Carolina Politics Online

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, called Kay Hagan a good challenger, but the race is close, he told Dome on Wednesday.

Schumer put North Carolina on par with other senatorial races he called “even or close” in states such as Oregon, Minnesota, Mississippi, Kentucky and Maine.

That mirrors the predictions of other political punditry outfits such as the Cook Political Report, which recently shifted North Carolina into the “leans Republican” category and away from solid Republican.

The N&O

This is a bad year to be a Republican, especially in a state that can doesn’t have a problem sending someone like John Edwards to the Senate and Mike Easley to Raleigh. Hagan should not be taken lightly.

In the presidential race, various pollsters are getting similar results.

The race between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama shows little change, despite advertising by both campaigns in recent weeks. In all the polls, McCain holds a tiny lead, often within the margin of error. The inclusion of Libertarian Bob Barr does not seem to have a major effect on the results.

JULY 14-16: McCain 43, Obama 40, Barr 2

JULY 15: McCain 48, Obama 45

JULY 12-14: McCain 50, Obama 45

WASHINGTON — A defiant S.C. Sen. Jim DeMint said last week that his failure to reduce the cost of President Bush’s $48 billion global AIDS program won’t deter him from continuing to compel lawmakers to take tough votes on government spending.

DeMint responded after the Senate overwhelmingly approved a significant expansion of the AIDS initiative Bush launched in 2003 to stem the disease’s spread in Africa.

“Folks in South Carolina want accountability in Washington, and I’m not going to be shy to pull back the curtain on Congress’ misplaced priorities and deficit spending,” DeMint said. “Before we forced a debate, few Americans knew our tax dollars are being funneled to a Chinese organization that promotes forced abortions and sterilizations. That’s an outrage that everyone should know about, but the bill’s supporters wanted to keep it quiet.”

Charlotte Observer

Washington is full of political cowards.  Few politicians have the courage and the integrity to fight the status quo and make the tough decisions needed to generate real change in this country, like Senator DeMint.  He gives those of us in South Carolina proud representation and if the Republicans and Democrats produced office holders like him we’d get this country moving in the right direction.  As it is, the vast majority of them are looking out for themselves, not for us.

President:

NORTH CAROLINA (SurveyUSA): McCain - 50%, Obama - 45%, Others - 2%.

SOUTH CAROLINA (PPP-D): McCain - 45%, Obama - 39%, Barr - 5%.

U.S. Senate:

SOUTH CAROLINA (PPP-D):

Lindsey Graham (R) - 52%, Bob Conley (D) - 21%, Mayor Mark McBride (Ind.) - 10%.

Governor:

NORTH CAROLINA (SurveyUSA):

Bev Perdue (D) - 47%, Pat McCrory (R) - 46%, Mike Munger (Libertarian) - 3%.

Politics1.com

The State asks if Senator Jim DeMint could be our generation’s Jesse Helms.

DeMint, like Helms, is an ideological purist who holds fast to conservative principles such as low spending, low taxes, deregulation and strong national defense.

DeMint also, like Helms, doesn’t mind antagonizing fellow Republicans who drift leftward on those core principles. DeMint emerged as a leader in the Senate during his fight to sink illegal immigration reform, splitting with much of the Republican Party to kill a plan designed by President Bush.

“I spent a number of years as a team player, trying to work with our leadership, only to find that our leadership was taking us in the wrong direction,” DeMint said earlier this month about his willingness to take on his party.

I think the comparison is plausible, but DeMint would shine in a much better light than Helms did.  DeMint shows the same committment to principle and the conservative cause as Helms, but he does so without all of the baggage Helms carried.  I am speaking on issues relating to civil rights.  Helms was on the wrong side of the civil rights movement in his opposition to racial equality.  While DeMint is also a social conservative who strongly believes in the traditional family structure, his views on civil rights are far more progressive than Senator Helms.

I hope DeMint does indeed become the next conservative leader of our time.  Somebody needs to take the reigns and slap the GOP around for their failures and betrayals.  I want to see a resurrected committment to individual freedom and limited government and right now they aren’t even close.

The State is reporting today that both Senators Graham (R) and DeMint (R) have changed their opposition to offshore drilling as has Congressman Joe Wilson (R) of the Second Congressional District. They are three more of a growing list of politicians now supporting our nation’s ability to drill offshore in the wake of out of control gasoline prices. I just posted the other that North Carolina Senators Elizabeth Dole (R) and Richard Burr (R) and Congressman Mike McIntyre (D) have also moved in the direction of offshore drilling.

