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North Carolina - Democrats
Carter Wrenn posted on October 25, 2012 15:44
I’d just finished breakfast and opened the newspaper when a dyed-in-the-wool yellow dog Democrat crossed the restaurant, sat down across the table and said, ‘That new ad of Paul Newby’s makes him look like a fool.’
He was talking about the Newby Super PAC ad – which has hound dogs braying in hot pursuit of two thugs who dive into the back of a pickup truck to escape, all narrated by a fast talking banjo-picking actor singing ‘Paul Newby’s a tough ole judge.’
‘I reckon,’ the Republican sitting beside me said, ‘they figure come Election Day voters will remember ‘Paul Newby’s a tough ole judge’ but forget they heard it in that damn fool ad.’
‘So you figure,’ the Democrat snapped, ‘making Paul Newby a fool will get him elected?’
‘You’ve got to give them credit for one thing,’ the Republican said. ‘That ad sticks out. It’s not about to get buried under the clutter of Obama and Romney ads.’
That wasn’t the end of it.
Two days later on Sunday morning I was lying in bed peacefully reading the newspaper when Newby’s Super PAC ad came on TV and half-way through the banjo picking my wife’s voice echoed down the hallway from the kitchen.
‘That’s a tacky ad.’
That was the subtle language of marital diplomacy. Translated into plain southern English what she meant was: Tell me you didn’t have anything to do with that ad.
For once I was innocent – looking toward the doorway, I said, ‘Does that mean you’re not voting for Paul Newby?’
The hallway went silent a moment. Then my wife’s voice floated into the room again, a bit sharper, ‘Do you like that ad?’
‘They’re gambling.’
Then I explained the theory about the Newby Super PAC, figuring by Election Day voters would remember ‘Paul Newby’s a tough ole judge’ but forget the tacky ad.
That didn’t cut much mustard with my wife – or anyone else.
Every day someone – a lawyer, a campaign worker, a man in the locker room at the health club – cornered me about that ad. On Friday I spoke at a luncheon for two dozen Republicans and as soon as the time came to ask questions a grizzle-haired fellow’s hand shot up and he asked, ‘What about that Newby ad?’
I floated the theory again about voters just remembering ‘Paul Newby’s a tough ole judge’ but the words barely got out of my mouth before a voice from the back of the room rang out like a rifle shot saying, ‘My grandmother’s got a theory too – she says pretty is as pretty does and that ad says Paul Newby can’t tell the difference between common sense and plain fool politics.’
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Gary Pearce posted on October 25, 2012 08:32
Debra Goldman seems to be an equal-opportunity 911 caller. She apparently has called the police now about two fellow board members. This on top of dozens of calls to her Cary home in recent years.
If she gets elected State Auditor, the police may need to build a substation at her office.
No wonder Pat McCrory wisely put some distance between himself and her in Wednesday night’s debate.
Ms. Goldman says she was threatened by another school board member, apparently Keith Sutton. Sutton says her charge “may be racial.” Jim Martin says, “Sutton was not the only member, nor the first member, to issue an ‘offensive and threatening’ outburst.”
School board meetings sound like a gang fight.
It’s hard to sort out all this. But a couple of things are clear.
First, there is never an excuse for “offensive and threatening” behavior – by anybody.
Second, trouble seems to follow Goldman.
Everybody needs to take a deep breath. Goldman ought to step down and let somebody else take her place. And all of us should agree that she has no business holding an important state office.
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Carter Wrenn posted on October 23, 2012 16:54
It made all the newspapers: Last week Mitt Romney announced he’s pulling staffers out of North Carolina, where he now has a lead, to send them to Ohio where the race is closer.
It was perfectly rational. Romney has a little breathing room in North Carolina so he’s moving few people to another state he needs to win. So what was the Obama campaign’s reaction? It said, ‘The Romney campaign is turning its back on hard working North Carolinians.’
Sometimes you have to wonder who comes up with the ‘spin’ that comes out of political campaigns – and if they might not be third graders?
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Gary Pearce posted on October 23, 2012 10:00
If Pat McCrory is elected governor, he better get better at handling scandals. And he better hope that Debra Goldman and Chris Malone don’t get elected.
McCrory’s statement yesterday started right. His spokesman said he would reserve judgment on the “convoluted situation.” He should have stopped there.
But the spokesman went a bridge too far: “Pat believes that the timing of this story, coming after voting has already started, and its basis from a stolen police report, to be troubling.”
“Stolen” police report? From what I can see, there is nothing illegal about this report’s release.
And “troubling” timing? When’s a good time for this story? Were Republicans “troubled” by the timing of the story about the state Democratic Party’s sex scandal before the national convention? No, they stoked it. And they would stoke this if Goldman and Malone were Democrats.
Spare us the hypocrisy. This is politics. Stop whining. And start figuring out how you’re going to handle this mess – and the inevitable future messes.
The legislature has given the next Governor 1,000 patronage positions to fill. That’s 1,000 potential scandals. A big part of being Governor is learning how to deal with them.
The biggest mistake McCrory could make now is to defend Goldman and Malone in any way, shape or form. He needs to put as much distance between him and them as possible.
And he needs to think about what to do if he and they get elected. Because on November 7 that would become his first crisis.
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Carter Wrenn posted on October 15, 2012 10:06
The Associated Press reported a pair of odd facts the other day.
