Archive for NC-11 Congressional Race
Results
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Yes the NC Constitutional Amendment passed 61-39, but here in Buncombe it failed. There were a lot of interesting results here at home last night, most of which bode very well for Buncombe. Let’s get the results train rolling. (Buncombe results) (NC results)
On the 10th Congressional tip, Patsy Keever steamrolled Terry Bellamy 58-26, with also-ran Tim Murphy limping in with 15%. Keever’s excellent organization outpaced the other campaigns. People love them some Patsy Keever, there’s no getting around it. Whether she can translate that into victory against a seemingly bulletproof Patrick McHenry will depend on her campaign’s ability to activate voters who haven’t come out the last several cycles.
In the 11th, Hayden Rogers romped over his competition. With 56% of the vote, he beat Cecil Bothwell by 26, and Tom Hill pulled only 14%. Cecil was a liberal candidate in a conservative district, but it’s worth noting that he won the part of the district that’s in Buncombe County by 161 votes. Rogers now has to pivot to the general election in a district that has a very high number of registered Republicans. The contrast between the 10th and the 11th couldn’t be more stark in terms of who Democratic voters chose to be their standard bearer.
In Buncombe County Commissioner races, we saw a very high Democratic turnout. If the ratio of Democratic to Republican voters is similar in November, then look for a savory County Board majority to come into office.
The Day Before The Day
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What’s the CW on who’s going to win all these races? Have you already voted? What do you think the GOP Presidential primary vote will look like? I’m guessing Romney doesn’t break 58% and that Ron Paul has his best southern state showing.
This would also be a great place to let everyone know where the election night parties and gatherings are.
With 37 different ballot styles in Buncombe County (Thanks a lot, Tim Moffitt), the Board of Elections may take a little more time than usual to release results tomorrow, but you can watch for results at this link right here.
Payday lenders fund Rogers’ NC-11 campaign
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We received the following press release this morning from 11th District congressional candidate and our friend Cecil Bothwell, reprinted in its entirety (I take responsibility for the funny picture over there on the right).
It’s fascinating stuff. Follow the money, as they say…
From Bothwell for Congress:
For immediate release: May 2, 2012
What: Payday lenders fund Rogers’ NC 11 campaign From: Bothwell for Congress
Contact: Cecil Bothwell
Phone: 828-713-8840
Website: http://bothwell2012.com
The Bothwell for Congress campaign will accept no money from corporations or corporate PACs. Our campaign is entirely funded by individuals. (The committee donation listed on our campaign finance reports is Bothwell for Buncombe, funded by individuals for Bothwell’s local races in 2008 and 2009). Our opponent has taken tens of thousands of dollars from lobbyists and PACs. The most questionable sources are payday lenders.
Hayden Rogers has accepted $17,500 from individuals, lobbyists and special interest groups associated with the Payday Loan Industry. All of these donors are from outside of North Carolina, hailing from places such as Las Vegas, Miami, and South Carolina.
They are all from out-of-state because North Carolina banned the Payday Loan Industry in 2001.
It took until 2006 to fully shut down the industry (which played a cat and mouse game exploiting loopholes, changing names, etc.). In a 2006 press release NC Attorney General Roy Cooper said: “We’ve fought payday lending at every turn and now we’re putting this industry out of business here in North Carolina. These payday lenders thought they’d found a way around North Carolina law. Now we’re showing them the way out of our state.”
Let’s Just Say It
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I recommend reading this entire article, though you’ll run the risk of having some area Republicans and equivalency fetishists gnash their teeth when you share it with them.
Thomas E. Mann is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. This essay is adapted from their book “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism,” which will be available Tuesday.
We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.
The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.
When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.
“Both sides do it” or “There is plenty of blame to go around” are the traditional refuges for an American news media intent on proving its lack of bias, while political scientists prefer generality and neutrality when discussing partisan polarization. Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach.
[...]
Lindsey’s Extra Awesome Voter Guide
Posted by: | CommentsLindsey Simerly sent this into my email inbox, and I thought I’d share it here. Lindsey has been involved in lots of Democratic campaigns (Jones, Smith, Newman, Reisinger, Shuler) and is currently working with the Campaign for Southern Equality as well as being Chair of the City of Asheville’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. She also ran for City Council in 2007, which is when I became enamored with her work ethic, intelligence, and boundless energy.
