Archive for Patrick McHenry
The Day After
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What a night. Congratulations to all of the winners. I’m looking forward to working with you. It takes a lot to stand for election, so great respect to those who ran whether they won or not.
Congratulations to President Barack Obama on his re-election. He won Buncombe County by over 25,000 votes though we weren’t enough to hold North Carolina for him. That huge Buncombe County Democratic advantage didn’t show up in our local races due, in no small part, to recent redistricting that boxed Buncombe’s Democrats.
Today’s the Day
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I’ll be outside a voting precinct today advocating for the candidates I support. Over 40% of Buncombe County’s eligible voters already cast a ballot during early voting. The weather today is cool to cold and a threat of rain all day. Americans for Prosperity (a.k.a. Koch Bros.) are paying people to work the polls, even here in Buncombe. Democrats, meanwhile, have volunteers out helping.
If you have any time today, help out at your polling place. An hour or two can make an enormous difference. Here’s a handy list of Democratic candidates if you need it. It tends to be the case that a lot of Election Day voters come in not necessarily knowing about downticket races like Register of Deeds, County Commission, or the referendum. That’s where your presence makes a big, big difference.
Whether or not you work a poll, here are some other things you can do today to help:
1) Email all of your contacts urging them to vote.
2) Text all of your contacts urging them to vote.
3) Call the slackers in your life and urge them to vote.
4) Offer rides to the polls to people who need them.
5) If you’re using social media like Facebook and Twitter, be sure to link people to the above list of candidates.
It’s gonna be a nail biter, folks. No matter what happens, we’ll get through it together.
2012 Democratic Candidates
Posted by: | CommentsYou probably know just who to vote for in the Presidential race and the Congressional race. Maybe you even have your legislators and County Commissioners figured out. How many of you have the County School Board or statewide judicial races sussed? To help you sort out who’s who, the Buncombe County Democratic Party has put together a handy list of Democratic candidates. Use it if you want it, leave it if you don’t!
Ten More Reasons To Support Patsy Keever For Congress
Posted by: | CommentsWestern North Carolina friends and supporters at NC Rep. Patsy Keever’s welcome home celebration explain why they stand with her. In contrast, Koch Industries, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs are among her opponent’s top ten contributors.
Endorsin’
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Neither of the Democratic Congressional candidates in NC-11 and NC-10 will endorse President Obama. I’m not sure if GOP contenders Mark Meadows, Vance Patterson, or incumbent Patrick McHenry have endorsed Mitt Romney. Meadows reminds me of Romney.
I know that Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre, two Congressional Dems from further east aren’t planning on endorsing Obama either. The new GOP-drawn districts have created very difficult contests for Rogers, Kissell, and McIntyre, and they’re sticking to their own issues rather than trying to also advocate for the President.
Anyway, there are heads a’sploding across WNC as Dems work to build a united juggernaut that can approach the successes of 2008. What do you think of these developments, especially as they relate to the electorates of the various districts?
NC-10 Primary Open Thread
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As a result of the efforts of the GOP majority in Raleigh, I’m a newly minted resident of the 10th Congressional District, as are most Buncombe County citizens. Congressman Patrick McHenry has been serving for several terms after a successful stint as National Coalition Director for George W. Bush’s 2000 Presidential campaign. He’s got a Republican challenger in the primary named Ken Fortenberry. Be careful if you click that last link, it brings up his website with a mini-Ken that starts talking at you.
From an Asheville government perspective, we’re very hopeful that Rep. McHenry will be as supportive as Rep. Shuler has been in regards to securing transit funding resources as well as communicating with us about other opportunities for furthering our strategic goals.
There are three Democrats vying for the chance to unseat Rep. McHenry. Patsy Keever is a progressive standard-bearer with impeccable credentials and ethics, though it’s unclear how well her views will play with folks down the mountain. Her 2004 Congressional run against Charles Taylor was competently executed, so it’s clear she’s got the organizational chops. Keever is the strongest voice in the race for education and women’s rights, including the right to choose.
Mayor of Asheville Terry Bellamy is also running, and word is that she’s got the support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which will help her organizationally and financially. Keever and Bellamy raised roughly the same amount of money according to the most recent documents. Bellamy has demonstrated a conservative streak that she’s balanced through advocacy for affordable housing and transit services.
The other Dem in the race is Timothy Murphy, who describes himself as proud liberal. I don’t know anything about him except what I see on his campaign website.
What’s the CW on this race? Keever and Bellamy will each get a lot of Asheville votes, but who has the edge in the rest of the district? Will the Democratic nominee’s stance on abortion rights be an important issue in the general election? Is McHenry beatable? Please opine at length in the comments.
Terry Bellamy V. Patrick McHenry
Posted by: | CommentsAC-T:
Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy announced today that she is running for Congress in the 10th Congressional District. Bellamy has served as mayor of Asheville since 2005, and is running for Congress on her record of creating jobs, finding pragmatic solutions that increase access to affordable housing and reducing violence.
Friday Open Thread: Veterans’ Day
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Salute our veterans
Honor our veterans
Thank our veterans
City Council election
- Hunt and Pelly free and clear
- Davis and Gray still undecided
1/4 cent sales tax
Rep. Patrick McHenry comes to town
Occupy this flyer
Occupy your Facebook page
US Cellular Center
That thing that’s on your mind
They Complain? Beat Them Harder.
Posted by: | CommentsWhen Buncombe voters turned out to express their alarm and dismay regarding the newly redrawn Congressional districts, some of us held out hope that the obvious illogic of dividing our mountain county would win out, that anyone could see the injustice being done and that political pressure to do the right thing would win the day.
We were wrong.
The latest version of the Congressional district map carves even more of Buncombe County into Rep. Patrick McHenry’s 10th District.
AC-T:
The latest Republican plan would include even less of Buncombe County in the 11th Congressional District. Buncombe County has [238,318] residents. Asheville has 83,939.
July 1 plan:
[Buncombe]
• 129,646, or 54 percent in 10th
• 108,672, or 46 percent in 11th
[Asheville]
• 63,600, or 76 percent in the 10th
• 19,793, or 24 percent in the 11thJuly 19 plan:
[Buncombe]
• 150,156 or 63 percent in the 10th
• 88,162 or 37 percent in the 11th
[Asheville]
• 72,053 or 86 percent in the 10th
• 11,340 or 14 percent in the 11th
UPDATE: A 3rd version of the Congressional map (Rucho-Lewis 2A) was released last night. It has only 54% of Asheville turned over to Patrick McHenry. I haven’t been able to dig into the numbers to know which precincts, etc. I’m looking forward to hearing from the folks who have.
Mountain Xpress has more:
Against that backdrop, all eyes are turning toward Rep. McHenry of the 10th District. A deputy majority whip, the powerful four-term Republican also serves on the House Financial Services Committee. Elected to Congress at age 29 after a short stint in the Statehouse, McHenry quickly became a fair-haired boy of the modern conservative movement, hailed by the National Journal recently as the “most conservative member of Congress from North Carolina and the 17th most conservative representative in the country.”
When it comes time to cast ballots for elected representation at every level from County Commission to NC Legislator to Congress it will be our responsibility to answer this insult with electoral injury.
