Carolina Politics Online

Anybody who lives in the Charlotte Metro area, like myself, and listens to WBT 1110AM (99.3FM) has undoubtedly heard Bob Rucho’s radio ad going after his primary opponent Andy Dulin. Rucho and Dulin are vying for the Republican nomination to run in the general election for the District 39 seat in the North Carolina Senate. The incumbent, Robert Pittenger, is not seeking reelection to the Senate as he is running for Lieutenant Governor.

Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer has taken the ad apart piece by piece and thoroughly examined its validity. It was interesting reading and very informative because based simply on Rucho’s ad the first impression I got was that Andy Dulin is a scumbag. I’m sure others have gotten the same impression. Here is the analysis of the ad. The results are mixed.

The ad:

“Charlotte City Councilman Andy Dulin says he supports Pat McCrory. Let’s take a closer look at the facts to find out the whole truth.

“FACT — Andy Dulin didn’t support Pat McCrory … when Pat McCrory needed … Dulin’s vote to support his veto of a Democrat Property Tax increase — Andy Dulin didn’t even bother to show up.

The Reality:

The tax veto: Dulin was on a scheduled vacation when the Democratic-controlled council voted 7-3 to override McCrory’s veto of the 2007 tax hike. With seven Democrats voting to override, his vote wouldn’t have made a difference.

So, this is one of those twisted truths kind of deal. True, Dulin didn’t show up for the vote, but he had a legit reason for not doing so and as pointed out, his vote wouldn’t have made any difference.

“FACT — Higher taxes … Andy Dulin has voted to raise Rental Car Taxes …

The rental car tax: Dulin voted with the majority to ask legislators to approve the tax, which supports nearly half of the more than $150 million in cultural projects being built around Wachovia’s new tower on South Tryon Street. Dulin spokesman Mike Ellison said Rucho’s attack is “an attack on the arts community, an attack on the banks, an attack on uptown Charlotte.”

This one is a valid criticism of Dulin’s record. He did vote to raise taxes. Granted, it’s a rental car tax, not that big of a deal in my book. It’s not like he voted to raise property taxes or something that effects most of the residents, but a tax increase nonetheless. This is definitely more fair than the first.

“FACT — lavish spending … Andy Dulin ate a lavish dinner with Washington lobbyists at a swanky Capitol Hill restaurant paid for with $3,200 of your tax dollars.

Lavish dinner: Dulin was among several council members who ate at Washington’s Primi Piatti restaurant last year. The city picked up the $3,264 tab, which covered meals for the council members and four city staffers, four lobbyists and 10 congressional staffers.

Again, factually true, but when you find out all the details, it’s not as bad as the ad makes it sound. Should the city be paying the tab for these kinds of dinners? More often, probably not, but we don’t know the context of this particular evening.

“FACT — even more lavish spending … Andy Dulin voted to spend $15,000 of your tax dollars to send he [sic] and his fellow Councilmen on a first-class private retreat to an exclusive Pinehurst Resort.”

Retreat spending: Dulin and a majority of other council members voted in January 2006 to hold their retreat at the Holly Inn in Pinehurst, a resort community about 80 miles east of Charlotte. The council ended up spending about $21,000 at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro instead.

Now this is a good one to hammer Dulin on. The City Council got a lot of criticism for this on the local talk radio. There was really no need for them to leave town and spend this kind of money for this retreat. They didn’t accomplish anything there they couldn’t have done here at home.

So there you have it, the facts behind “the facts.” Props to Mr. Morrill for sorting all of that out. This is an excellent example of how effective these ads can be. Without really looking into the details behind them they can paint a much uglier picture and how often does the average Joe Blow that hears one of these on the radio or sees one on TV really take the time to find out the whole story?

Dropouts don’t just hurt themselves financially by not getting a diploma. They hurt the state. North Carolina is losing at least $169 million annually in taxes and public spending on the 38,100 students in the class of 2005 who quit, according to a report released last fall by a pair of school-choice groups.