After the jump you’ll find her extra-awesome voter guide.
UPDATE/CLARIFICATION: “extra-awesome voter guide” is Lindsey’s title for this guide and post. Some folks made the assumption that Lindsey’s choices are also my endorsements. Hope this clears that up.
Voting Begins Tomorrow
Posted by: | CommentsTime to get your votin’ hat on. Voting prior to May 8th means that you can tell those callers, door knockers, and poliscolds, “I already voted.”
NC-11 Open Thread
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It’s a few weeks before the big primary, so I thought we could start having conversations about specific Democratic primary races in the area. Today: the NC-11 campaign.
Cecil Bothwell has been running for this seat since March of last year. Cecil’s a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who asserts that his brand of boldness is exactly what Democratic voters, tired of Blue Dog Democrat shenanigans, really want. He doesn’t accept PAC donations, and this choice leaves him in a great money deficit to Hayden Rogers. He’s received endorsements from national progressive personalities and groups, and he reports that tea party libertarians like him too.
Hayden Rogers is Heath Shuler’s Chief of Staff and has been on board the Shuler team since day one. He’s running well to the right of Bothwell, tacitly making the argument that only a conservative candidate can hope to win NC-11, the reddest district in North Carolina since the NCGOP redrew the lines. Rogers raised $300k+ in six weeks of fundraising – no surprise with the depth of network he’s got.
Tom Hill is the other guy. He got the first of his fifteen minutes by shining a light on the troubles with the Henderson County Sheriff. I don’t know diddly about his politics, but he said this in an HT-N article, “I am somewhere between Cecil Bothwell, the left, and Hayden Rogers, on the right”.
So handicappers, what’s the CW on the race?
Your county commission candidates
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Now that the roster of candidates has been finalized (the filing deadline was noon on Wednesday), I’ll be offering up some preliminary political analysis of this cycle’s races in two separate posts. The first (this one) will discuss the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and Register of Deeds races; the second, which I hope to post over the weekend, will discuss races for the NC House, NC Senate, and U.S. Congress in Districts 10 and 11.
I’ve always believed that there’s an inversely proportional relationship between the amount of attention a race gets during an election cycle and its actual effect on our daily lives. Local races — City Council and County Commission, for instance — typically get lost in the shuffle during a presidential/gubernatorial year as they compete for the attention of the voters. Turnout and participation drop off because many people don’t see the importance of these “down ticket” races — but really, no offices could be more important. Our local elected officials have a much larger effect on our daily lives than do our Members of Congress, our U.S. Senators, or even than does the President of the United States. That’s how our uniquely American system of government is set up: everything from Education to Public Safety, from Trash Collection to Taxes, from Human Services to the Sale of Property, is for the most part a local matter — and it’s all pretty much in our hands every four years. And for a history and politics geek like me, there is no greater thrill. And that’s why I’m starting with this year’s county commission races.
This is fun
Posted by: | CommentsWith the Filing Deadline having finally passed like a jagged kidney stone through a scabbed urethra, we here at Scrutiny Hooligans (and by we I mean me) thought we’d resurrect this little dilly. Fun fun fun!
Whenever someone gets around to it (hey Ascend — I’m looking at you) we’ll provide a complete list of candidates running for local office and links to their websites so you can learn more about them.
Hurry! Ends Soon!
Posted by: | CommentsJust in case you are sitting on the fence, thinking about throwing your hat into the ring for a position in our local government, you had best make up your mind soon. The filing period ends tomorrow, the 29th at noon.
You can see who has filed for what by going to the Buncombe County site and downloading a PDF file.
Meanwhile, if you want to see a more thorough statewide picture of who is and is not running, you can get a different PDF file from NC Policy Watch here, along with a nice story about some Democratic candidates who have chosen to avoid the head to head confrontations that the Republican redistricting created.
So how many of you out there have actually considered running for elected office? I can think of a couple of regulars here I’d like to see doing it, and to tell you the truth I’ve seriously considered it myself. How about you?