Already in North Carolina, Sen. Elizabeth Dole and Reps. Mike McIntyre and Walter Jones, both of whom represent coastal counties, have switched their positions.

All now support offshore drilling with the state’s approval. Dole and Jones are Republicans. McIntyre is a Democrat.

The News & Observer

President Bush lifted the executive order today, ironically put in place by his father, that banned drilling off the coast of much of the U.S.  While this does not clear the final path for coastal drilling, it eliminates one of the final hurdles.  The Congress still has to repeal their ban and while that has been an uphill battle for years, many representatives are changing their tune.

The quick pace of rising gas costs have made this a top issue for voters across the country.  With the exception of a few in heavily leftist areas, representatives in Congress are going to face strong resistance from their constituents if they continue to oppose efforts to open up our coastal waters.  We will undoubtedly see more members of Congress coming over to our side of the aisle on this.

A fellow North Carolinian on the committee, Mary Summa of Charlotte, said the platform would reflect the party at large rather than a “rubber stamp” of McCain’s presidential platform. Summa, a former aide to the late Sen. Jesse Helms, believes immigration, gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research are contentious issues among Republicans this year.

“If the platform supports embryonic stem cell research, I’ll do everything I can to get it out,” Summa said of the controversial medical initiative that McCain and Burr have supported. (McCain said last month that he’s open to re-examining his position.)

Burr said the platform would be drastically changed from previous conventions only if a compelling case could be made that the majority had redefined its position on an issue, and he doesn’t think that’s the case with studying embryonic stem cells.

The News & Observer

If gay marriage and stem cell research are examples of what they deem as really important to the country right now, then this coalition of Burr and others in the Republican Party has already failed.  Limited government and personal liberty has played second fiddle to social conservatism for the last eight years.  While Republicans wasted their time sweating over who was going to get married and who was burning the American flag, they allowed their elected representatives to spend away their future, drag us into an unjustified war, and roll back our rights.  This is what drove away many voters who had been GOP supporters ever since the Reagan years and their continued crusade of government enforced morality won’t win them back.

RALEIGH — Despite spending more than she raised in the second quarter of the year, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole  still has more than twice the money in the bank as her Democratic rival.

Dole, a Republican, had about $2.7 million in the bank as of July 1. Democrat Kay Hagan , a state senator from Greensboro, had about $1.2 million. Chris Cole , a Charlotte-area

Libertarian, said he does not plan on raising money for the campaign.

The News & Record

WASHINGTON — If Andrew Jackson created the notion of a president’s “Kitchen Cabinet,” Sen. John McCain is reinventing it months before his possible election to the White House.

And Sen. Lindsey Graham seems to be McCain’s one-man Kitchen Cabinet.

Graham’s visibility as the Arizona senator’s closest political confidant has risen in recent weeks as the two men crisscross the country and travel abroad on McCain’s presidential quest.

“There’s nobody I trust more than Lindsey Graham,” McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, said by phone Thursday from Mexico City. “I’m honored to have him travel with me and give me the counsel I need.”

The State

I guess one good thing about Graham getting a cabinet position in a possible McCain administration would be that it gets him the hell out of South Carolina.  Then Mark Sanford could appoint his replacement.  With Sanford’s libertarian streak, it is highly likely we would get another Senator in the mold of Jim DeMint which would be fantastic.

RALEIGH (AP) - About two dozen people lined up before the doors opened Monday at former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms’ longtime church to bid a final farewell to the conservative champion, who died on the Fourth of July.

The Republican, who served in the Senate from 1973 to 2003, lay in the sanctuary of Hayes-Barton Baptist Church, where he worshipped for decades, in a casket covered by a U.S. flag and flanked by two state highway patrol troopers.

The front of the sanctuary was decorated in flowers sent by U.S. senators and a painting of Helms at work.

The News & Record

Farewell to a man who definitely left his mark on history.

RALEIGH - Government, says Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Chris Cole, ends up aggravating many of the problems it tries to solve.

Take the problems with illegal immigration that have been the focus of sparring between Democrat Kay Hagan and the Republican incumbent, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

The two better-known candidates have talked about the need for more border security and how to help catch those who enter the country illegally. But Cole traces the problem to U.S. wage laws that restrict piece work and set minimum wages.

“The government banned the low end of the labor scale but they didn’t abolish the need for the work,” Cole said. “They created a black market to fulfill a need.”

