Carolina Politics Online

A Dorchester County mom with a knack for research is challenging whether Ben Frasier should remain a Democratic candidate for South Carolina’s District 1 Congressional seat.

“He’s a Maryland resident, and he’s . . . claiming that South Carolina has been his home,” said Nancy Suefert. “I have his tax records, which shows he’s been declaring since 1999 that Maryland has been his residence.”

Frasier, who did not return five telephone messages left Monday and Tuesday, gave four contact numbers to the South Carolina Democratic Party when he paid the $3,386 filing fee last month. Three of them have Maryland area codes. The other appears to be to his house on Wadmalaw Island, which he gave as his address.

To qualify as a congressional candidate, Frasier must be a “qualified elector” in the First District. Suefert has challenged whether Frasier’s ties to Maryland should render him ineligible to vote here. The Charleston County Board of Elections and Voter Registration will hold a special hearing on the issue at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The Post and Courier

State Senate challenger Dwayne Green has raised twice as much campaign cash as incumbent Sen. Robert Ford, a sign that their Democratic primary showdown might be one of the Lowcountry’s closest races this June.

Green, who has raised more than $60,000 and still has about $25,000 on hand, said he was pleased to have such support. “Incumbents have a natural advantage,” he said, “I know that finances are only half the battle, but it’s encouraging. I hope it will help me to get my message out.”

Ford has reported raising $31,698, including a $2,000 loan and a $5,000 contribution from the South Carolina Democratic Caucus. He has about $5,896 on hand.

Ford said Tuesday the contributions don’t foreshadow a close race, partly because of his style of politics and because of his frequent mailings to voters.

The Post and Courier

Robert Ford can pooh-pooh this all he wants if it helps him sleep better at night, but he’s in serious trouble. Fund raising is campaigning. The vast majority of the time he who raises the most wins and when an incumbent is being out raised two to one, he may want to start making plans to fill up a lot of the free time he’s going to have in the future.

RALEIGH - Jim Neal still hasn’t aired a single television advertisement in his bid to secure the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.

Neal’s campaign won’t say where or when ads will begin, and his aides have declined requests to disclose how much money the campaign has available to spend. But political observers said it’s critical that he gets to the airwaves before state Sen. Kay Hagan seals the nomination to seek the seat of Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

Winston-Salem Journal

Hagan has already secured the nomination. Neal is flat lining, just like I said he would months ago when he declared his candidacy. He is a candidate being supported by the radical element of his party, not the mainstream.

Pat McCrory 34
Fred Smith 25
Bill Graham 6
Bob Orr 5
Elbie Powers 0

Pat McCrory is looking more and more likely by the week to win the Republican nomination without a runoff.

Read more from Public Policy Polling…..

Two-thirds of North Carolinians think they’re paying too much in taxes.According to the April DecisionMaker Poll by the conservative Civitas Institute, 66 percent of likely voters think state taxes are too high for the services they receive.

Twenty-nine percent believe taxes are about right, and only 2 percent said they are too low.

“North Carolina residents overwhelming agree that they are not getting back in services what they are paying in taxes,” said Executive Director Francis DeLuca in a statement.

The News & Observer

Of course the overwhelmingly majority think the taxes are too high. They are! I would like to know exactly where these 66% of people have been at election time, though, because they sure haven’t shown up to vote in low tax, low government representatives to their State Legislature.

When you have a leftist government controlling things this is the result you get: high taxes, high waste, and high crime, all three of which exist in North Carolina and are growing rapidly.

PEMBROKE — More than 70 Lumbees demonstrated near the tribal headquarters on Monday, using placards to sound their complaints about housing programs.

As she stood by the curb on Union Chapel Road, 73-year-old Rachel Maynor stretched her arms out clutching a sign that read, “I WANT A BATHROOM.”

“They came to my house twice,” said Maynor, who lives on Emma Jane Road near St. Pauls, referring to contractors for the tribe. “They said it can’t be repaired. The floors fell through. I’ve slipped and cracked my ribs. It’s a mess and they won’t help me.”

One after another, tribal members shared their frustrations with several members of the media. But tribal officials say the waiting list is long and they have fewer dollars to help people.

The Robesonian

Are you kidding me? They are being given everything for free and they have the nerve to complain? You want a bathroom? Go buy your own damn house! Get a job! Take care of yourself, already! Stop sitting around doing nothing for yourself and then complain about your circumstances. What makes you deserve a hand out for anything, Ms Maynor?

The European colonization of this country was completed well over 100 years ago. None of the American Indian natives who were run off of their land are alive today, yet the Federal Government continues to subsidize their descendants with government subsidies and look at the result, a pathetic bunch of leeches.

