Carolina Politics Online

Hat Tip to NC GOP

By Linda Daves

Chairman, North Carolina Republican Party

For Mike Easley to be given the “America’s Greatest Education Governor’s Award” just proves what the NEA really stands for.  Let’s just call this award what it is: Politician Most Beholden to Teachers’ Unions and Special Interests.  When one-third of North Carolina students are failing to graduate high school, it is reprehensible that the Governor is gloating about his “successes.”  Gov. Easley’s term has no doubt been a boon to teachers’ unions, but it has been a disaster for North Carolina’s children.  What are the criteria for giving out this award anyway?  With the abysmal graduation rate here in North Carolina, I would hate to see what the situation is in the home state of the runner-up.

It is time to look at new ideas like lifting the cap on charter schools so that parents have more choices in their children’s education. It is time to think about raising teacher pay for those teachers who volunteer to teach the most at-risk students. It is time to consider expanding vocational education so that students can learn skills that will help them get a job instead of merely getting frustrated with the curriculum and dropping out. It is time for fresh vision and a renewed commitment
to excellence in education in North Carolina. Over the past eight years, that is a test that Democrats have consistently failed.

With Bev Perdue only offering more of the same for fixing the problems facing our state’s public school system, there is a clear choice in the race to become the next Governor.  Those who refuse to protect the status quo, those who reject placing the interests of powerful unions over the interests of our children, and those who believe that we can do better will choose Pat McCrory as our next Governor.  He will be an Education Governor to truly make us proud.

Beverly Perdue says offshore drilling would not be safe.

In a statement sent to the press this afternoon, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee attacked her rival, Pat McCrory, for supporting oil exploration off the North Carolina coast. 

“North Carolina’s coast is in Hurricane Alley and has been called the Graveyard of the Atlantic for a reason,” she said. “I haven’t seen anything that proves to me that drilling there can be done safely or bring down oil prices.”

Echoing recent attacks, she also accused McCrory of “walking in lock-step” with President Bush, and said the state should focus on encouraging conservation and alternative energy sources.

The statement also cited an Associated Press article that noted this federal report said that it would take decades for offshore oil to reach the market and still might not reduce gas prices.

The N&O

Would Ms. Perdue care to guess how much oil was spilled when Hurricane Katrina roared through the Gulf of Mexico and hit the oil platforms that were there?

Would she also care to tell us just what we’re supposed to do for gas between now and the 20-30 years it’ll take to develop whatever-the-hell these “alternative energy sources” are? Are we just supposed to pay $5, $6, $7 a gallon for gas, Bev?

In Case You Missed It...

 RALEIGH – Political experience differs as much in kind as in amount – a point clearly illustrated by the first candidate forum of the 2008 governor’s race. Beverly Perdue and Pat McCrory are both experienced politicians, but McCrory came to Saturday’s North Carolina Bar Association event in Atlantic Beach ready to speak, via television, to North Carolina voters. Perdue came ready to speak to the relatively small audience of lawyers, reporters, and dignitaries in attendance.The difference was striking, and not to Perdue’s benefit.

It went beyond simply the audiovisual experience, though it was noticeable there. McCrory is as a longtime mayor who lacks much formal lawmaking power. His influence has come from engaging the public directly, through media interviews and public speeches. At one time, he even hosted his own show on Charlotte’s primary talk-radio station, WBT-AM. Having both agreed and disagreed with McCrory on local issues over the years, I haven’t always cheered his effectiveness as a communicator, but I’ve always recognized it.

At Saturday’s forum, McCrory was comfortable, relaxed, smooth, and folksy. He led off his performance by contrasting the fantasy of speedy investigations and satisfying resolutions on CSI and Law & Order to the reality of overworked beat cops and underfunded crime labs trying to clear cases in North Carolina. He ended with an extended and funny Andy Griffth Show riff that also contrasted fiction and reality. (I felt like having a “big Orange drink” afterward.)

