Carolina Politics Online

That’s the case Public Policy Polling is attempting to make with their latest report.  You can read it at their site. It’s interesting reading, although the question begged to be asked is what constitutes being a “moderate” these days?  Ideological labels get carelessly tossed around all the time and I don’t know that one person’s definition of conservative, liberal, or moderate automatically match the view of another.

For instance, we hear those on the left constantly refer to Bush’s failures as disastrous “conservative” policies and that seems to be the position many lefties put him in, but I would hardly consider George Bush to be a conservative.  Sure, on social issues there is little doubt he is staunchly conservative, but there is just as little evidence of that elsewhere.  He took 200 years of national debt and more than doubled it in eight, hardly the profile of a fiscal conservative.  He did cut taxes, however, which is a conservative position.  On the other hand, he orchestrated both the Wall Street and auto bailouts and partially nationalized our banking system which is jumping straight into Socialism with both feet.  He supported amnesty for illegal aliens, increased the nation’s long term Medicare committment, strengthened the Federal government’s role in education with No Child Left Behind, created the Department of Homeland Security and was behind the biggest expansion of Federal government in American history.  Yet, despite all of this, Bush is labeled a conservative without a second thought.  If anything Bush is a left leaning centrist whom Democrats should be fairly happy with and I’m willing to bet that if Bush had been a Democrat we’d have barely heard a peep out of most of the people doing the bitching.

Let’s also look at Bill Clinton, the bane of conservatives and possibly the most hated Democrat President by the right in the 20th century.  Republicans just as easily throw a liberal label on Clinton as the Dems do with Bush and conservatism, but just how liberal was Bill Clinton?  Think about it.  He signed off on NAFTA.  He cut the Capital Gains Tax.  He signed off on welfare reform.  He worked with a Republican Congress to submit a balanced budget.  He signed off on the line item veto, even though it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (Nice going, Rudy Giuliani.  Yes, I am being sarcastic).  Does this sound like the administration of a full fledged liberal?

Neither Bush nor Clinton really fit the profile the public has given them, so how did they earn it?  It really comes down to party label.  Most people hear Republican they think conservative.  Most people hear Democrat they think liberal.  Many times that’s not the case.  I am an economic conservative, but a left leaning moderate on social issues.  What does that make me?  In my opinion, I am the true “moderate, ” but could I get elected running for statewide office in North Carolina?

Would North Carolina elect a man who is for cutting spending, eliminating most Federal programs, eliminating foreign aid, doing away with the Dept of Education, the Dept of Transportation, FEMA, massively cutting the income tax, supportive of school choice, scaling back military spending, turning away from the Monroe Doctrine, pro-life but for leaving regulation to the individual states, supportive of legalizing drugs, lowering the drinking age to 18, recognizing flag burning as protected speech, and opposed to a Federal marriage amendment?  That seems like a moderate agenda to me, a mixture of issues on both sides of the aisle, but when I think of the demographics of North Carolina, I can’t imagine a lot of that would fly with a voting base that is still conservative leaning.

Furthermore, how do we explain the continued reelection of former Senator Jesse Helms and the election of John Edwards, a far right Senator and a far left Senator?  What about Pat McCrory?  He is considered in political circles to be a moderate and had it not been for the Obama effect he would most certainly have won the governor’s race, but he ran as a conservative, not a moderate.  McCrory’s platform was to get tough on crime, control spending, and appropriately allocate the state’s resources regarding infrastructure, ending the current corrupt processes involved in the DOT.

I don’t think PPP analysis is as cut and dry as they make it sound.  I still believe that North Carolina, barring unusual circumstances as seen in this past election, would elect someone with the traditional American values of low taxation, less government, balancing cultural conservatism as to not over do it, and overall just getting out of our way.

It’s official, Mayor Pat McCrory announced today that he will not seek an eighth term as Charlotte Mayor. He has endorsed City Councilman John Lassiter to be his heir apparent, though Lassiter has not made any announcement to run for the office. Whichever Republican runs, they will face a credible challenge from Democrat City Councilman Anthony Foxx who has already declared his candidacy.

I have heard that there will be an announcement from Mayor Pat McCrory tomorrow. Speculation is that he will announce he is not seeking reelection as Mayor in 2009.

When candidates filed, they got information outlining the penalties for putting signs less than 11 feet from the road, Abernethy said. He said he sent a reminder e-mail to candidates during the primaries.

