Carolina Politics Online

The three differed on raising the cigarette tax to pay for Medicaid.

Martin said he was fundamentally opposed to raising any taxes. “We’re not going to stamp out smoking by raising the cigarette tax,” he said. “And I’m hesitant that the money would be used correctly.”

Hyde said his friends in the medical community have talked to him about the dangers of smoking. He said raising the tax, which is now 7 cents per pack, would aid in health care and improve the economy.

Ritchie said he favors raising the tax, but not to fund Medicaid and “grow government.” He said he would prefer to put the money into the private sector to make health insurance more affordable and “stop that cost shifting from the uninsured to those of you who have health care premiums already.”

The Herald-Journal

Martin was the only one with the correct answer.  Opposition to any further taxes is the only acceptable position here, although I don’t have a problem with raising the cigarette tax if a corresponding cut in the income tax goes with it.  Of course the extra tax money won’t be used correctly.  When do government bureaucrats ever manage money responsibly?  Didn’t we hear this same song and dance from the tobacco lawsuits in the 1990’s?  Where did all that money go that was supposed to be used to treat smokers’ illnesses?  It went straight in the general budgets of the states and was wasted away.

I’d also be interested in hearing Hyde’s reasoning as to how raising taxes improves the economy.

For Haskins, her first test since winning her late husband’s seat in 2000, is shaping up as a tough one. With no Democrat having filed in the strongly Republican district, the primary probably will determine which one will hold the seat for the next two years.

Nanney is building her campaign around a tough stance on immigration, something she says Haskins has failed to do, and has raised questions about Haskins’ attentiveness to her legislative duties.

“She hasn’t gone far enough on immigration and her constituent service is probably a major (element) that is lacking. She’s not real responsive to the constituents. She’s not available to them. That’s been a major frustration with a lot of people,” Nanney said.

Haskins rejects the assertions, citing her co-sponsorship of the House GOP’s main immigration bill, support for denying GED diplomas to those who don’t take the test in English and opposing driving privileges for illegals.

Nanney criticized Haskins for missing a committee meeting on her own immigration bill. “I know that she was not in attendance. She needs to be there, dealing with it.”

The Greenville News

RALEIGH, N.C. — Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory raised nearly $1.2 million during the first 3 1/2 months of the year, far outpacing the three other leading Republican candidates for governor.

McCrory and the others were required to file their first-quarter campaign finance reports by Monday night with the State Board of Elections.

Sen. Fred Smith of Clayton reported $885,000 in contributions, although $500,000 came from personal loans made to his campaign.

Salisbury attorney Bill Graham said nearly all of the $370,000 he raised was borrowed money.

Former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr said he raised $77,000.

The State

I stand by what I’ve said in the past. McCrory is the only viable challenger to either Moore or Perdue. These numbers are proving it.

The South Carolina Club for Growth has endorsed a third batch of candidates, many of whom are challenging incumbents in Republican primaries.

The group has chosen Tom Davis, former chief of staff for Gov. Mark Sanford, over incumbent Catherine Ceips for a Beaufort County Senate seat, engineer Roger Nutt over incumbent Keith Kelly in a Spartanburg House race and Trey Whitehurst for the Pickens County House seat held by B.R. Skelton.

All three of those incumbents, the group said, scored an “F” on the group’s annual legislative report card in 2007.

The State

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A license plate with an image of a cross in front of a stained glass window with the words “I Believe” could be available to drivers in South Carolina under a bill that has won key approval in the Senate.

The Senate gave the bill second reading on Tuesday and agreed to give the proposal automatic final approval Wednesday and send it to the House.

The State

Uh-oh.  My spidey sense tells me there is an ACLU outburst coming.

Sen. Barack Obama coolly denounced the Rev. Jeremiah Wright for his “appalling” words and for his personal and political betrayal Tuesday, a day after Wright seized center stage in the race for the White House and six weeks after Obama said he could no more “disown” his former pastor than he could his own grandmother.

Obama’s remarks were a second attempt to end perhaps the most damaging chapter of his political career — and strategists raised significant doubts about whether even Obama’s blistering words could immediately quell the crisis Wright has created for the Illinois senator’s campaign.