The News & Record

There are very few things that the government does well.  Honestly, about the only thing I would credit them with doing a good job on is defense of the nation.  Most other times, their solutions to address a problem only exacerbate it, much like Cole has pointed out in his example.

I would bet that most North Carolinians would agree with Cole’s hypothesis, but 98% of them will still go to the voting booth in November and vote for the Republican or the Democrat, neither of which have demonstrated that they believe in a limited government society.  It’s a shame because Cole is a great candidate for the Senate, but he’ll get pushed to the back of the bus because he isn’t part of the two party duopoly.  Such is the ignorance and the herd mentality of the American people.

Call Senator DeMint and let him know you support his efforts on this issue!

The housing lobby is frustrated by the delay in passing the Mortgage Bailout Bill and has decided to target Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC) and John Ensign (R-NV).  Recently, lobbyists representing housing industry have started putting pressure on these two Senators whom they view to be the source of the delay.

The motive of the housing lobby should be obvious - if the $300 billion bailout is passed, then they will stand to benefit greatly from not having to take responsibility for their bad loans.  However, Senators DeMint and Ensign have been on the right side of this issue from day one and are leading the fight to expose the bill for what it is: an irresponsible bailout for house flippers and their banks.

Please take a few minutes to call 1-866-928-3035 to express your support for Senators DeMint and Ensign and encourage them to continue to stand firm for limited, responsible government.

Andrew Brown
Federal and State Campaigns
FreedomWorks
601 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
North Building, Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20004-2601
(202) 783-3870 phone
(214) 336-5273 cell
(202) 942-7649 fax
www.FreedomWorks.org

This appeared in the News & Record this morning.

But an FEC complaint from the N.C. Republican Party claiming Greensboro state Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat, had taken $185,000 in illegal campaign contributions in her bid to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole got our attention.

Now get a load of this conversation the N & R had with a spokesman for the NC GOP.

He explained the party thought Hagan had gotten contributions in excess of legal limits because she had a bunch of donations from people who were related to one another — husband and wife mostly — that came in the same amount on the same day.

People can’t do that? Scoop asked.

Oh, they can, Woodcox explained, but in some circumstances they have to write separate checks or the campaign has to do a little additional paperwork.

And you have evidence that wasn’t done?

“No, I wouldn’t say there’s direct evidence,” Woodcox said. “But we think the Hagan campaign should have to show their work.”

Scoop called a few folks of nonpartisan stripes to vet the GOP’s claim, at least two of whom used words to describe the GOP’s complaint that we can’t print.

Puh…..lease………..

No wonder the North Carolina Republican Party can’t win a governor’s race or a state legislative majority.  If this is the kind of political sleaze they are accustomed to resorting to Dole had better be well ahead of her game.  There are plenty of real issues that people actually care about that they could use to paint Hagan as out of touch with North Carolina voters.  They can hit her on being unwilling to support offshore drilling while we have rising energy prices.  They can go after her on being the weaker candidate on immigration enforcement.  There are plenty of things to pick from.  This kind of obtuse smear campaign makes them look juvenile and petty.

So, a word to the North Carolina Republican Party.  If you want to win your big races this year you better wise up and ditch the childish antics.  People don’t want to hear it.

The Charlotte Observer did an exposé on Senator DeMint and the growing reputation he has been gaining among conservatives not just in South Carolina, but across the country.  For several months now DeMint has been on the forefront of trying to pull the Republican Party back to its Reagan roots and while among the members of Congress it’s been somewhat of a futile effort, it hasn’t gone unnoticed among Republicans nationwide.

The tipping point for DeMint was the 2006 congressional elections: Democrats regained control of Congress after spending had skyrocketed under GOP rule, while sex and lobbying scandals brought down prominent Republican lawmakers. “There was vastly too much spending, a lot of it in direct earmarks that enriched some of our own members and ended up in scandals and the betrayal of the American people,” DeMint said.

DeMint added: “It’s just time to recognize that we’ve got to reshape the Republican Party if we’re going to win the trust of the American people.”

When Republicans ran on common sense fiscal conservativism and beliefs in limited government they cleaned up across the board in 1994.  They could do it again, but they need to rebuild from the ground up.  DeMint gets it and he will be a strong leader in this movement.  If the GOP does indeed return to their small government ideals who knows.  They may even win me over.

Dole said in an interview Thursday that when she first supported the moratorium on drilling in 2002 that gas was $1.40 per gallon, and now it’s more than $4.