Still, both the candidates and the sitting council members have been surprised by the fine totals. Mayor Pat McCrory, the only city official who ran for office this year, was fined $200 in his failed bid for governor. Some candidates have contacted lawyers, they said.

Dan Roberts, who ran for a judge’s seat, found out the day after he lost the election that he was being charged $7,000 for 14 signs. He doesn’t know how he’s going to pay for it with empty campaign coffers or on his salary as an assistant prosecutor in Union County.

“It’s a humongous fine,” he said. “It was certainly a shock for me to open up that letter and see that amount.”

Hal Jordan, a Republican who lost his bid for county commissioner, had his fine reduced from $4,000 to $1,500 after he challenged it and Abernethy re-examined the photographs. Jordan said the fine is still unreasonable, and said he was upset that he never got a warning before the citation.

“Essentially, we’re being asked to pay a substantial fine, mostly for signs that were not placed by us,” he said.

Charlotte Observer

These fines are asburd.  $500 for a misplaced sign?  Let’s get real here.  I understand why the city has the ordinances and the burden it puts on them if they have to go around cleaning them up after the election, but these fines are extreme.  As someone who has run for office before, I know that it’s practically impossible to keep track of where all of your campaigns signs end up.  People come and pick them up and put them out for you and the best you can do is make everyone aware of the rules.  There is no possible way you can police it.  I remember getting a letter twice from the city when I ran warning me of an illegal campaign sign.  I would have loved to have taken care of it for them, but they never bothered to tell me where the damn thing was.  I never got fined so someone must have taken care of it or the city never followed through.

The other issue this presents a candidate is potential mischief from your opposition.

Some suggested that the rules open them up to sabotage by their opponents, who could bankrupt them simply by moving their signs. David Granberry, the county’s new Democratic Register of Deeds, was fined $11,200.

“Sign tricks are part of every election, but this year it’s more damaging to move them than to just steal them,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Even the City Council members who voted unanimously to increase the sign fines were astonished at the amount of money candidates were being charged.

And yet they passed the ordinance anyway.

Mayor Pat McCrory released a statement Monday that said the position “could actually cause confusion among the public as to who is responsible for criminal justice issues.” He also questioned using taxpayer dollars, and said leaders in the system should meet and discuss the issue, saying: “I would be glad to call such a meeting.”

Matthews Mayor Lee Myers also said Monday he doesn’t support the idea, which was the main proposal from a citizen’s crime task force formed by Mecklenburg County commissioners earlier this year to look for ways to fix problems in the local justice system.

Charlotte Observer

I was in favor of this new position if it was filled by Jim Pendergraph and if there would actually be authority granted to him to make changes.  However, it turns out that the job is nothing more than a waste of $140,000 a year on what will be another ineffective bureaucrat.  The county needs to reverse course on this.  The money can be better spent on more district attorneys which are sorely needed.

It’s sure sounding like it. After 14 years as Charlotte’s mayor Pat McCrory may be retiring from politics, at least at the local level, at the end of next year.  Who will become his heir apparent?

I have no doubt that McCrory would want to work with Perdue, especially when it comes to road funding, but I’m not so sure that Perdue will want to work with McCrory.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Less than a week after the closest gubernatorial election in a generation, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory said Monday he won’t let a painful defeat keep him from working with Democrat Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue.

The Herald-Sun

So Election 2008 is now over and your friendly admin of CPO can slack off for a little while now.  We saw some big changes last night around the country and also right here in the Carolinas.

North Carolina has turned blue.  By a fraction of a hair it went to Obama last night.  He earned it.  His campaign had the ground game to make it happen.

Kay Hagan predictably ousted Elizabeth Dole by a handy margin.  Dole got slaughtered with outside 527 ads and I think the “Godless” ad she ran against Hagan sealed her fate.

One Congressional seat changed hands and that was the 8th Congressional District held by Republican Robin Hayes.  This was expected to happen, but I was hoping Hayes would pull it out only because I think Larry Kissell is the wrong man for that seat.  His energy policies are an infantile fantasy that will hurt his constituents which are mostly low income.  Virginia Foxx, Heath Shuler, and Patrick McHenry easily won reelection.

In statewide races, Bev Perdue (D) narrowly defeated Pat McCrory (R) for the gubernatorial race.  This made me very angry.  It could not have been more obvious who the candidate of change was in this race.  Bev Perdue will continue the same status quo culture of corruption that has plagued Raleigh for years.  I think straight party voting caused this victory.  Likewise, State Senator Walter Dalton (D) defeated State Senator Robert Pittenger (R) in the Lieutenant Governor’s race by a slightly larger margin.

