Commonwealth Attorney’s Race – Update #2

Six weeks ago, we took our first look at this race so it’s time to see what’s been happening since then.

Let’s give a quick recap. Incumbent Interim Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Freshour is taking on challenger Tracy Martin.

Notes since last update for each :

• Freshour: Mike Freshour is drawing even in the advertising blitz and continues to campaign smartly. He’s knocking the “he’s a jerk” stories down by constantly smiling and keeping a very friendly attitude on the campaign trail.
• Martin: Martin isn’t doing anything wrong by always looking her best and warmly greeting every potential voter that she sees. Her campaign hasn’t missed a beat yet as well.

Thoughts:

• For Martin to make a strong move and emerge as the candidate to beat, she’s going to need a lot of endorsements from “inside the court system” and that hasn’t happened yet. We’ll be watching in the next few weeks for the endorsement slates of both candidates.
• If this was a race for “America’s Sweetheart”, Tracy Martin would win in a landslide over Mike Freshour. Martin’s adorable, but it would help her campaign out tremendously to make her look like the stereotypical Tough Prosecutor for the voters.
• Smart people know that the Commonwealth’s Attorney position is 90% managerial and strategy coach and only 10% actual courtroom work, and both candidates are well qualified.
• Money doesn’t seem to be an issue for either campaign.
• Demographically, Martin looks like she’ll win the black vote but Freshour’s got a chance to make slight inroads on that situation. Luckily for him on that, Freshour’s Republican party affiliation is almost non-existent in the campaign.
• When you’ve got two qualified candidates like we do here, this election could very well come down to who gets out the vote better. That means that it’s key to work the corners of the county far away from the courthouse.

Now that the campaign has kicked into high gear, Freshour has neutralized Martin’s early advertising blitz with his own. Both candidates have strong bases of support and are both qualified for this office. SouthsideCentral is changing our rating on this race from “Leans – Martin” to “Even” because of these factors. More to come…