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Entries for the 'North Carolina - Republicans ' Category
Gary Pearce posted on June 25, 2010 12:50
Carter and I taped WRAL’s “On the Record” today for airing Saturday night at 7 p.m. Or you can watch it on the station’s website.
We were with anchor Bill Leslie and WUNC radio’s Laura Leslie (no relation to Bill). The topic, of course, was Tuesday’s runoffs and the November elections.
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Gary Pearce posted on June 23, 2010 09:14
There’s a simple explanation for Elaine Marshall’s victory: Thomas Mills.
Her homegrown campaign manager outwitted Cal Cunningham’s bigger-name team, defied the DSCC and disproved the doubters.
Maybe one time in 10 the candidate with less money wins. This was one, and that’s a big win in politics.
As Secretary of State, Marshall had a low profile and left few tracks. Suddenly, she becomes the crusading champion for what BP’s boss called the “small people” against big corporations.
Suddenly she’s a better and more focused speaker. And, apparently, a more disciplined and effective fundraiser.
Her campaign turned all that – and even the DSCC’s doubts – to her favor. They ran a much-ridiculed TV ad that connected better than Cunningham’s poll-tested ads. And they focused their money on the right targets: women over 50 and African-Americans.
I salute Mills & Co.
And this is not to diminish Marshall. She was a much better candidate this time than in 2004. Losing sometimes makes candidates better. Jim Hunt was a far better candidate in 1992 for losing in 1984.
This time, of course, Marshall didn’t have to run against Erskine Bowles’ money. Cunningham was a perfect central-casting candidate, but he didn’t raise enough cash to overcome Marshall’s quasi-incumbent status, smart campaign and the advantages that came with being a woman.
His campaign’s biggest failing was not developing a compelling message. “Fresh face” and “having a real plan” weren’t enough in an anti-Washington, anti-big boys year.
But Cunningham may be back. Some of his supporters were already talking about him as a future candidate for governor.
To win, Marshall needs big bucks from her new friends at the DSCC, a shift in the national winds and some breaks. That’s asking a lot. But if it all comes together, she could become Richard Burr’s nightmare. This is not a year to be running against a woman with an anti-Washington message.
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Carter Wrenn posted on June 21, 2010 11:27
The first ‘reality moment’ in a political campaign last week belonged to Bob Etheridge; the second belonged to Bill Randall.
Randall, who is locked in a tight runoff with Bernie Reeves, called his first press conference Tuesday and announced – as the cameras rolled – he thought the government and BP had conspired to cause the oil spill.
Of course, that video went viral – just as the video of Etheridge assaulting a college student the day before had.
Suddenly, voters in Randall’s district – like voters in Etheridge’s – were asking, Who is he? And Randall compounded his mistake by calling another press conference, looking the reporters in the eye and, in effect, telling them, I didn’t say what you think I said.
The press has a lot of problems but understanding English isn’t one of them – so, the reporters didn’t exactly buy Randall’s explanation that they’d misunderstood. One reporter asked, Well, are you now saying the government and BP didn’t conspire to cause the oil spill?
No, Randall said, he wasn’t backing up one bit.
After that the hour-long press conference turned into a macarena with Randall arguing no matter what was on that videotape he’d never accused BP and the government of conspiring but then saying he wanted an investigation into the conspiracy between BP and the government.
There’s an old saying ‘in politics it’s not so much what you do that matters – it’s what your opponent does to himself.’ Bob Etheridge and Bill Randall have given us two pretty good examples.
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Carter Wrenn posted on June 19, 2010 16:51
Last week was a heckuva week.
On Monday, Al Lytton – Renee Ellmers’ campaign manager – and I sat down, racking our brains to figure out how Renee could raise money over the Internet (to match the million odd dollars Bob Etheridge has sitting in his bank account from special interests), then out of a clear blue sky a video of Bob Etheridge assaulting a college student sailed out across the ether and, fifteen minutes later, without either Al or I lifting a finger Renee Ellmers had a full-fledged Internet fundraising campaign underway with donations rolling in from across the country.
It was the political equivalent of manna from heaven.
And not just financial manna; for years, Bob Etheridge has carefully crafted an image as a diligent, rural, grandfatherly southern Democrat – then in two minutes on a sidewalk in Washington he shattered that image into a thousand pieces and left people in his district wondering, Who is he?