Perdue is a longtime state legislator who wielded substantial lawmaking power as a Senate appropriator and leadership insider. For the past eight years, she’s held the office of lieutenant governor – bearing an illustrious title but no more power, and indeed probably less, than before. Perdue has made many, many speeches in her career, but a large number of them have been floor speeches on legislation or appearances in front of friendly political gatherings and genial civic groups.

At Saturday’s forum, Perdue at times seemed uncomfortable, anxious, and off-balance. She made joking reference to reporters and other individuals in the room that most of the audience watching at home wouldn’t have understood. She referred repeatedly to what “y’all know” about her record, a questionable choice given that most North Carolina voters probably don’t know much about her record. The assumed personal familiarity sounded odd and egotistical. In both the opening and closing statements, she also clumsily stated strident opposition to school vouchers, an issue that hasn’t come up yet in the campaign and didn’t during the forum itself.

I know why Perdue did it. Some of her advisors previously helped get Mike Easley elected, and they pulled the same stunt on the 2000 Republican nominee, Richard Vinroot – claiming that his voucher proposal would rob North Carolina public schools of funds (and even citing the John Locke Foundation as their source). The attack made no sense, because Vinroot had argued for a means-tested scholarship program that would have yielded a smaller annual revenue to public schools only by reducing their enrollment and thus their annual expenditure, leaving public schools with more resources per student than they had before. Easley lied, to put it bluntly. But because the news media repeated his falsehood without question, it probably had some impact on swing voters concerned about education.

The real problem here is that in 2000, Easley was criticizing an idea that Vinroot had truly made a key element of his campaign. Pat McCrory hasn’t proposed any particular school-choice policy, other than lifting the statewide cap on charter schools. It would have looked less clumsy for Perdue to save her voucher attack for later in the campaign, so it would have seemed relevant. In fact, it would have been smarter to save it for later, anyway, to maximize its impact on voters in the homestretch.

The fact that Perdue made her silly voucher attack Saturday told me two things: 1) she and her campaign team are far more worried about the McCrory candidacy than they let on publicly, and 2) she is a candidate largely unschooled in the art of televised debate against a capable opponent.

Perdue still has important advantages. Having spent the better part of three decades in Raleigh, she has a grasp of policy detail and will rarely be stumped for an answer to any question about state government. And the ability to perform in public forums and debates isn’t as critical in modern campaigning as performing well in broadcast ads and raising money to finance them, like it or not.

Still, it shows how experience in one political arena doesn’t necessarily translate well to another political arena. Pat McCrory actually reminded me, stylistically, of Mike Easley, minus the Eastern NC drawl and programmatic rhyming. Beverly Perdue came across as a state legislator trying to establish her credibility as a candidate for higher office. Shouldn’t she have already done that eight years ago?

It was a stumble, albeit in a race with a long, long stretch of track still to traverse.

“As governor, I will not be distracted by experiments like vouchers and private school tuition,” Perdue told several hundred attorneys at the N.C. Bar Association convention in the first debate of the governor’s race. “Vouchers take money away from the public schools. I am not going to take my eye off the prize and allow vouchers to break the back of public schools.”

Charlotte Observer

I do not support vouchers either, but not for the same reasons as Perdue.  I am opposed to vouchers because once you start giving private schools public money it’s just a matter of time until the state will start to enforce its will over the schools.  Hence, they will no longer be private, so what’s the point.

McCrory did not respond to her voucher comment during the debate, but afterward told reporters that he would talk more about his views on vouchers later in his campaign.

He did say he favors giving parents more choice in where to send their children to schools. He also favors the state allowing more charter schools – schools run with public money but who are given more independence to develop their own programs – to be opened in North Carolina.

This is a more positive direction to move in.  Parents need to have a choice as to where their kids go.  It shouldn’t be delegated by where they live.  I think public school funding should come from the state level.  The state should determine a set amount as to what it costs to educate each child and then the money should follow the child to whatever school the parents decide to send them to.  This will encourage competition between schools for better education because each school will want that money.

Perdue has pledged to offer two years of free tuition to build a more-educated work force as many old-economy, factory-style jobs are being lost to foreign operations, she said.

The mayor said he would support offering targeted scholarships to help fill labor gaps in areas where the state is lacking, such as in mental health. But he doesn’t support a broader plan because it would end up costing taxpayers too much, he said.