Democrat Beth Wood defeated Republican incumbent Les Merritt in the Auditor’s race which is another blow to the state.  Merritt was the only firewall defending the people from the corruption in the state legislature and now that is gone.  Roy Cooper (D), Steve Troxler (R), Cherie Berry (R), Elaine Marshall (D), and June Atkinson (D) all got reelected to their posts.  State Senator Janet Cowell (D) is now the new State Treasurer and Democrat Wayne Goodwin won the Insurance Commissioner’s race.

The Republican Party in North Carolina is extremely incompetent.

In the State Legislature Debbie Ann Clary won the race in Senate District 46 flipping that from Democrat to Republican.  In State House District 86 Republican Hugh Blackwell defeated Democratic incumbent Walter Church and in State House District 90 Republican Sarah Stevens ousted incumbent Democrat Jim Harrell.

South Carolina gave our electoral votes to John McCain last night and we were the only Atlantic coast state to do so.  Lindsey Graham easily won reelection to the U.S. Senate.  All six Congressmen won reelections to their seats as well.

In the state legislature there weren’t many changes.  Republican Kris Crawford did win reelection in House District 63.  I said last night that he lost.  Anton Gunn picked up House District 79 for the Democrats.  The District 115 race between Republican incumbent Wallace Scarborough and Democrat Anne Peterson Hutto is too close to call at this time, althought Scarborough has claimed victory.

The ballot amendment to change the Constitution to allow the state legislature to set the age of consent passed.

 

Rally Pat McCrory to Victory!!!

Pat McCrory Election Eve Rally - Raleigh

Historic State Capitol (Morgan Street Side)

we know the rally is early in the morning but Pat needs us now more than ever! Please come to show your enthusiasm for Pat’s message of change and ending corruption in the State Capitol…which is exactly why the campaign has selected the Historic State Capitol as the backdrop for his Raleigh Rally…please forward this announcement to as many as your friends, family, neighbors, etc so Pat can look out on a grand crowd of supporters that are as eager as you to see him become the next governor!

It’s not just the next President we’re electing on Tuesday; we’ve got all kinds of races going on in both states from the U.S. Senate down to your local school board.  I have put together a list of state and Federal races that should be carefully followed Tuesday night as I imagine they will be close.

• President - Obviously everyone knows we’ll be choosing our next President.  I think John McCain is going to carry both North and South Carolina, North by a hair and South easily, however I think Barack Obama will end up becoming the next President.
• NC US Senate Race - This has been a brutal race between Elizabeth Dole and Kay Hagan.  I think Hagan is going to emerge the victor in this in no small part by the Dole campaign’s “Godless” ad.  I think that hurt Dole more than Hagan.
• NC Gubernatorial Race - Another nail biter, but I think and pray that Pat McCrory ends up the next governor and I am going to make a very bold prediction here.  I think his Lt Governor will end up being Democrat Walter Dalton, not Pittenger.  McCrory has been leading by three or four points in the last few polls that have come out.  If people really are change oriented as they claim then McCrory should prevail.  He is the candidate of sorely needed change in Raleigh.
• NC 5th Congressional District - Virginia Foxx has received a tougher than anticipated challenge from Roy Carter, but I think Foxx will be reelected.
• NC 8th Congressional District - If Robin Hayes pulls out a reelection victory Tuesday night I will be stunned.  I just don’t see it and I think that Larry Kissell will be the 8th District’s new Congressman.  I think this will be the only Congressional District to flip in both states.
• NC Auditor General - I think Les Merritt will be okay, but it will be a close victory.  As I have stated in recent days, voters would be doing a disservice to themselves by replacing him.  He is the only watchdog the people have had against the majority party in Raleigh.
• NC Labor Commissioner - I think Cherie Berry is going to lose.  I think people will make a mental connection between Labor Commissioner and a soured economy.  They have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but when you think of a bad economy you think of job losses, hence labor, and people tend to relate to Democrats better than Republicans on labor issues.
• NC Senate District 9 - I think Julia Boseman will come out on top in this one, but I still expect a close race considering the money that has been spent on it on both sides.
• NC Senate District 25 - Tony Foriest just won this seat in 2006 and faces a challenge from Rick Gunn to take the seat back for the GOP.  I think Foriest will get reelected.
• NC Senate DIstrict 46 - This is Walter Dalton’s Senate seat that he is vacating to run for Lieutenant Governor.  This should be a Republican pickup.  It’s fairly conservative and has leaned Republican for some time now, but Dalton has hung on due to incumbency and having a more conservative voting record.
• SC Senate District 10 - This is John Drummond’s seat and he decided to retire after many years in public service.  The seat is being strongly contested on both sides with Dee Compton as the Republican candidate and Greenwood Mayor Floyd Nicholson on the Democratic ticket.  This has the potential to go either way, but I think the Democrats will hold this seat.
• SC Senate District 25 - I think this will be the closest race of all of them.  Republican Shane Massey won this seat last year in a special election after the former Democratic Senator Tommy Moore resigned from the Senate for a more lucrative career opportunity.  This seat actually leans slightly Democratic, but Massey has never really stopped campaigning since he won it.  He faces Democrat Greg Anderson.  This is too close for me to make a call on how this will turn out.
• SC House District 115 - Wallace Scarborough almost lost his seat in 2006 when his challenger came within a little over 300 votes of him.  He faces another strong challenge this year from Anne Peterson Hutto, but I think Scarborough is going to hang on by a larger margin than ‘06.

