Carolina Politics Online

The drawing of legislative districts has come into question lately in North Carolina based on the accusations of a group of Republicans who have accused the Democratic controlled legislature of purposely gerrymandering legislative districts and using incorrect Census data in the process. They have requested that the elections be postponed until the flaws can be corrected. Earlier this week a three-judge panel turned down their request to halt elections. I have commented several times on the harm that gerrymandering does to the democratic process not just here in the Carolinas, but all across the country. Paul Terrell, candidate for North Carolina’s 33rd State House district in Wake County had the following to say on the subject:

The problems that are occurring in this state should be laid at the feet of the Democrats. I ask how we got into this situation in the first place. The democrats were able to gerrymander legislative districts that subvert the will of people and violate common sense principles. Ask yourself why Republicans received more total votes but are in the minority by a large number in the legislature. The Democrats created districts that guarantee a certain result at the cost of disenfranchising every other voter in that particular district. They also used incorrect census data that they knew was incorrect. When told, the democrats just gave a arrogant we do not care response. And people wonder why so many Democrats have been
convicted, indicted and admonished for illegal activates. I for one do not.

Though the News Observer has been a little more aggressive with the Governor they have not with the legislature. This is where I come into the picture. I am someone who will represent the people and not my pocketbook. Why do we want a “I am not sure I’m even filing Dan Blue” in legislature with the attitude of I am doing this because no one else will. I am the person who will and wants to open the government up to the people.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 26, 2008

*Steve Parker to Make Important Political Announcement*

Boiling Springs, SC –Steve Parker will be making an important political
announcement at 6:00pm Thursday March 27, 2008, at Chernagan’s Café, 3409
Boiling Springs Rd, Boiling Springs, SC 29316.

Steve Parker is an active member of the Boiling Springs community.  Steve is
the founder of the Helping Hands Club and charter member of the Boiling
Springs chapter of the Kiwanis Club.  Steve is also a co-founder of the
SOLVE Committee to stop school district consolidation and the owner of Steve
Parker Painting.  Steve and his wife, Rita, are active members at Boiling
Springs First Baptist Church.

After Steve’s announcement, dinner will be provided for those in
attendance.  This event is free and open to the public.

Contact:  Gary Coats
Phone:    864.641.5591
E-mail:    gary.coats@gmail.com

Democrat Paul Corden of Spartanburg formally announced today that he will seek office in the 4th Congressional District. Corden, 60, will face at least one, probably two, fellow Democrats in the June 10 primary.

Republican Bob Inglis, the incumbent in the race, will face challenger Charles Jeter that day.

“We must find new solutions to the difficulties facing average Americans, like all of us, who struggle each day to pay their food and gas bills,” Corden told a crowd of about 30 in front of the Spartanburg County Democratic Party headquarters on Henry Street.

“A strong Congress, exercising its responsibilities as an effective voice of the people, not a rubber stamp for special interests, can craft safeguards against the abuses of our financial systems that are largely responsible for the current economic crisis.”

The Herald-Journal

County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland announced Monday that she will challenge Sen. Luke Rankin for the state senate seat for District 33, which includes Myrtle Beach and about half of Conway.

Gilland, who filed her candidacy Monday with the Horry County Republican Party, has served on the council for 14 years and has been chairwoman for the past six years. Gilland said she wants to be a voice for local government at the state level.

“Those of us who serve on the county level continually fight edicts handed down from Columbia by the General Assembly by representatives who don’t have much knowledge about what goes on at the local level,” she said.

The Sun News

Gilland would be the second candidate in the primary, but the first challenger to Senator Rankin, Greg Killian, just dropped out of the race citing an aversion to dirty politics being committed by a third party group against Rankin.  Rankin is rumored to be on the alleged Mark Sanford “Hit List.”

BEAUFORT — The Northern Beaufort County Democratic Club will hold its fourth annual Donkey Oyster Roast from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Camp, Chowan Creek Bluff Road on Lady’s Island.

There will be oysters, hot dogs, hamburgers, salads and desserts. The program will include stump speeches by Democrats who are running for state and county offices.