“It’s not free; someone’s going to get the bill,” he told the group of employees.

Charlotte Observer

There is no such thing as a free ride.  Someone is paying for it.  Perdue is your typical sleaze politicians telling people that if they to go the polls and vote for her she’ll give them someone else’s money.  There was a day when politicians like this used to be tarred, feathered and run out of town by an angry mob with torches and pitch forks.  Then we became “civilized.”

This plan would be extremely expensive for North Carolina and every resident and worker in the state will get stuck with the bill.

McCrory Addresses North Carolina VFW Annual Meeting

Charlotte, N.C. – Today Pat McCrory addressed the North Carolina Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) annual meeting in Greensboro.  His opponent, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, sent a representative but chose not to attend.

“I am committed to taking care of the brave men and women who served our nation honorably and protected the freedoms we hold so dear,” said McCrory.  “That is why I cleared my schedule to speak to our state’s veterans and listen to what is on their minds.  As Governor, I will always be accessible to our veterans and I will always advocate for their best interests.”

McCrory discussed a number of issues including his support for modernizing the Montgomery GI Bill, increasing space in the state veterans’ cemetery and improving mental health services for returning veterans. 

The two major candidates for governor of North Carolina say they’ve agreed to hold five debates leading up to Election Day.

The campaigns of Democratic Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and Republican Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory said Wednesday the first debate is set for next weekend at the North Carolina Bar Association’s annual meeting in Atlantic Beach.

Asheville Citizen-Times

McCrory will have to be sure to define himself as the candidate of change in this election.  Bev Perdue is going to continue a high tax and spend policy in the state if she wins.  In fact, she intends to tax and spend even more.

North Carolina: SurveyUSA polls from the Tarheel state show two competitive statewide races. In the open gubernatorial race, Lt. Governor Bev Perdue (D) leads Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory (R) by a 52%-45% vote. Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole (R) leads State Senator Kay Hagan (D) by a vote of 50%-46%.

Politics1.com

RALEIGH — Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory, in his first attack of the general election, slammed his Democratic rival Friday for supporting a policy that allows illegal immigrants to attend the state’s community colleges.

But Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue shares McCrory’s opinion.

Perdue has made it clear that she opposes a community college policy — supported by Gov. Mike Easley — that orders all 58 campuses to admit illegal immigrants who are 18 years old and high school graduates.

“I think the policy is ill-conceived for North Carolina, although I’m very respectful of it,” Perdue said in April.

Charlotte Observer

It would seem that the claim is a stretch, however the McCrory campaign has a response to this.

When asked Friday about the discrepancy, McCrory’s political strategist, Jack Hawke, said Perdue had failed to take action as president pro tem of the Senate or a community college board member to reverse the policy.

“If she took a stand today, it’s a stand that appears to be in conflict with all of the actions she’s taken up until this point,” he said.

The Lieutenant Governor has little power to really do anything other than break ties in the Senate so I don’t think Perdue can honestly be criticized for taking no action in that capacity.  However, it is fair to point out a lack of action on her behalf as a member of the state community college board.  All and all, I think the McCrory campaign could better spend their money on policy differences that aren’t a bait and switch.  I don’t think this one will have much legs.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Mike Easley says the state’s community colleges should stick to a policy of admitting all eligible illegal immigrants.

Easley made the suggestion Thursday, a day after Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office said the lenient admissions policy should be dropped.

A letter from Cooper’s general counsel said the community college system should follow federal law more closely and admit immigrants in narrow circumstances.

The Herald-Sun

If they are here illegally how are any of them eligible?  I guess Easley can drop whatever bomb he wants to now that he’s on his way out the door, but it would be a great question for McCrory and Perdue.

RALEIGH — Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, the Republican nominee for governor, offered a preview Wednesday of the campaign that lies ahead. Without mentioning her name, he jabbed at Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, the Democratic nominee, as “old style,” inaccessible, overpromising and divisive.