This is how road funding is handled in North Carolina

The next governor will help figure out how to pay for the state’s growing burden of clogged roads and how to change the way decisions are made on road spending.

The 19-member state Board of Transportation, whose members represent districts, oversees spending all the way down to approving stoplights. Money is parceled out through a formula that doesn’t consider factors such as traffic congestion.

“The board has evolved into a shadow legislature,” said David Hartgen, a transportation analyst at UNC-Charlotte who also writes for the conservative John Locke Foundation. “They see their job as bringing home projects to those counties. That’s wrong.”

One board member recently resigned after The News & Observer reported he steered road work near commercial property he owned. The member, Louis W. Sewell Jr. of Jacksonville, raised money for both Perdue and Gov. Mike Easley. Another board member and Perdue fundraiser resigned in January after trying to raise money from country singer Randy Parton and others building a theater in Roanoke Rapids.

The News & Observer

This is how Pat McCrory will handle road funding as governor:

McCrory, a Republican, said he would not appoint someone to the board who raised money for him, though contributors could serve. He wants a smaller board appointed based on expertise.

“It should be a statewide plan that they’re approving, with interconnectivity,” McCrory said, “not ward politics with everyone trying to get their share of the pie.”

Bev Perdue would like to keep things just the way they are:

Perdue would not commit to banning fundraisers from the board. She said any ban would extend to all boards, but she first wants to create an endowment funded by nonprofits that would fund candidates in the governor’s race. That would eliminate the need for fundraisers, she said.

Any questions?

Leaders of the Mecklenburg County Republican Party have challenged Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue to broadcast her latest campaign ad in Charlotte.

The commercial is running in Eastern North Carolina and Greensboro. It accuses Perdue’s Republican opponent, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, of putting Charlotte’s transportation interests ahead of the rest of the state’s and suggests he will neglect rural road needs.

The News & Observer

Another lying ad from Bev Perdue.  She is running this everywhere in the state except for Charlotte.  What McCrory has pledged to do is see to it that road funding is used based on need and not political patronage as is the way today, a way Ms Perdue says she sees no reason to change.  With McCrory in charge, places like Charlotte will get the approrpriate road funding we’ve been denied.  It doesn’t mean that rural areas will be ignored, but it does mean there will be no more bridges built in New Bern, courtesy of Bev Perdue, that nobody drives on.

A week before an election that will shape Chartotte’s next mayoral race, Democrat Anthony Foxx said Monday that he’s running  regardless of whether he has an incumbent to face.

Foxx, in his second term as an at-large city council member, told the Observer he’s sent letters to friend and supporters. He said he’s getting the word out now to let people know that he’ll run whether or not Republican Mayor Pat McCrory is around to try for an eighth term. McCrory is running for governor in Tuesday’s election.

Charlotte Observer

Foxx will probably be a fairly strong opponent to whoever he ends up running against.  If Pat McCrory gets elected Governor, which I think he will, the mayoral race will be wide open which gives Foxx an even larger advantage.  The Republicans have held the mayor’s office for 20 years in Charlotte, but Foxx could be the one to break that cycle.