In a headline the AP reported, “Obama using voter registration to stay close in NC” – then told how President Obama’s massive voter registration drive is helping him win North Carolina – by registering 250,000 new Obama voters.
So far, that sounds logical.
But, then, further down in the story the AP reported another fact – it said that, according to the State Board of Elections, “Democratic registration has fallen by about 90,000 while unaffiliated voters have increased by more than 250,000. Republican registration stayed about the same, increasing by 5,000 during the same timeframe.”
Now, that creates a conundrum.
If there are 90,000 fewer Democrats, where on earth did those 250,000 new Obama voters go? Is President Obama’s campaign registering Independents instead of Democrats? Of course it’s possible, technically. President Obama’s campaign did, in fact, register 250,000 new Democrats and that Democratic registration dropped 90,000 – but it seems unlikely. And, even if it happened, the bottom line is still the same: Any way you look at it there are 90,000 fewer Democrats now – to vote for President Obama – than there were four years ago.
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Gary Pearce posted on October 10, 2012 09:21
Governor Hunt, my old boss, is like a veteran rock band that still rocks. He may be 75, but he’s still on his game. Even Pat McCrory is cozying up to him.
Hunt gave a well-received speech at the Democratic Convention. Unlike a lot of speakers, he didn’t promote himself. He’s beyond needing to do that. He bragged about North Carolina and made sure Terry Sanford got his due.
The last couple of weeks, Hunt has done some innovative events for the Obama campaign, talking to voters in their homes.
Walter Dalton’s campaign made sure to quote his praise of Dalton’s education plan.
And in the gubernatorial debate last Wednesday, Pat McCrory made a point of saying how he and Governor Hunt agreed on Charlotte’s mass-transit program in 1996.
Of course, all this drives the Hunt-haters crazy. So will this blog. Which makes it even sweeter.
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Gary Pearce posted on October 05, 2012 09:45
Walter Dalton’s feisty debate performance gave his campaign a spark and got under Pat McCrory’s skin. That’s a weakness that would hurt McCrory in the Governor’s office.
If McCrory didn’t like Dalton’s questions and attacks, wait until the media gets after him. And that’s just a matter of time in a media culture that prizes fact-checking and investigations.
Wait until the legislative leadership decides to show him who’s boss. Wait until a couple of really, really conservative Republican legislators squawk when McCoy makes a moderate peep. Wait until the entrenched bureaucracy protects itself by leaking some juicy tidbits.
And wait until he is finally forced to answer the question of how he’s going to close the $2 billion to $11 billion from cutting or eliminating personal and corporate income taxes. The debate panel led him slide by that one Wednesday night. He’ll have to answer if he is elected, and the answer is clear: Either raise some other taxes, or cut education even more.
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Gary Pearce posted on October 02, 2012 17:19
Here is a debate preview from a TAPster who combines the best qualities of Carter and me: namely, hating both parties equally:
“Political dweebs everywhere will gather around their TVs Wednesday night for the much-anticipated debates between the North Carolina gubernatorial candidates and the Obama-Romney showdown.
“The NC debate is meaningless. The two candidates are good guys and essentially philosophic mirror images of each other. Pat McCrory has such big poll numbers that only a catastrophic debate performance will move the needle.
“The presidential debates, however, could make a difference. A smug Obama will glibly deliver his typical platter of pabulum, and try not to screw up. A superficial Romney will try to prove he cares about 100 percent of Americans, and try not to screw up.
“The undecideds and unaffiliated are sitting out there waiting for a reason to vote for somebody. A juicy debate screwup or two could change the election.”
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Gary Pearce posted on October 01, 2012 11:09
If you wonder which party is riding a voter registration tide, here’s your answer: Neither. More than half of the new voters in North Carolina are Unaffiliated.
Since December 2011, some 266,000 new voters have registered in the state. Of those, 53.4 percent (142,209) registered as Unaffiliated. Slightly more registered Republican than Democratic - 61,903 to 57,835 - and 4,246 as Libertarian.
This means that fully one-fourth of the state’s voters are now registered Unaffiliated. About 43 percent are Democrats and 31 percent Republicans.
Given the disasters that have befallen North Carolina Democrats this year, maybe they shouldn’t be surprised they lagged behind Republicans. But weren’t a lot of these new registrants turned out by Obama’s campaign?
Somebody better figure out what these new voters are thinking – and what it means for North Carolina politics in the future.
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Carter Wrenn posted on September 28, 2012 17:59
There is a lot of sound and fury in the press – the latest storyline on the Presidential race reads: ‘Romney Stumbles,’ ‘Romney Sinks,’ ‘Romney Running Out of Time.’ Former Bush campaign aide Mark McKinnon wrote Romney ‘has dug his hole so deeply now, I don’t know if he can pull himself out.’
In fact, the last Gallop tracking poll (Wednesday night) showed Romney and Obama tied with 47% of the vote each.
So what’s going on here?
Tabloid journalism.
Whether it’s MSNBC, CNN or Fox News, tabloids – even the electronic version – feed on drama. Every night they need crisis and if a crisis doesn’t exist they’ll invent one. After all, they can’t report night after night that the polls didn’t change.
So watch the story line. I expect it may run: Romney Stumbles, Romney Falls, Romney Rallies, Polls Tied Again.
But don’t confuse that with the facts.
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