Charlotte Observer

I think McCrory is right to say these things about Perdue. She does represent the status quo in Raleigh and there won’t be any positive change in the state if succeeds Easley. Raleigh has a culture of corruption, the result of one party controlling everything. I don’t say that as a partisan statement either. It would be the same result if we had a decade of Republicans running everything too, just like we saw in Washington D.C.

McCrory is going to have a lot of appeal in this election and I personally feel that his shot of winning is just as good as Perdue’s. It’s a 50-50 race.

It’s just been reported out of Raleigh that Fred Smith has conceded the Republican Gubernatorial race to Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory.  The AP reported Bev Perdue the winner on the Democratic side about half an hour ago.

10:19PM - All the big races have pretty much been called except the Democratic Lt. Governor’s race, but it looks like Walter Dalton is going to take that one. I’m heading to bed. Congrats to all the winners tonight!

10:09PM - Fred Smith has conceded the GOP Gubernatorial Primary to Pat McCrory.

10:02PM - With 75% of the vote in Carter and Hamby are tied 50-50 in the Democratic Primary for NC-05. With 60% of the vote in Bratton has a gigantic lead in the Democratic Primary for NC-06 with 60% of the vote and is likely to win that one. Johnson is leading Ivester 60-40 in the Dem Primary for NC-10. In the Democratic primary for NC-03 Weber is stomping Adame 70-30.

9:47PM - Democratic Labor Commissioner Primary

With 29 of 100 counties reporting:

• Mary Fant Dannon - 28%
• John Brooks - 25%
• Robin Anderson - 24%
• Ty Richardson - 23%

9:45PM - Democratic Lt. Governor Primary

With 26 of 100 counties reporting:

• Walter Dalton - 44%
• Hampton Dellinger - 35%
• Pat Smathers - 14%
• Dan Besse - 7%

9:42PM - Republican Gubernatorial Primary

With 26 of 100 counties reporting:

• McCrory - 46%
• Smith - 37%
• Graham - 9%
• Orr - 7%

9:39PM - Nick Mackey is leading Drew Saunders 54%-46%.

9:12PM - Walter Jones is leading Joe McLaughlin 62% to 38%.

8:59PM - Kay Hagan has officially won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate race.

8:52PM - Mumpower is leading the race for NC-11. Armor is getting crushed. McCrory still has a slight lead state wide but Smith is not far behind. Dalton maintains a slight lead over Dellinger.

8:32PM - I am calling Bev Perdue as the winner of the Democratic Gubernatorial Primary. She is leading handily in all the largest counties in the state.

8:23PM - Kay Hagan is going to win the Democratic Senate Primary and it’s looking fairly certain that Beth Wood is going to win the Dem nomination for State Auditor.

8:14PM - Congressman Brad Miller has clearly won his primary challenge. Dalton and Dellinger are duking it out pretty close in the Dem side of the Lt. Gov race. Pittenger is clearly going to win the Republican nomination for that seat. Congressman McHenry is leading challenger Lance Sigmon 61 to 39.

8:05PM - Jim Neal is getting smoked by Kay Hagan in all the big counties, Mecklenburg, Wake, Durham. Bev Perdue is also leading Richard Moore. McCrory is in the lead in these counties as well and is getting over 70% of the vote in Mecklenburg.

As we all know the North Carolina primary is coming up on Tuesday and there are lots of races across the state for voters to decide. I am going to weigh in on a few here. Note, I am giving my opinion on who I think will win, not necessarily who I think is the best candidate or would like to see win.

I have already given my opinion on how I think the 11th Congressional Republican Primary will turn out.

In the Lieutenant Governor’s race there are primaries on both sides of the aisle. The Republican race is easy to call. Robert Pittenger has it locked up, end of story. The Democratic race is going to be a little more tight, but I think Walter Dalton is going to prevail by about 7 points, with Dellinger finishing second.

There are primaries on both sides in the 10th Congressional District as well. On the Democratic side I believe that Daniel Johnson will prevail over Ivester quite handily. On the GOP side, I think McHenry will win by a large margin. I think Sigmon’s ad about the Iraq attack after McHenry ran his video was a bit much for people to swallow and may have backfired on him. I think people viewed it as a cheap and dirty shot. I guess we’ll see on Tuesday. McHenry’s internals show him winning in a landslide. I don’t foresee as bad of a bloodbath as McHenry says it will be, but it won’t be a close race.