Mayor Pat McCrory is still ahead of Lt. Governor Bev Perdue by four points, 51 percent to 47 percent, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey.  Please click the link below to read more:
Rasmussen Reports

In addition, The Wilson Daily Times, is the seventh major daily newspaper to endorse Pat McCrory. The Asheville Citizen-Times, The Winston-Salem Journal, The Charlotte Observer, The Greensboro News & Record, The Durham Herald-Sun and The High Point Enterprise have already endorsed Pat.

WILSON Times

According to a poll released by the Civitas Institute Pat McCrory is leading Bev Perdue by three points statewide. Hagan leads Dole by three as well.

In the 8th Senate District Julia Boseman (D) is leading her challenger Michael Lee (R) 49% to 37%.  In the 9th Senate District R.C. Soles (D) leads challenger Bettie Fennel (R) 42% to 33%.

Congressman Mike McIntyre (D) is handily leading Republican challenger Will Breazeale 64% to 22%.

Jim Morrill has an article in the Charlotte Observer today discussing how North Carolina went from reliable red state to toss up in this election.  First off, North Carolina is not a red state and never has been.  It’s purple.  People tend to vote Republican for Federal races but like the Democrats in the local races.  The Republican Party has never controlled the majority of the State Senate since Reconstruction and briefly captured the State House once.  Your traditional Southern Democrats tend to be fairly socially conservative and don’t exhibit that radical far left streak you generally see in Democrats from the north east and places like California.  They have been able to hang on to majority status in many southern state legislatures because of this, but they’re a dying breed.

So what is making the political dynamics of North Carolina change?  The answer is pretty simple.  Growth.  The population is exploding in the state with people from all over the country, mostly the Rust Belt area and the northeast.  Most of the people in my office in uptown Charlotte are from somewhere.  I work with guys from Ohio, Maryland, Michigan, and New York.  I originally hail from Pennsylvania.  We are a different breed of people in our views in that we tend to be more liberal in our social views, in great contrast to the Bible Belt beliefs long held by the natives here.  These people, even those I know are Republicans, aren’t that concerned with abortion and gay marriage and the like.  The economy is on their mind right now, first and foremost and the state of the economy has been hung around the necks of George Bush and John McCain, rightly or wrongly.  Their eyes are open to Barack Obama, but it’s not a done deal yet.  I think this also explains why Pat McCrory is so competitive in the Governor’s race because of his focus on corruption in Raleigh, his similar message of change, and his moderate views overall appealing to these same native northern voters now in the state.

Don’t be surprised on Election Day if North Carolina chooses Obama and McCrory.  It’s not at all out of the question.

It’s getting to be close to Election Day so the annoying political ads on TV are popping up about every five minutes now.  And here I present you with a tribute to all those exciting ads that we just lick our chops for every election season.

Robin Hayes is desperate!!

Pat McCrory is calling on Beverly Perdue to stop a third-party voter registration effort that is under investigation for fraud.

In a press release this afternoon, the Republican gubernatorial candidate’s campaign called on Perdue to demand that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, “stop registering voters in North Carolina illegally.”

“Her supporters are being investigated by the FBI for allegedly falsifying voter registration forms and registering convicted felons,” said McCrory strategist Jack Hawke. “How low will Beverly Perdue sink to win this election?”

The News & Observer

McCrory is right.  ACORN has been riddled with accusations of voter fraud all across the country for years and issues with them have been spreading in this election like wildfire for the past couple of months.  They definitely cannot be trusted and in a state like North Carolina where all the statewide races are going to be close we cannot allow a candidate to win due to voter fraud.

I’m not all that surprised by this.  After all, Pat McCrory is the Mayor of Charlotte and is more of a moderate Republican than a raging extreme right winger, but he has the qualifications and the right ideas to shake things up Raleigh which is needed.  Bev Perdue has been part of the status quo establishment for years.  Nothing is going to change under her would be administration.  State spending will continue to rise, the state debt will continue to grow and cronyism and corruption will continue to thrive under a Perdue governorship.

Pat McCrory is the candidate of change and recent polling seems to indicate that North Carolinians are figuring that out.  I just hope that the larger economic crisis across the nation as a whole, which is getting unfairly pinned on just the Republicans, doesn’t trickle down to McCrory at the voting booth.  It’s a no brainer that he should be elected the next Governor of North Carolina, but sometimes the obvious is what tends to elude the voters.