A Strategy for Perdue

The Wake school board election blazes Governor Perdue’s best – and maybe only – path to reelection: Save our schools from the Tea Party.
 
John Tedesco & Co. charge that Democrats somehow played dirty by airing Heather Losurdo’s stunning lack of credentials. They’re going for the cape and missing the bullfighter.
 
Tedesco & Co. made a fatal mistake when they plunged the schools into a raucous free-for-all. They had a chance to carry out their 2009 agenda, but they overreached. They tried to do too much too fast and with a too-heavy hand.
 
They got blamed for the polarization and divisiveness. Parents grew worried that the turmoil would hurt the quality of their kids’ schools. And nothing gets parents more up in arms.
 
Anthony Tata cooled passions, but it was too late. And the Tedesco-Tea Party crowd couldn’t for the life of themselves shut up. Then they backed a badly flawed candidate. The result: They lost two districts that had been redrawn in their favor.
 
The lesson for Governor Perdue is clear. Position herself as the only person standing between the Tea Party and North Carolina’s schools.
 
That puts Pat McCrory in a box. He can’t distance himself from the Tea Party. And he can’t alienate his Charlotte media market base – suburbanites who care deeply about their kids’ schools, just like the Raleigh voters who decided this week’s election.
 
McCrory’s edge with independent voters, which is the reason he’s leading Perdue in polls today, will disappear if the traps him on the wrong side of this fight.
Avatar photo

Gary Pearce

Categories

Archives

Recent Posts

A Strategy for Perdue

The Wake school board election blazes Governor Perdue’s best – and maybe only – path to reelection: Save our schools from the Tea Party.
 
John Tedesco & Co. charge that Democrats somehow played dirty by airing Heather Losurdo’s stunning lack of credentials. They’re going for the cape and missing the bullfighter.
 
Tedesco & Co. made a fatal mistake when they plunged the schools into a raucous free-for-all. They had a chance to carry out their 2009 agenda, but they overreached. They tried to do too much too fast and with a too-heavy hand.
 
They got blamed for the polarization and divisiveness. Parents grew worried that the turmoil would hurt the quality of their kids’ schools. And nothing gets parents more up in arms.
 
Anthony Tata cooled passions, but it was too late. And the Tedesco-Tea Party crowd couldn’t for the life of themselves shut up. Then they backed a badly flawed candidate. The result: They lost two districts that had been redrawn in their favor.
 
The lesson for Governor Perdue is clear. Position herself as the only person standing between the Tea Party and North Carolina’s schools.
 
That puts Pat McCrory in a box. He can’t distance himself from the Tea Party. And he can’t alienate his Charlotte media market base – suburbanites who care deeply about their kids’ schools, just like the Raleigh voters who decided this week’s election.
 
McCrory’s edge with independent voters, which is the reason he’s leading Perdue in polls today, will disappear if the traps him on the wrong side of this fight.
Avatar photo

Gary Pearce

Categories

Archives