Tea Party Pat?
November 27, 2012 - by
Just three weeks after the election, Governor-elect McCrory is getting a taste of the story line he may be reading for a long time to come: Is he “Charlotte Moderate Pat” or “Tea Party Pat”?
The first story comes from a national publication, Businessweek. The headline: “N.C.’s Gov.-Elect Shifts Hard-Right, From Transit to Tea Party.”
It says: “In 14 years as Charlotte’s mayor, North Carolina governor-elect Pat McCrory advocated light rail, bike lanes, tree planting and mandatory sidewalks in front of new homes.”
Citing as its source Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of NC Policy Watch, the article says: “A different McCrory emerged in the gubernatorial campaign….He spoke against President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul at rallies sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a non-profit group funded by billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch. He endorsed a Tea Party- backed measure condemning as ‘extreme environmentalism’ a 20- year-old United Nations statement in favor of urban planning and energy conservation. He told the Charlotte Observer that he supported a ban on gay marriage.”
Now, Fitzsimon is hardly a neutral observer of McCrory. But he put his finger on the issue that will dominate media coverage of the new governor.
A big reason for McCrory’s big election win is that, unlike Mitt Romney, he didn’t have to run a Republican primary gauntlet of contentious debates and true-believer litmus tests. That helped him, like President Obama, run up a big margin in Mecklenburg County.
McCrory did what any politician would do: appeal to as broad a coalition as possible. Nothing wrong with that.
But governing is different from campaigning. You’re forced to choose. And big GOP majorities in the legislature – as well as Republican leaders who want to run for U.S. Senate in 2014 and are thinking about a primary – will tug him to the right.
If McCrory goes right, he risks losing moderates. That could make him vulnerable in the 2016 general election. If he runs to the middle, he alienates the right. Then he could face a primary challenge. One Republican who worked in this year’s campaigns mentioned Congressman-elect George Holding as a potential challenger.
McCrory adeptly pulled off his balancing act in the campaign. Now it gets harder.
Posted in General, North Carolina - Republicans
Tea Party Pat?
November 27, 2012/
Just three weeks after the election, Governor-elect McCrory is getting a taste of the story line he may be reading for a long time to come: Is he “Charlotte Moderate Pat” or “Tea Party Pat”?
The first story comes from a national publication, Businessweek. The headline: “N.C.’s Gov.-Elect Shifts Hard-Right, From Transit to Tea Party.”
It says: “In 14 years as Charlotte’s mayor, North Carolina governor-elect Pat McCrory advocated light rail, bike lanes, tree planting and mandatory sidewalks in front of new homes.”
Citing as its source Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of NC Policy Watch, the article says: “A different McCrory emerged in the gubernatorial campaign….He spoke against President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul at rallies sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a non-profit group funded by billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch. He endorsed a Tea Party- backed measure condemning as ‘extreme environmentalism’ a 20- year-old United Nations statement in favor of urban planning and energy conservation. He told the Charlotte Observer that he supported a ban on gay marriage.”
Now, Fitzsimon is hardly a neutral observer of McCrory. But he put his finger on the issue that will dominate media coverage of the new governor.
A big reason for McCrory’s big election win is that, unlike Mitt Romney, he didn’t have to run a Republican primary gauntlet of contentious debates and true-believer litmus tests. That helped him, like President Obama, run up a big margin in Mecklenburg County.
McCrory did what any politician would do: appeal to as broad a coalition as possible. Nothing wrong with that.
But governing is different from campaigning. You’re forced to choose. And big GOP majorities in the legislature – as well as Republican leaders who want to run for U.S. Senate in 2014 and are thinking about a primary – will tug him to the right.
If McCrory goes right, he risks losing moderates. That could make him vulnerable in the 2016 general election. If he runs to the middle, he alienates the right. Then he could face a primary challenge. One Republican who worked in this year’s campaigns mentioned Congressman-elect George Holding as a potential challenger.
McCrory adeptly pulled off his balancing act in the campaign. Now it gets harder.
Posted in General, North Carolina - Republicans