Asheville Citizen-Times

Why is the state spending $169 million in tax dollars on high school drop outs? The solution here is pretty clear. Stop paying for them. These people made the conscious choice to drop out of school, therefore they need to live with the consequences of their actions rather than the state allowing them to leech off the responsible citizenry like parasites. There is no reason why anybody needs to be concerned about these people. They put themselves in their situation. Let them get themselves out of it.

“You’re looking at a leader who believes that in the 21st century, you’ve got to have much more than a high school diploma,” said Perdue, a former schoolteacher. She touts a “College Promise” program that would target children and their parents as young as fifth grade with the pledge of a debt-free college education.

In other words, Socialism. While North Carolinians are already overtaxed and the state is spending far more money than it should, Bev Perdue wants to irresponsibly add to that burden by passing the responsibility of one’s college education on to the taxpayer.  A college education is not a right; it is a privilege for those that study hard and earn it.  There is plenty of financial aid out there for anyone to afford to go and we’re talking about adults here, not children.  Nobody paid my way through college.  I did it on my own.  Continuing to bury this state with Socialist mandates will negatively effect the state’s position as a leader for industry and jobs and start a complete 180 towards decline.  This is pandering for votes by the worst kind from Bev Perdue.

Moore calls his program to make community college tuition free a wise investment of just $50 million annually, money that will come from North Carolina’s share of the national tobacco settlement. He pledges to cut the dropout rate in half during his first term in part by reforming the public school curriculum to make it more useful in the real world.

“We’re still by and large teaching a liberal arts curriculum from 200 years ago,” he said. “I firmly believe a lot of our young people drop out of high school because they are bored.”

I’ve already hit on Moore’s position on this as well about a month ago.  Who pays for the “free” education once the tobacco money is gone?

I do like Moore’s view on changing the public school curriculum, however.  The western world in general seems to be stuck on this liberal arts education, most of which has no value in the real world.  Kids spend 12 years of school and then generally the first two years of college learning stuff that they will hardly ever use once they get a job.  I don’t know what Moore has in mind exactly, but high school kids should be trained in specific skills related to an industry of their choosing.  That would prepare them better for the working world and provide the experience many employers desire above a college degree.

Armor wants to reform Medicare and Medicaid, and he opposes universal health care and congressional earmarks. In Iraq, he favors a continued presence in the country but not “actively fighting for a long period of time.” On the infamous “Road to Nowhere” in Swain County, he favors following the lead of county officials, who’ve opted for a cash settlement from the federal government rather than having the road built.

He said he believes the major issues facing Western North Carolina come down to four words: “That’s jobs, jobs, jobs and education.” Tourism is relatively healthy, he said, but agriculture and manufacturing need attention, partly through better enforcement of international trade relations.

Armor bristles at the notion that the economy is in recession, saying we may be “in a rough patch,” but the media is inaccurately portraying it. While he approves of the recent federal bailout of investment banking firm Bear Stearns because its collapse could have triggered a larger problem, in general Armor says he believes “the markets have their own solutions.”

That goes for gasoline, too, which has skyrocketed in price recently.

“Whether we like it or not, gas prices at this level or slightly higher are stuck with us, unless the government decides to start subsidizing gasoline for private cars or cut its taxes, and the highways depend on those taxes,” Armor said.

Asheville Citizen-Times

John Armor is a great candidate and the kind that the Republican Party is lacking at all levels. We need people in Washington that are going to actually read and abide by the Constitution’s limit of Federal powers. I approve of Armor’s positions on reforming Medicare and Medicaid. Entitlement spending is growing rapidly and will balloon out of control with the retirement of the Baby Boomers. Spending on Medicare and Social Security is expected to reach 25% of the Federal budget by 2050. This has to be dealt with now and we need members in Congress who won’t be afraid to get out there and tackle them.

I disagree with Armor on the “Road to Nowhere” and I made that clear in a post a few weeks ago. It is an enormous waste of money, but other than that he is opposed to earmark spending. He has by far more positives than negatives and would be a quality challenger to Shuler in November.