“People’s opinions have evolved based on their circumstances,” she said. “Folks are really hurting, there’s no question about it.”

The campaign of Dole’s election challenger, state Sen. Kay Hagan, D-Guilford, labeled Dole as a flip-flopper.

The News & Observer

Yes, Dole has changed her position on this, though I don’t know that this really qualifies as a true “flip-flop.”  I think the current circumstances of energy prices allow members of Congress to modify their position on this issue without being accused of pandering or flip-flopping.  Undoubtedly, many Americans who may have opposed this at one point are changing their tune.

“The plan to drill off North Carolina’s coast is just another in a long line of bright ideas concocted and supported by the Bush-Dole team to pad the profits and the pockets of their oil-producing friends,” said Hagan’s spokeswoman, Colleen Flanagan.

I think this is a very foolish statement by Flanagan.  People aren’t happy about paying $4.00 a gallon per gas.  It may very well be $5 by November.  They are going to want Congress to act and resisting the push to drill offshore is going to cost Hagan votes, not win her any.

Others are also reconsidering. Last week, Rep. Mike McIntyre, a Democrat from Lumberton who represents the southern end of the N.C. coast, said skyrocketing gas prices are driving folks like him to take a second look at oil exploration if there can be enough assurances that it won’t harm the environment.

Will Hagan now accuse McIntyre of flip-flopping?  I wouldn’t bet on it.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., on Wednesday spearheaded opposition to a $50 billion expansion of President Bush’s signature program to combat AIDS in Africa and elsewhere overseas.

DeMint, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and five other Republican senators blocked Senate consideration of a bill that would more than triple U.S. aid to nations most stricken by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and to international relief groups helping them.

Charlotte Observer

With the country headed towards a recession, inflation up, energy costs up, and unemployment rising, what in the hell is George Bush thinking sending $50 billion of our money out of this economy and over to a foreign nation?  Not to the mention the fact that all of this foreign aid giving is unconstitutional anyway.  Cut that money out of the budget altogether and lower the deficit.  Praises to DeMint and Burr for watching out for the American taxpayer, on this bill anyway.  (I’m still pissed at Burr for voting for the mortgage bailout)

Three Senators, belonging to the “party of personal responsibility”, the “party of small government”, and the “party of individual accountability” voted to throw away $300 billion of your tax dollars.  Lindsey Graham, Elizabeth Dole, and Richard Burr apparently think that it’s their job to hand your money over to irresponsible home owners, real estate speculators, and big companies like Countrywide Mortgage because they got in over their head.  Wasn’t that nice of them?

Stop paying your mortgage.  You don’t have to.  If you default the nannies in Washington will bail you out.  That’s the message that was sent by every Democrat present for this vote in the Senate and all but nine Republicans who were present in the Senate.  Jim DeMint was the only one of our Senators who voted against this feckless piece of legislation.

Dole is up for reelection in November, which I am sure plaid a role in her decision.  Now she can run around the state, when she actually comes here, and shamelessly pander to all the voters.  Look!  I voted to take other people’s money and give it to you so you can pay for that house you bought that you couldn’t afford in the first place!  Vote for me in November!

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint has endorsed Katrina Shealy over Jake Knotts for a Lexington County state Senate seat, weighing in on a race that has divided local, state and federal politicos.

DeMint’s endorsement follows that of Gov. Mark Sanford. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson has appeared in television commercials endorsing Knotts, while U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham told House and Senate incumbents earlier this year that he would support their campaigns.

The State

Nice.  Very nice.  Shealy must win this race.  That is a shot in the arm this state needs.

This is the difference between politicians like Sanford and DeMint and politicians like Wilson and Graham.  Sanford and DeMint stand on their principles.  Wilson and Graham are party hacks.

Two new polls-

President (Statewide)
John McCain- 45%
Barack Obama- 41%
(Civitas/TelOpinion-R)

U.S. Senate
Elizabeth Dole- 53%
Kay Hagan- 39%
(Rasmussen)

Politics1.com

It’s official! Bob Conley has won the recount for the U.S. Senate Democratic Primary and he will face Lindsey Graham in November for South Carolina’s Senate seat. Graham has a huge war chest to defend his seat, but he has become a self-serving neocon and many people, including Republicans, aren’t very enamored with him. I am hoping that Conley’s fiscal conservatism and his positions on Constitutional liberties will be able to win voters over so we can bounce Graham from the government once and for all.