Carolina Politics Online

COLUMBIA — A budget that eliminates every pork barrel project the House approved last month and cuts $50 million in overall spending was passed Thursday by a Senate committee worried about a souring economy.

The plan passed by the Senate Finance Committee also gives state workers a 2 percent raise, up from the 1 percent contained in the House budget, by using $20 million taken in a roundabout way from the state lottery.

The Herald-Journal

Am I reading this correctly?  Our Senate in Columbia is eliminating all pork from the budget?  Are they actually engaging in fiscal responsibility?  I never thought I’d live to see the day.  I’m not holding my breath just yet, though.  This will still have to be voted on by the full Senate and the House and they are all up for reelection this year.  But hey, this is one hell of a start.

Speaking to more than 150 supporters jostling for space under a rental tent in Charleston’s Cannon Park, Charleston businesswoman and philanthropist Linda Ketner kicked off her Democratic bid for the 1st Congressional District seat.

“What we need to do together is to forge a new path forward,” she said, noting the rising cost of gassing up, rising health care costs, the current wave of foreclosures, lost jobs and an education system in need of improvement. “I want you to elect me to lead that new path forward.”

Saying that “you need to be more than strong to be great,” she said she would urge more collaboration and diplomacy on foreign policy. “Homeland security means more than kicking off your shoes and throwing away your shampoo.”

Mayor Joe Riley introduced Ketner, calling her “a human dynamo” and the person most responsible for the state establishing a low-income housing trust fund.

The Post and Courier

I did a post on Ketner not that long ago.  She’s a great candidate for the Democrats.  She’ll definitely be a stronger challenger to Henry Brown than what he has had in the past.

Hat tip to cmitchz and Blue Ridge Politics

Republican candidate for the 11th Congressional District in North Carolina, Carl Mumpower, has engaged in a chain of not-so-friendly emails with the moderator of a planned GOP primary debate scheduled in Flat Rock on April 10th. Apparently, Mumpower has an issue with the rules regarding campaign materials and has withdrawn himself from the debate.

The way I am understanding this is that as part of the official rules the candidates are limited in how much promotional material they are allowed to have presented at the forum. Presumably, this means literature, buttons, etc. but if I am wrong someone feel free to correct me. I personally don’t see what the big deal is, but it’s definitely miffed Mr. Mumpower.

I would imagine that a rule like this is there to keep the candidates on as equal footing as possible. I suppose the moderator feels that if one candidate with a lot of money were to overshadow the event with campaign materials, whereas other candidates cannot due to lack of campaign funds, that might create a subliminal bias in favor of the wealthier candidate in the minds of the audience.

Whether or not this will effect Mumpower’s electability in May will depend upon how widely viewed the debate is and whether or not a larger ordeal will be made out of his behavior surrounding it.

Prosecutors brought fraud charges against former Rep. Thomas Wright without any legitimate evidence to prove their case, his attorney said today, comparing his client’s case to the biblical fight between David and Goliath. “Sometimes, David wins,” attorney Douglas Harris said during his closing arguments at Wright’s criminal trial.

The Wilmington Democrat is charged with pocketing $8,900 in donations to his Community’s Health Foundation and fraudulently obtaining a $150,000 loan to buy a building for a museum to commemorate Wilmington’s 1898 race riots. He could be sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison if convicted on four felony counts of fraud.

Winston-Salem Journal

No, no evidence whatsoever. That is exactly why the State House voted almost unanimously, with only four dissenters, for the first time in over 120 years to expel a state legislator from the General Assembly. Harris is attempting to try Wright in the media, but he is only succeeding in making himself out to be a fool.  What the man ought to be doing is making arrangements for additional accommodations in Jim Black’s jail cell.

Burgaw | Sandra Spaulding Hughes is going to the General Assembly.

The former Wilmington councilwoman was named Thursday night as the new representative of District 18, filling the void created by Thomas Wright’s historic expulsion last month. Wright was kicked out of the House for allegedly bilking businesses and donors out of nearly $350,000.

“I am elated,” Hughes said. “The community is now going to say we have someone in the position.”

Wilmington Star

Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer thinks so:

Much of the ad refers to the 1998 state budget. Leading Democrats did call it irresponsible. One even called it “voodoo.” But Senate Democrats voted for it anyway.

They blamed Republicans, who controlled the House. Democrats cut some taxes, but said House Republicans forced their hand on cutting the inheritance tax, which favored the wealthy.