The Third Congressional District is going to be closer than people think, in my opinion. I predict that Walter Jones will triumph in the end, but not by a landslide margin. I think most Republicans in the district hold him in decent to high regards. I don’t feel that McLaughlin hitting Jones on his reversal of the war is a winning issue. The majority of Americans have grown tired of Iraq and that includes Republicans. Despite the high proportion of military families in the district, I don’t see Jones in much danger. People are also assuming that military families are automatically dedicated to the continued job in Iraq and that’s not a horse I would bet my money on.

In the U.S. Senate race Kay Hagan is going to trounce Jim Neal. That’s all I have to say about that.

Regarding the Presidential race, Barack Obama is going to win, but I don’t think he’ll break a ten point spread against Clinton. She has been gaining ground on him due to two things: her win in Pennsylvania and the continued media focus on Jeremiah Wright.

And now for the big one, the gubernatorial race. Bev Perdue wins the Democratic nomination hands down. Throughout the campaign she has generally lead Richard Moore, but there have been a few times that he has caught up with her in the polls. However, I think his sleazy attack ad about her husband selling Confederate memorabilia in his stores hasn’t played well with the public and it’s going to cost any chance he may have had.

On the Republican side, this is going to be close. While it’s technically a four man race, only Fred Smith and Pat McCrory are viable contenders on Tuesday. I think McCrory is going to pull this out, but not by much. It may not be enough for him to avoid a runoff and if that’s the case I think the following runoff election will favor Smith.

So there you have it. Tuesday awaits!

RALEIGH — With polls showing he’s in a dead heat with Fred Smith in the Republican primary for governor, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory traveled the state by plane Wednesday to focus on crime.

Charlotte Observer

I’m not exactly certain what McCrory is going to tell people about crime considering the crime in his city has steadily risen during his tenure as mayor.

As far as Tuesday’s primary goes, I think this is how it will come down.  McCrory’s victory over Smith will depend upon how many unaffiliated voters participate in the Republican Primary.  If too many of them vote in the Democratic Primary, which is a real possibility with the Presidential race, I think McCrory will either lose to Smith or not quite get enough votes to avoid a run off.  If there is a run off election then I think Smith will win the nomination.  If Smith wins the nomination then I expect Bev Perdue to win the Governor’s race in November, which also means that I obviously think she will win the Democratic Primary on Tuesday.

RALEIGH — The racial rhetoric of the race for the Democratic nomination for governor ratcheted up another notch Friday afternoon as State Treasurer Richard Moore’s campaign displayed Confederate flag-emblazoned goods they purchased at Georgia convenience stores owned by Beverly Perdue’s family.

“Is this a hat that Bev Perdue would let her campaign staff wear?” said Jay Reiff, Moore’s campaign manager, pointing to a row of three baseball caps with different “Stars and Bars” variations: one with flames, one with a reflective logo and one with camouflage.

Perdue’s husband, Bob Eaves, owns a chain of “The Right Stuff Food Stores” in Georgia. Until last year, Perdue was an officer in the company.

Charlotte Observer

What a pathetically cheap shot.  So what if Bev Perdue’s husband sells confederate items at his stores.  This is the south!  Is Moore suggesting that the people he wishes to represent as governor should be ashamed of their heritage?  Is this really the message he wants to send to the voters a week before the primary election?  I don’t think he thought this through very well.

McCain blasts as offensive

After weeks of posturing over debates in their high-profile race, the two leading Democratic candidates for governor agreed to another television debate Monday, giving themselves just a day to prepare.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and State Treasurer Richard Moore will meet at 8 p.m. Tuesday for an hourlong debate at the WRAL studios in Raleigh, station general manager Jim Hefner said. It will air live and be simulcast on stations in Wilmington, Charlotte and possibly elsewhere.

The Herald-Sun

This is Tuesday, as in tonight, not next Tuesday.

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.