Tuesday Mrs. Ellmers made her own video answering Etheridge and the more people saw of her the more they donated.
Wednesday the Civitas Institute released a poll that sailed across the Internet: 85% of the voters in the 2nd District had seen or heard about the video, Etheridge trailed Mrs. Ellmers 38% to 39%, and Etheridge’s popularity had turned upside down – 40% of the voters had an unfavorable opinion of him while only 25% were favorable.
By the end of the week the number of people following Renee Ellmers’ campaign on Facebook had soared, conservatives from across the country were donating to her campaign every day, and, now, Renee Ellmers may be the only Republican challenger leading an incumbent Democratic Congressman in the country.
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Gary Pearce posted on June 17, 2010 08:12
Editorial writers are sometimes accused of occupying an ivory tower. This one from the Greensboro News & Record must live in a soundproof padded cell.
“For now, his relatively unknown opponent, Renee Ellmers of Dunn, says she's not going to take advantage of the situation.”
Hello. Did you miss her press conference where she took advantage of the situation? Did you miss her video clip?
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Gary Pearce posted on June 17, 2010 08:05
Republicans are determined to save Democrats from electoral disaster this year.
With any luck, the GOP will nominate Tea Partier Bill Randall to run against Brad Miller. Randall distinguished himself this week by speculating that the Gulf Oil spill is a conspiracy between Washington and BP.
Did anybody ask him if 9/11 was a conspiracy between Osama and Washington?
In Nevada, the GOP is out to rescue Harry Reid by nominating Sharron Angle. She “supports phasing out Social Security, wiping out the Education Department and returning to the days almost a century ago when the federal income tax was unconstitutional.”
She also wants female inmates to enter a drug rehabilitation program devised by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Go Tea Party, go!
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Carter Wrenn posted on June 09, 2010 20:03
Here’s a mystery: Bill Randall says he has an MBA from National Louis University, but National Louis University says he doesn’t.
Bernie Reeves’ friend, who runs a company that recruits and screens executives for businesses, contacted National Louis University (in Illinois) to verify Randall’s MBA degree. The college instructed him to contact the National Student Clearinghouse – the same service Duke, UNC and NCSU use to allow employers to verify applicant’s degrees.
The Student Clearinghouse reported Bill Randall does not have an MBA. [Click here]
Bernie’s friend then re-contacted the National Student Clearinghouse to reconfirm the information; they reported again: No degree.
I then asked him to contact the University directly to confirm the information a third time. He called the Dean over the MBA program twice. No reply.
I called the University’s office of Admissions and Records and was told to contact the National Student Clearinghouse. I called the records office directly and asked to speak to the Degree Verification Coordinator. No reply. I emailed. No reply.
I sent Bill Randall a message on his website on Facebook. No reply.
Finally, at the NBC debate, Bernie explained to Bill what had happened, said he didn’t want to make an unfair charge and asked Bill if he did have an MBA.
Bill said, Yes. Absolutely.
Bernie followed up with an email asking Bill for verification of his degree. No reply.
Bernie called Bill and asked for verification – Bill refused to give it and said, You’ll just have to take my word for it.
Bill Randall has said that while working for a company in Florida, with an ‘F’ Better Business Bureau rating, he personally contacted 15,000 companies over three years – or one business every 25 minutes. He says as a CMC Petty Officer in the Navy he led 16,000 sailors – more men than a Major General commands. He says he’s a minister – but he does not have a divinity degree. And, now, the university he says awarded him an MBA degree – says it didn’t.
Odder still, according to Randall’s resume, at the same time he was earning his MBA at National Louis University he was also working for the company in Florida – contacting a business every 25 minutes.
Does Bill Randall have an MBA? If so, providing proof – to show the college erred when it reported he didn’t – will clear the air. Otherwise, it’s hard not to conclude Bill Randall’s been caught in the silliest flamoozle yet.
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Gary Pearce posted on June 08, 2010 09:17
Rob Christensen’s column about the GOP’s 13th Congressional District primary was insightful about the inside-Beltline versus outside-Beltline dynamic at play – the same divide that plays out in the WakeCounty school board fight.
There are two other interesting aspects to the battle: race and radicalism.