“When I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it. It contradicts everything that I am about and who I am, and anybody who has worked with me, who knows my life, who has read my books, who has seen what this campaign’s about, I think, will understand that it is completely opposed to what I stand for and where I want to take this country,” Obama said in a press conference called after a rally in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he was campaigning Tuesday.

The Politico

Sorry, but I’m not buying it.  If Obama was truly appalled at the words of Jeremiah Wright he would not have attended his church for 20 years and exposed his family to that type of hateful environment.  Obama is simply in CYA mode now because he knows this guy will drag him down.

State Sen. Larry Shaw will face off with a familiar opponent in his bid for re-election.

Since 1996, Shaw has trounced Eronomy “Mohammed” Smith in five elections. The two Democrats from Fayetteville will be on the May 6 primary ballot for District 21. The winner will face no opposition in the fall.

In the 2006 primary, Smith garnered 2percent of the vote in a three-way race, which Shaw won. Smith finish third with 3.4 percent of votes in the 2004 primary.

Smith has made numerous false claims in news releases, at public meetings and during interviews with the media. He inaccurately claims he initiated the base-realignment process under way at Fort Bragg, led revitalization efforts in downtown Fayetteville and founded Masjid Omar Ibn Sayyid, a mosque on Murchison Road.

When a reporter asked him why he makes untrue claims, Smith stood by the statements, adding, “It’s all in the record.”

The Fayetteville Observer

This guy is nuttier than a peanut farm, clearly delusional and a professional fraud. One thing about politics, it brings all kinds out of the woodwork.

The Voice Online, a Fayetteville State University publication, just recently did an article on “Minister” Smith.

Five-term incumbent N.C. Rep. Jim Gulley will square off against two challengers in the May 6 primary.

Mint Hill residents Edith “Edy” Brotherton and Larry Hale, both Republicans, want to unseat Matthews resident Gulley as the state representative for District 103.

No Democrats have filed for the office; the primary will decide the winner. Though Gulley has experience in the House, his challengers aren’t strangers to the campaign trail.

Brotherton ran for state Senate in 1994 and 1996, and Hale ran against Gulley in 2002 and 2006. He also ran for state House in 1982 and 1984.

Education, taxes and road improvements top the candidates’ list of concerns.

Charlotte Observer

I don’t think Gully has much to worry about here, especially with two challengers.  The two will dilute any anti-Gully vote that may be out there, propelling him to an easy reelection.  To my knowledge there isn’t a lot of constituent opposition to him.  You usually need a significant amount of voter dissatisfaction to take down an incumbent in a primary with multiple challengers.

About 100 city residents paraded from the Dilworth Neighborhood Grille on Morehead Street to city headquarters downtown, about a mile away. They were protesting the city’s rising crime rate and what some feel is a failure by leaders to address it.

This was long overdue. I am really surprised it took this long to get people upset enough to head to the City Council and am actually disappointed that it was only 100 people. Violent crime is up in Charlotte by double digits and there is plenty of blame to go around: a weak Chief of Police, and understaffed DA’s office, weak-kneed judges and prosecutors, and a City Council that has been complacent.

“One of the reasons they are able to prey on the community is the lack of any real consequences,” he said.

He offered examples: James Jacobs, who’s been arrested 52 times, 14 in the past 22 months, and David Cousart, a 17-year-old whom police arrested April 9 and who has been arrested 15 times since December 2005 for property crimes.

Councilman John Lassiter asked Sennett why the department arrests so many of the same people over and over. Sennett said it takes too long for cases to reach trial, and other sectors of the criminal justice system are underfunded and overburdened.

Lassiter said officials at all levels should discuss how to accelerate the process.

Actually this is something that Lassiter and his compatriots should have been doing months ago. This is not a recent event. There has been outcry building over this problem for a long, long time and the City Council has put their fingers in their ears. The Observer has a few other quotes from citizens at last night’s meeting:

“What does it take to get a person off the street? How many felonies does a person have to have?”
COURTNEY JAMES who said four people, including one who was convicted of 17 misdemeanors and 5 felonies, tried to break into his home two weeks ago

Read more at the Charlotte Observer…..

Update: Here is a link to the taping of last night’s meeting that was emailed to me.