Ticket sales from the roast will go toward assisting Democratic candidates and Democratic Party projects. Tickets are $15 each, or two tickets for $25; tickets for children under 12 are $10 each. For tickets and information, contact Pat Goodman in Sun City Hilton Head at 843-705-5541; or David Rice in Bluffton and on Hilton Head Island at 843-757-7505 or dgrice@hargray.com

The Island Packet

Well that only took a couple of days…..

Catherine Ceips’ political team is charging that Tom Davis, her impending Senate opponent, hired an illegal immigrant to paint his Scott Street home.

Davis, Gov. Mark Sanford’s former chief of staff, is having his house painted. But neither he nor the men hired to paint say they know who the “illegal immigrant” is, nor have they met him. And all of the people working for Davis are documented as legal immigrants.

A photograph sent by Rod Shealy to The Associated Press and obtained by The Beaufort Gazette shows a man donning a backward baseball cap smiling and standing at the front door of 502 Scott St., Davis’ home.

The Beaufort Gazette

This is a very serious allegation, especially if it’s true. With the increasing opposition across the state towards illegal immigration this will sink Davis like a stone if this turns out to be legit.

“These kinds of attacks are what is wrong with politics,” Davis said in a released statement.

Not if it’s true, sir.

Mike Munger is running for governor as a Libertarian, and he says he’s confident in a victory.

It’s all a matter of defining victory in the right terms.

“I’m going to win,” Munger, a political scientist at Duke University, said last week. “All it takes to win is to get 2 percent.”

Two percent of the popular vote in a general election might not sound impressive. But for North Carolina’s Libertarian Party - long hampered by some of the most restrictive ballot-access laws in the nation - it would be a turning point.

If the party gets 2 percent of the vote in the 2008 governor’s race, it will be guaranteed a spot on the 2012 ballot without having to petition for it. This year, and in the past, the party has had to collect tens of thousands of signatures to get on the ballot - a long, expensive endeavor that Munger said makes it impossible for Libertarians to compete with the two major parties.

Winston-Salem Journal

Third parties are not given a fair shake in most elections around the country.  The states have their rules set up to specifically keep third parties out of the equation and protect the two party monopoly.  I have been flabbergasted time and time again by how the courts will rule these regulations legal and constitutional.  It is an inherently unfair system.  There are no two ways about it.

More power to Mr. Munger.  I would love to see a third party candidate break through the political glass ceiling, especially a Libertarian, but we’re going to be in for a long wait.

DURHAM — Lawyers for Duke University have asked a judge to stay or dismiss a slander suit filed by attorneys for former men’s lacrosse coach Mike Pressler against the school and top Duke spokesman John Burness.

They contend that Pressler has to go through the arbitration process Duke has set up for high-level employees who have disputes with the administration.

Duke’s argument in its March 11 filing parallels the one its lawyers made against an earlier suit by Pressler that claimed the school breached the terms of the confidential settlement it reached with him following his ouster in April 2006.

The Herald Sun

I never understood why Pressler resigned and was pressured to do so in the first place.  This idea of Burness that Pressler “hadn’t controlled his team” is preposterous.  Pressler’s team were grown men.  He is not responsible for their actions off of the lacrosse field, nor should he be.  He isn’t hired to be a nanny.

Pressler was wrongly forced out of his job and he deserves compensation.  Furthermore, Broadhead needs to be fired and the other faculty members that signed the letter of condemnation against the three falsely accused of rape all need to be reprimanded.

The senior partner of a 96-year-old Lincoln County law firm that produced two Republican members of the U.S. Congress last week endorsed the candidacy of Lance Sigmon in the 10th District congressional race.

Harvey A. Jonas Jr., 88, who practiced law for many years with the late Congressman Charles R. Jonas in Lincolnton, sized up Sigmon with a broad smile: “I like the way you look; yes sir, you look like a Congressman.”

Harvey Jonas’ first cousin, Charles Raper Jonas, represented Lincoln County in the U.S. Congress for 20 years, 1953-1973, and was only the second Republican elected to represent North Carolina. His father, Charles Andrew Jonas, was the first, elected in 1928.

