Branding Politics
July 10, 2013 - by
“Employers must go where employees want to be” – Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst.
Raleigh City Councilman Randy Stagner quoted that line this week. It sums up the challenge that Raleigh and all North Carolina face today under the state’s new management.
Rob Christensen captured it in his strikingly strong column Sunday: “North Carolina’s national brand may be changing – but not the way Gov. Pat McCrory intended when he talked during his campaign about the Tar Heel state undergoing an image makeover….The sharp rightward turn of the legislature and the Moral Monday protests have turned North Carolina into one of the nation’s top political spectacles.”
The New York Times chimed in today with an editorial “(The Decline of North Carolina”): “North Carolina was once considered a beacon of farsightedness in the South, an exception in a region of poor education, intolerance and tightfistedness. In a few short months, Republicans have begun to dismantle a reputation that took years to build.”
Who cares what The New York Times thinks? Well, maybe some employers and their employees. Maybe highly educated, skilled people looking for a new home or headquarters.
Maybe Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker, who is concerned that Moral Monday protests are hurting the state’s brand. You can blame the protestors, or you can blame leaders who bring about that kind of polarization.
Clearly, Governor McCrory wants to talk about jobs, not abortion. His office sent out about 20 Tweets yesterday on GE; none on abortion. But North Carolina is getting to be a tougher sell at a time when it’s his and Decker’s job to sell it.
The Governor can thank his friends in the legislature. Friends like Senate Republicans who held up his and Decker’s economic-recruitment bill the day after McCrory waffled on their abortion bill.
What happens now that he’s threatened to veto it?
Branding Politics
July 10, 2013/
“Employers must go where employees want to be” – Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst.
Raleigh City Councilman Randy Stagner quoted that line this week. It sums up the challenge that Raleigh and all North Carolina face today under the state’s new management.
Rob Christensen captured it in his strikingly strong column Sunday: “North Carolina’s national brand may be changing – but not the way Gov. Pat McCrory intended when he talked during his campaign about the Tar Heel state undergoing an image makeover….The sharp rightward turn of the legislature and the Moral Monday protests have turned North Carolina into one of the nation’s top political spectacles.”
The New York Times chimed in today with an editorial “(The Decline of North Carolina”): “North Carolina was once considered a beacon of farsightedness in the South, an exception in a region of poor education, intolerance and tightfistedness. In a few short months, Republicans have begun to dismantle a reputation that took years to build.”
Who cares what The New York Times thinks? Well, maybe some employers and their employees. Maybe highly educated, skilled people looking for a new home or headquarters.
Maybe Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker, who is concerned that Moral Monday protests are hurting the state’s brand. You can blame the protestors, or you can blame leaders who bring about that kind of polarization.
Clearly, Governor McCrory wants to talk about jobs, not abortion. His office sent out about 20 Tweets yesterday on GE; none on abortion. But North Carolina is getting to be a tougher sell at a time when it’s his and Decker’s job to sell it.
The Governor can thank his friends in the legislature. Friends like Senate Republicans who held up his and Decker’s economic-recruitment bill the day after McCrory waffled on their abortion bill.
What happens now that he’s threatened to veto it?