From a longtime reader:

Jonah, I’ve mentioned to you a couple of times that my business is located in Durham so I have a pretty good feel for the local community. Not only is Nifong a national embarrassment, he will probably win re-election by a landslide. He has two challengers in the race, and one has publicly stated that he will not accept the position should he win. (!) Durham is a strange place. On one hand, we have an educated and large medical community that surrounds Duke University and Duke Medical Center, but on the other hand, we have a long-entrenched black power base that controls the politics of this city. This is a city that was founded by black entrepreneurs, and tobacco money has funded it ever since. (Tell me, how many people recognize the irony that Duke U and Duke Med were funded by Big Tobacco?) I make no excuses for the dishonesty of Nifong, however when one looks into local politics, he is understandably between a rock and a hard place. Whoever he decided to “cater” to in this debacle would have been met with cries of injustice (however false). He’s simply taken the politically “safe” route, given the demographics of the local, long-entrenched politics.