Carolina Politics Online

Duane Cutlip is a businessman and a Republican candidate for House District 39. He will be facing Democratic incumbent Linda Coleman in November. The district covers eastern Wake County and was a Republican seat until the 2004 election after redistricting had been done following the 2000 Census. The district was shifted northward adding more predominantly Democratic neighborhoods. The district is currently comprised of approximately 51% registered Democrats, 32% registered Republicans, .21% Libertarian, with the remaining 16% being unaffiliated voters.

On the issues:

Our public school system is failing our children. We have an alarming droppout rate and are graduating children who have difficulty with basic reading and mathematical skills. In North Carolina, 52% of the General Fund is spent on education, yet recent statistics show that less than 7 in 10 are graduating. Our spending on schools is growing almost twice as much as our student numbers are growing, yet we have little improvement. We need to cut out ineffective spending and put that money into teachers and students where the real learning occurs.

I have written plenty of the education system in American gone awry. North Carolina needs legislatures that will stand up to the powerful special interests that are hurting our education system and stop supporting the status quo. Cutlip is correct. Plenty of money has been thrown in to the education system with no results.

North Carolina has the highest taxes in the Southeast and this has hurt the overall well-being of our state. We’ve got to have leadership that will make the tough decisions rather than the current practice of playing for the highest bidder.

Hence the reason I live across the state line in South Carolina. Lower taxes!

I am for the development of alternative energy sources as long as they are feasible. We can improve existing technologies to make their use of fuel more efficient and support the development of credible alternative energies. I believe that we are far too dependent on Middle Eastern oil and should strive for energy independence as quickly as possible.

A very sensible environmental policy. Indeed, alternative energy is the future. Let’s make North Carolina a leader in its development.

I believe murder at any stage of life is wrong. Life begins at conception and our state and federal governments struggle unnecessarily with this idea. While they will allow abortion freely, they seek to prosecute the murderer of a mother and unborn child with double-homicide. They’ve got it right in the latter.

He brings up a very interesting scenario here that really illustrates the hypocrisy of the pro-abortion crowd. Basically, if the mother wants the child then the fetus is alive. If the mother doesn’t then the fetus is a mass of tissue. Abortion should be a Federalist issue and as such handled at the State level, not the Federal judiciary.

We must secure our borders, and North Carolina must not become a “harbor state” to illegal immigrants for whom we have no documented reason for their ‘visit’.

I think North Carolina has already become a harbor state for illegals. It actually won’t take a lot of work to change that, just the political will by people who aren’t afraid to deal with the problem. Look to Arizona for guidance.

The government should be held responsible for how it uses our tax dollars, and should be forced to eliminate wasteful government spending. The government can not solve everyone’s problems and should not be expected to. There are too many programs the government takes on that it cannot handle efficiently and should be left to private enterprise.

Spending in North Carolina continues to increase at twice the rate of inflation while the state legislature has done little to nothing to instead look for waste and additionally scale back on the size of government in the state. Cutlip appears to be prepared to address this issue.

We are not a Democratic Republic without Private Property. John Adams said, “Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist.”

Activist judges and renegade legislators have recently paved the way for the seizure of private property to be redistributed to other private interests.

I gather he is speaking about eminent domain, more precisely Kelo v New London. Eminent domain is one of those necessary evils of government, but is being widely abused across the nation. What also needs to be addressed in North Carolina is the forced annexation of unincorporated neighborhoods by incorporated cities and towns against the will of the property owners. That has to be stopped.

The second amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America guarantees the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. Studies will always show that criminals kill, not guns. We should not punish law-abiding citizens for the wrong doing of criminals.

This is just plain common sense. An armed populace is a free populace.

Duane Cutlip is an excellent candidate for this race. He is on the right side (no pun intended) of every issue, although he has an uphill battle. In 2006, Coleman received 59% of the vote to the Republican challenger’s 41%. 2004 was a little closer with Coleman grabbing only 54%. The 5 point increase may have been due to the anti-Republican wave that swept through the country in ‘06. It’s certainly not an impossible race to win under the right circumstances. Perhaps Mr. Cutlip will surprise us with an upset victory come November.

After weeks of hedging, Albert Spencer made it official Saturday: He’ll run for the U.S. House seat held by 13-term incumbent John Spratt.

Spencer filed paperwork Saturday with the state Republican Party. Spratt filed last week. Neither candidate made a formal announcement.