Charles R. Jonas, who died at age 84 in 1988 and lived in Denver after his retirement, became known in North Carolina as “Mr. Republican.” A staunch conservative in Congress on both social and fiscal matters, he was known for slashing the budgets of four U.S. presidents—Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.

The N.C. General Assembly in 1991 honored “the life and memory” of Charles R. Jonas, who also served in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps in World War II, with a joint resolution. The City of Lincolnton also has named its public library in his honor.

“I am proud to seek the office of U.S. congressman in the same conservative Republican tradition of Charles R. Jonas,” said Sigmon. “When elected, I will work hard to earn the same reputation of respect and integrity.”

Sigmon is challenging incumbent Patrick McHenry in the May 6 Republican primary.

News@Norman

Police have made moves since then to curb shootings, including holding a gun buyback and designating two officers to investigate gangs, which police have said are behind the increase.

Investigators suspect juveniles fired the shots in Hillcrest, though they had not said whether gangs were involved.

“Possessing and using a gun to settle disputes or develop a reputation has become the cultural norm for many young people,” Asheville police Capt. Tim Splain said.

Asheville Citizen-Times

There is a very simple way to resolve all of this.  Get rid of the welfare state.  None of these problems existed before Johnson’s “Great Society.”  Inner city neighborhoods were places where decent people could live and raise a family.  Now they are flooded with welfare recipients engaging in drugs and violence.

The welfare state has resulted in a breakdown of the family, most heavily among black Americans.  The government has replaced the role of the father and these kids grow up unruly, uneducated, and uncontrollable.  Study after study has shown that kids who grow up in single parent households are more susceptible to getting into trouble and being a burden on society.

This is the answer that legislative liberals don’t want to hear so the problem will never be solved.

Raleigh, N.C. — If the presidential election were held this week, Sen. John McCain would easily carry North Carolina, according to a poll released Monday.

Rasmussen Reports surveyed 500 likely North Carolina voters last Thursday and found McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, holds commanding leads over the two Democratic candidates. The poll has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

McCain leads Sen. Hillary Clinton 50 to 34 percent, and he leads Sen. Barack Obama 51 to 42 percent, according to the poll.

WRAL

There is nothing earth shattering about this news.  North Carolina hasn’t voted for a Democratic President since 1976.  I am surprised that Obama is trailing McCain as much as he is, though.  I would think with the new voters that Obama will potentially bring to the table it would be closer between he and McCain.  Polls this early out really don’t amount to a hill of beans anyway.  A week in politics is like a lifetime.  So much can change by November.

It will be at least April before residents, visitors, and business owners find out if a federal judge will agree with environmental groups and shut down the most popular recreational areas of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore to off-road vehicles year-round.

U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle set Friday, April 4, at 2 p.m. for a hearing in a request by The Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), for a preliminary injunction to stop driving on parts of the seashore beaches until after a trial in a lawsuit the groups filed on Oct. 18.

That lawsuit challenges the National Park Service’s interim plan to protect threatened and vulnerable species of shorebirds that nest on the seashore. The groups contend that the plan does not go far enough to protect the birds, which include the threatened piping plovers, as well as black skimmers, American oystercatchers, and gull-billed and common terns.

The request for the preliminary injunction, filed Feb. 20, asks that Boyle replace the interim plan with more restrictive measures until after the lawsuit is settled. Specifically, the plaintiffs are asking Boyle to stop ORV use year-round at the most environmentally sensitive areas of the seashore – Bodie Island spit, Cape Point and part of the South Beach, Hatteras Inlet, and the north and south points of Ocracoke. These are also the areas that are most popular for recreation, especially fishing.

Island Free Press

Watch out!  The environmental Nazis are back in action and looking to run your life.  This may not seem like a big deal at first glance.  So people can’t drive their ORVs down the beach, so what.  Well, aside from a long tradition of people driving down to the seashore and fishing, there is an economic impact that will be felt here.  If they close off parts of the beach to the vehicles and fishermen it will have a negative impact on tourism in the area and result in the decline of revenue for local businesses and that has the business community in the area outraged, as it should.

It’s amazing how our elected officials will allow this kind of pandemonium to occur over a handful of birds.