You people want help? Try helping yourselves! You deserve nothing for free.

DURHAM — City administrators want to take a long, hard look at the idea of dumping the Durham Area Transit Authority’s fares and making the system the second in North Carolina to allow riders to board for free.

The idea has support from the DATA Board of Trustees, and Public Works Department officials liked it enough to make it part of their annual budget request to City Manager Patrick Baker.

All involved say that while it’s unlikely Baker and the City Council will embrace the proposal in fiscal 2008-09, they hope to spark a policy review that could pay off a year or so down the line.

The Herald-Sun

Isn’t that nice of the DATA Board of Trustees to offer the privilege of paying for their bus riders to the whole State of North Carolina, and maybe even the country if there will be additional Federal funds involved?  Such is the Socialist way.  They love to spend money on all of these great ideas as long as it is someone else’s money being spent.

The only municipal bus system that offers fare-free service in the state is Chapel Hill Transit. It dumped its fares in 2002.

Chapel Hill’s move is widely credited with sparking a massive rise in ridership on its buses.

Gee, you think?  Of course the ridership sparked when anyone could just hop on board at someone else’s expense.  Is this supposed to be an endorsement of DATA’s proposed thievery of the North Carolina taxpayers?  The Durham City Council has already petitioned the General Assembly to allow them to raise their annual car tax to further subsidize public transit in their county, but I guess that’s not enough.  They have to have something for nothing.

The people who should be paying for public transportation are those that use it, not the people who find their own private methods of getting around with their own money.

RALEIGH — Rep. Joe Boylan, a Republican from Moore County, is the latest state official to be highlighted by a political watchdog who ferrets out legislative missteps.

On Monday, Joe Sinsheimer of Raleigh, a former Democratic campaign consultant, urged Boylan’s ouster following the freshman legislator’s charge last week with driving while impaired.

“He has quickly replaced Thomas Wright as the legislature’s most embarrassing member,” Sinsheimer wrote in an e-mail, referring to the Wilmington lawmaker sent to prison last week.

Sinsheimer dispatched his condemnation from Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada. He is living there for six months while his wife completes an academic fellowship.

“My legislative record reflects I’ve kept all my promises to the people of Moore County,” Boylan said Monday. “I promise the people of Moore County I will complete the steps necessary to stop drinking altogether. I’m running for re-election and plan to win.”

Charlotte Observer

Should Boylan be removed from the House?  It’s a legitimate question and I don’t have a clear answer for it.  His DWI obviously isn’t a clear violation of any ethics rules or else I imagine proceedings would already be underway, although it does walk a thin line as to what constitutes ethical misconduct.  As I said the other day, you don’t get this drunk by accident and I would speculate this wasn’t his first time.

At this point, I still think the decision is best left up to the voters.

A vote on outdoor gun restrictions in the Union County Village of Wesley Chapel won’t come for at least another month.

The council on Tuesday night again postponed voting on the ordinance to clarify its wording. The measure would limit gun firing inside the town limits to hunting with neighbors’ permission and for self-defense.

The village began drafting the ordinance after residents of the Stonegate subdivision complained about an adjacent private gun range on six acres owned by an area doctor, Michael Land.

Two council members, Sondra Bradford and Rick Croffut, will further research what activities, firearms types and areas it affects, Mayor Tracey Clinton said. The council on April 1 tabled the ordinance for similar reasons.

Charlotte Observer

Wesley Chapel to Consider Gun Ordinance

The John Locke Foundation has resumed making the case for why each county has no need for more taxes.The think tank’s reports last fall gave critics ammunition in their mostly successful fights against the ballot measures (Opponents went 27-5).

Among the 10 JLF has tackled so far this year is Haywood’s referendum.

The group, which favors limited government, says Haywood has enough money on its way from the state and taxpayers to cover its education costs.

County commissioners say the votes are opportunities to enhance quality of life.

Capital Letters

I don’t really see how taking more money from people in the form of taxes is going to enhance their quality of life, but Buncombe County Commissioner, David Young, who is also running for Treasurer this year, explains his support for these ballot initiatives.

In his writings for the NCACC, Young expresses the need for these taxes in order to provide for increasing infrastructure and other public amenities needed to support a continually increasing population in North Carolina. This is frequently an argument you hear from politicians when supporting these types of tax increases, but these views have never made complete sense to me. With more people moving to the state that is more property tax revenue being generated from their new homes and more sales tax revenue being generated from their consumption. This is automatic, so why do the rates still need to be raised on everyone when the mere presence of these new residents will produce the extra income the local governments claim they need?