There’d be no end to the irony of Bernie Reeves, Old Raleigh conservative and Carolina County Club to the core, losing to an African-American. In a Republican primary, no less.
Ironic, too, that the predominantly white Tea Party crowd is behind a black candidate. Maybe they see Bill Randall as an antidote to their sometimes-racist image.
A Randall victory, like Rand Paul’s primary victory in Kentucky, also would test the ability of Republicans to throw away their chances for big wins in November.
A Republican too extreme for Bernie Reeves and Carter Wrenn? Takes your breath away.
In a year that should be theirs, the GOP could go too far out on a limb with the Tea Party.
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Carter Wrenn posted on June 02, 2010 12:42
I reckon there’s no doubt the folks showing up at Tea Party rallies have the politicians in Washington – both Republican and Democrat – all shook up but, at the same time, I’ve got a feeling the Tea Partiers may be facing a hard lesson of their own: That sometimes it’s the fellow sitting in the front pew of your meeting singing loudest you have to keep an eye on.
For instance, the other day the Charlotte Observer reported Tim D’Annunzio – who has proclaimed himself a Tea Party candidate (running for Congress in the 8th District) far and wide – once claimed he’d personally discovered the Lost Ark in Arizona. That’s not a joke – the Charlotte Observer discovered it in legal papers from a lawsuit D’Annunzio’s wife filed explaining why he shouldn’t have custody of their children, and D’Annunzio didn’t deny it.
At the same time, over in Raleigh in the 13th District, Bill Randall – another self-proclaimed Tea Party candidate – was caught plagiarizing his stands on issues from author M. Stanton Evans, a United States Senator, a Congressman and the Republican National Committee.
The lesson here for Tea Partiers: Watch out – not all the charlatans in politics are sitting in Congress. As the Tea Party movement has become powerful it’s attracted a lot of wanna be politicians – like D’Annunzio and Randall – who have hitched a ride on the Tea Party bandwagon hoping it will take them to the political Promised Land. That may work out fine for the aspiring Congressmen – but it could be a problem for the Tea Party loyalists because crusaders and corruption fighters can’t have plagiarizers and Lost Ark finders as their spokesmen.
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Carter Wrenn posted on June 01, 2010 12:07
Last week on his Facebook page, Raleigh Congressional candidate Bill Randall boldly challenged his readers: “Do not read the following if you are not willing to face this challenge head-on. Is there a remnant out there who aren’t willing to give up? This great Republic must be preserved.”
Well, naturally, I clicked on the link to ‘Randall’s Challenge’ and what popped up next was a strange document: An article called the “Ten Planks of Communism.”
It’s not clear who wrote the “Ten Planks” but its meaning is clear: It says in 1848 Karl Marx laid out 10 conditions that determine if a nation is Communist and that, today, all 10 of those conditions have been met by the United States – so, in other words, we are now officially communists.
Now if that claim sounds a bit sweeping, well, it was about to get stranger. The first condition of Communism – according to Bill Randall’s challenge – is “the abolition of private property” and, Randall is saying, that has already happened in the United States.
Since I still own a home, office, two cars and six acres of land I figured that bit of logic was exaggerated – but you can decide for yourself. Because Randall’s challenge lays out exactly how and when private property was abolished in the United States.
By passing the 14th Amendment 142 years ago in 1868.
I’ll save you the trouble of looking up the 14th Amendment. In 1865 the 13th Amendment freed the slaves and in 1868 the 14th Amendment gave slaves citizenship. What does that have to do with private property? Only one thing I can tell: It says the government didn’t have to “pay any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave.”
So, according to Randall’s challenge, the United States government took its first step on the road to Communism by emancipating slaves and not reimbursing the slaveholders.
If that sounds like a stretch consider this: Randall’s challenge also says the United States took another step down the road to Communism in 1920 when we passed the 19th Amendment – which gave women the right to vote.
So, now, I guess I’m a communist because my wife can vote.
And I have to say, if that makes me a communist, I’m stuck, because there’s no way I’m going to tell Page she’s disenfranchised – no matter how often Bill Randall tells me I’ve got to do it to save the Republic.
***
I expect, after I publish this article, Bill Randall’s “Ten Planks of Communism” is going to vanish from his Facebook page. But, if you want proof I’m not making this up, to see Randall’s original post [Click Here] and go to the bottom of the page.
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