In 2004, Spencer raised no money and didn’t buy any advertising, yet managed to earn 37 percent of the vote in a year when President Bush headlined the top of the Republican ticket.

The Herald

It’s good that the race will be contested.  No incumbent should waltz right back into office, but if Spencer is going to run the same kind of race and not raise money and basically not try then why the hell bother?  He is just going to allow his name to be filler on the ballot since no serious candidate could be recruited.

It’s not surprising, though, the GOP would have that trouble.  There is only one person who has the power to turn this seat from D to R and that is Congressman Spratt.  His retirement will flip the seat.

Today was the last day to file for office in South Carolina.  Here are the Spartanburg County filers, courtesy of The Herald-Journal:

Filing Saturday with the Spartanburg County Democratic Party were Rep. Harold Mitchell for House District 31; Herbert Edwards for Spartanburg County coroner; and Michael Brown for County Council District 1.

Filing with the Spartanburg County Republican Party were Joey Millwood for House District 38; L.B. Watson for Senate District 12; Mike Gardner for Senate District 11; and Roger Nutt for House District 35.

So far, 28 Republicans and 15 Democrats have filed to run this election cycle.

Democrat launches House campaign

Democrat Eric Hayler will formally kick off his campaign for state House District 37 on Monday. He will give a brief speech at noon at Fatz Cafe on Highway 9 in Boiling Springs, which is just off I-85 at Exit 75.

Hayler is running for the House seat currently occupied by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport.

A surprise last-minute filing Sunday set up a political blood feud within the Bob Jones University community that could ripple through interrelated local and legislative offices.

Bryan Haskins, the 23-year-old son of state Rep. Gloria Haskins, R-Greenville, filed a primary challenge to Republican County Councilman Robert Taylor whose daughter, Wendy Nanney, is Rep. Haskins’ primary opponent. Nanney’s husband, Tim, is Greenville County’s register of deeds, but is unopposed for re-election.

The Greenville News

If you got through that paragraph without your eyes crossing you did better than me.

While all six of the state’s congressmen face challengers, none of the races will be repeats as the all the major party losers in the general election of 2006 did not file to run for Congress again.

Fifth District Congressman John Spratt went the longest without a challenger. Republican Albert F. Spencer didn’t file to run against the 13-term Democrat until Saturday.

Spencer and Spratt have met before. In 2004, Spencer got 37 percent of the vote. A much better financed and supported Republican challenger in 2006, Ralph Norman, received about 43 percent of the vote against Spratt.

The 5th District stretches along the state’s northern border and rural Pee Dee areas - from Newberry and Cherokee counties more than 130 miles east to Dillon County.

The most crowded race is in the 1st District, which stretches from the Grand Strand to Charleston. Four-term incumbent Henry Brown will face Katherine Jenerette and Paul V. Norris in the Republican primary, while Linda Ketner and Ben Frasier compete for the Democratic nomination.

In the 2nd District, incumbent Joe Wilson will go for his fourth full term. He faces Phil Black in the Republican primary, while Rob Miller and Blaine Lotz are running for the Democratic nomination. That district runs from Beaufort County north into the northern and western suburbs of Columbia.

Gresham Barrett is seeking a fourth term in the 3rd District in the northwest part of the state. He will face Democrat Jane Dyer in the general election.

Fourth District incumbent Bob Inglis is trying for a third term since returning to Congress in 2004. He will face Charles Jeter in the Republican primary, while Bryan McCanless, Paul H. Corden and Ted Christian face off in the Democratic primary.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn will run for a ninth term in the majority-black 6th District. He will take on Republican Nancy Harrelson in the general election.

The State

Because of gerrymandering, don’t expect any of these to flip.

State government public information officers were instructed by Gov. Mike Easley’s press office to delete e-mail to and from the Governor’s Office, according to notes the Governor’s Office released Saturday.Andrew A. Vanore Jr., a lawyer who works for Easley, produced notes made by two public information officers showing that they and others were told at a meeting May 29 to destroy e-mail messages. Vanore said a third public information officer, whom he would not identify, also recalled those instructions.Vanore said, however, that the notes don’t mean what they say. He also said the instructions were not followed.

The News & Observer

It’s clear Easley has been playing a CYA policy on his own behalf for a long time now, evident by how difficult it has been for the media to successfully nail down all the details on the governor’s failure to reform the state’s mental health facilities. The question now arises, what else does the public not know about? What tracks has the Easley administration been so adamant on covering? What is Mike Easley trying to hide?