Such tax cuts — which would total $1 billion by 2001 — combined with a slumping economy created a $1.5 billion shortfall by 2002. That was what some Democrats had warned of in 1998. The shortfall did force cuts in education and health care.

As co-chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee from 1995 to 2000, Perdue had a big hand in shaping the budget. Voters will differ on whether the 41 percent increase in the budget during that time should be considered “out of control” spending.

Either way, it’s a stretch to say she individually created “a billion-dollar budget disaster.”

But the ad doesn’t say that. Nowhere in the ad does it claim that Perdue individually created the budget problem. In fact, it specifically mentions that she was one of the state’s top budget writers, not the budget writer. I think it is a fair ad. If Perdue has made bad votes in the Senate, which I know she has, Moore is perfectly within his rights to hit her on them and bring them to light to the voters.

I am also rather thunderstruck by Morrill’s claim that voters will differ on whether or not a 41% increase in state spending is out of control, as if it isn’t obvious. Is he kidding? A 41% increase in a five year period is not going to appear unrestrained by the vast majority of the public?

For some strange reason, I have this nagging feeling that Mr. Morrill had an agenda in mind when he wrote his critique because I simply cannot fathom how he was able to draw these conclusions from the ad.

Here is the ad in question:

GREENSBORO — State Sen. Kay Hagan says she has more than $1 million in the bank for her U.S. Senate bid, a total that puts her in good stead for the May primary but leaves some debate about her prospects if she goes on to face Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole .

Staffers said Hagan, of Greensboro, had raised more than $820,000 over the past three months, with 78 percent of her donations coming from individuals in North Carolina.

The News-Record

In my opinion, this primary is Hagan’s to lose, which I called quite a while ago. The fund raising numbers are showing it.

District 14 is a “majority-minority” district, meaning that when it was created after the 2000 census, 62 percent of its registered Democrats (and 41 percent of all voters) were African American. Malone, a former county commissioner and longtime leader in Southeast Raleigh’s black community, won easily in 2002, ‘04 and ‘06, without primaries. But in the intervening six years, the East Wake side of the district has grown dramatically, and Akland is probably as well known in her hometown of Knightdale as Malone is in Southeast Raleigh.

Independent Weekly

Ann Akland is a consultant from Knightsdale who is campaigning against incumbent State Senator Vernon Malone in North Carolina’s May primary. Among her many issues, Akland takes a strong stance against favoring the influence of special interests over that of her would be constituents. She drives the point home by providing a long list of special interest groups and other PACs from which Malone has raised more than half of his money from.

What might give her a stronger edge, however, is her work with the mentally ill.

Akland was recognized by the Indy with a Citizen Award for her advocacy as chair of the Wake chapter of NAMI—the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill—in 2002.

Akland is locally recognized for her work in this area and Malone happens to be a member of the legislature’s committee that over sees mental health issues. With the negative attention that North Carolina has recently received for its sub-par treatment of the mentally ill, this will certainly reflect poorly upon Malone and be advantageous for Akland. What remains to be seen is whether or not this will be a powerful enough issue to propel her to victory next month.

The candidates spent much of the hourlong debate answering questions about issues such as education, health care and transportation. But when the subject turned to taxes, Smith pounced.

McCrory, he said, presided over several tax hikes, including higher taxes on food and hotels.

The mayor said he’d kept the property tax low and other taxes were approved by voters in referendums.

“It’s hypocritical to say (you) follow the will of the people when 57 percent voted against the arena and the city built it anyway,” Smith shot back.

“Fred’s exactly right on the arena,” Orr added. “It all comes out of the public pocketbook.”

In a 2001 nonbinding referendum, Charlotte voters rejected a package that included a new uptown arena and several cultural projects.

The $342 million package would have been paid for largely with a countywide hotel-motel tax. The defeat sped the departure of the NBA Charlotte Hornets.

In 2003, with the promise of a new team, the mayor and City Council approved a new $265 million arena. It was financed largely with taxes on hotel rooms and car rentals, as well as the sale of city-owned property.

Charlotte Observer

This is fair criticism towards McCrory.  When the people vote against something and the government turns around and does it anyway that smacks of extreme arrogance.  It’s a “we know better than you do” mentality from the elected officials.  McCrory has also faced considerable criticism from conservatives regarding the lite rail and the half cent transit tax.  In all fairness, the voters of Mecklenburg County voted 70% in favor of keeping the transit tax so I don’t necessarily hold that against him.  I think most people against keeping the tax would have been more open to it had the money been spent on additional roads rather than LYNX, which is costing far more than it is taking in.