If cities were houses, Charlotte might be the only one in the neighborhood without sick family members inside.

But like a flu epidemic, a sick national economy is hard to contain. It’s contagious, economists often preach, and cause for concern.

Even so, Charlotte has remained relatively healthy, says Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia Corp.

The area has been protected by steady doses of job growth in an economy that is attracting skilled professionals and young workers from other hard-hit areas, he said.

Charlotte Observer

Last week with the release of Federal data it was reported that Charlotte was the only metropolitan area in the country that recorded a gain in housing prices in January. I think this article hit the nail right on the head as for the reasons.

Of the 125 people that work in my uptown office I would estimate approximately 75% are from another part of the country, mostly from the “rust belt” states that have been deteriorating for years. People, mostly young professionals, have been coming here in droves to start new careers and lives in an area that has been hospital for industry and people alike.

My office also reflects the surge in population of younger adults as well over half of my coworkers are under 30 years of age.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Chelsea Clinton said Saturday that she didn’t realize how much sexism remained in the United States until she noticed the issue at recent campaign stops for her mother.”I didn’t really get how much sexism there still was in our country until I was at a rally with my mom in New Hampshire, and someone came up to me and said, ‘I just can’t see a woman being commander in chief,”‘ Clinton said during a stop in Research Triangle Park.

She also noted another New Hampshire rally that was disrupted by men who stood up and told Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton to “Iron my shirt.” And she quietly questioned why some people find humor in a nutcracker doll that looks like her mother.

Asheville Citizen-Times

Is it her insinuation that her mother’s faltering at the polls is due to her being a woman? Sure, there is still sexism, just like there is still bigotry of just about every kind and just like there always will be. Prejudice is apart of human nature. Everyone possesses it, some to a minimal degree, others to an extreme, but such prejudice has played no roll in Hillary Clinton’s decline in this race.

Clinton was leading all of the polls by a huge margin from day one right up until a few months ago. What has knocked her down are her long list of lies that have finally been catching up with her in the news. The media has found a new darling in Barack Obama, so they are no longer protecting the Clintons.

For Immediate Release:
Armor for Congress, 11th District, North Carolina
Box 243 / Highlands, NC
www.ArmorforCongress.com

For Additional Information, Call:
John Armor or Michelle Mead
828.526-3149, or cell: 828.200-0320

NEWS RELEASE

Heath Shuler Shows Why He Doesn’t Belong in Congress

BlueRidgeNow, the website of the Hendersonville Times-News, reported on March 26 on an appearance by Rep. Heath Shuler at a Rotary Club meeting in that city, but missed the deeper story that was present.

According to the story, Heath Shuler blamed Senator John McCain, a Republican who is not serving in the House, as “blocking” Shuler’s SAVE Act which would impose tighter controls on illegal immigration from getting a vote in the House. The Times-News had noted in an editorial on 20 March that “48 Democrats had co-sponsored the bill.” So, if all those Democrats had signed the Discharge Petition, Shuler’s SAVE Act would have reached the floor, and would have gotten a vote.

A Discharge Petition means that 218 Members of the House sign a document requiring a bill to come to the floor, regardless of the actions of any Committee, and regardless of the position of House leadership, especially the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. The article does note that Speaker Pelosi does not want this bill voted on. However, it does not note that Speaker Pelosi, a liberal, San Francisco Democrat, only became Speaker with the votes of Heath Shuler and about 20 other freshman Democrats who advertised themselves as “conservative” when they ran for office in 2006.

Those reluctant Democrats who co-sponsored the bill but haven’t signed the Discharge Petition have no reason to listen to any requests from Senator John McCain a Republican. They have every incentive to listen to demands from Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.

In short, the facts of this matter lead to the conclusion that it was Heath Shuler, and no one else, who blocked Shuler’s bill from the floor. He did so with the first vote he ever cast in Congress, to choose Pelosi as Speaker.

John Armor, constitutional lawyer from Macon County, and a candidate for Congress in the 11th District, said, “All the facts would have allowed readers to conclude that Shuler never expected his SAVE Act to get a vote in Congress. He knew it would fail. He just wanted to pretend, one more time, that he was a ‘conservative’ with ‘mountain values.’ ” Mr. Armor pointed out that Shuler admitted at the Christmas party for the Macon County Sheriff that because of Speaker Pelosi, “my bill will never get out of committee.”