Un-Trumping North Carolina: The Second Line of Dems Who Could Flip Control of the NC House

Dan Besse (Dist. 74)

Prof. Bitzer rates the district "Competitive Lean Republican." Trump won it in 2016 with 53.03% of the vote. The seat is open in 2020.

"Besse has spent his career as an attorney focusing on environmental issues and serving five terms on the Winston-Salem city council. Like so many districts, this once grossly gerrymandered district has been redrawn, making it more competitive, which prompted the incumbent Republican [Debra Conrad] not to seek another term. As a familiar figure in the area, Besse is a very promising candidate." (The Long Leaf Pine Slate)

"The newly drawn NC-H74 has been slowly trending blue, and 2020 primary turnout in Forsyth County was up 29% over 2016 primary turnout, making this an excellent target to flip in 2020. Dan Besse, the Democratic candidate, ran in the former NC-H75 in 2018 and overperformed the expected margin in that district by several points. Besse is a North Carolina native, an attorney, and a five-term Winston-Salem City Council member. Besse is focused on high-quality public schools, Medicaid expansion, jobs for working families, and clean water and air." (FlipNC.org)

Besse will face Lewisville Town Councilman and Republican Jeff Zenger, who bills himself as "a principled conservative" (as distinct from a Trumpist?). He couldn't resist the urge to include a pict of himself firing a gun on his website (but what! no pict of him holding a Bible?).

Nicole Quick (Dist. 59)

Bitzer sez "Lean Republican." Trump took the district with 53.06% of the vote in 2016.

WataugaWatch covered Quick's coming-out-as-a-candidate fundraiser back last September and was impressed by the star power of other successful Democratic office-holders who came out to support her.

"Quick is a 20-year resident of Guilford County and former manufacturing executive. As a parent of a child with autism, she is passionate about education quality, the environment and voting rights .... This district in the Greensboro suburbs has leaned slightly Republican in the past, but with Democratic turnout likely to increase in 2020, is ripe for a strong challenger like Quick." (The Long Leaf Pine Slate)

"Under the new NC House map, NC-H59 is about 9 points more favorable for Democrats, making it an excellent target to flip in 2020 .... Republicans’ performance has only been possible because Democratic turnout has significantly lagged Republican turnout in the district. The great news is that 2020 primary turnout was up 20% in Guilford County over 2016, and there is ample room to reverse the slight Republican lean in this district in recent elections by building on that momentum to turn out sporadic Democratic voters here this fall.  Democrats are fielding a strong challenger in NC-H59 in Nicole Quick. Born in southeastern North Carolina, she currently resides in eastern Guilford County. Quick’s history as a business leader includes time forecasting and budgeting at Guilford Mills. When her son was diagnosed with autism, she decided to undergo training to provide daily occupational therapy for him. Quick went on to lead teacher instruction and workshops focused on working with children with autism in inclusive classrooms." (FlipNC.org)

Quick is up against Republican incumbent Jon Hardister, the Republican Whip in the House who has an earned reputation as a snake. He was a prime operative in the veto override ambush pulled off by Speaker Tim Moore early on the morning of September 11. 

Aimy Steele (Dist. 82)

Bitzer ... "Lean Republican." Trump took the district with 54.94% of the vote.

WataugaWatch has been following Steele since she ran for the seat in 2018, taking on powerful long-time Rep. Linda Johnson (here). Johnson abruptly decided not to run again because of illness and then tragically passed away from an aggressive brain cancer, leaving an open seat. I wrote about Steele's chances for 2020 in November 2019 and again in January of this year. In other words, I've been anticipating her ascension to Raleigh for a long time.

"As a former school principal and mother of 5, Steele is passionate about educational quality and equity." (The Long Leaf Pine Slate)

"Cabarrus County has been trending blue over the past several election cycles. In 2018, Democratic challenger Aimy Steele came within 6 points of upsetting the Republican incumbent in NC-H82 [Johnson], greatly improving on Gov. Cooper’s 2016 performance in the district – and NC-H82 has since been redrawn to be 3 points more favorable for Democrats. And 2020 primary turnout increased 32% in Cabarrus County over 2016 – a great sign for Democrats! Steele is running again, this time with greater name recognition and a campaign organization already in place." (FlipNC.org)

Steele is up against Kristin Baker, a female "physician who has practiced psychiatry in various settings including as a hospice medical director." Her impressive professional credentials and her relentless use of the "conservative" self-identifier means she could be a formidable opponent for Steele in a district not quite ready to turn blue.

Adam Erickson (Dist. 20)

Bitzer minces no words: "Safe Republican." Trump won the district with 55.09% of the vote. The most recent remapping double-bunked two incumbent Republicans in this New Hanover County district -- Holly Grange, who opted to run for governor against Dan Forest in the Republican primary, and Ted Davis, who's represented Dist. 19 for several terms. Holly Grange went down in her primary; Ted Davis remains on the ballot in a district which doesn't know him as well.

"Adam Ericson is a public high school teacher. He believes that the governed deserve real representation, but do not have it today in North Carolina. He is running a bold campaign to invest in North Carolina's education, fight for worker's rights, make health care affordable and ensure a livable climate for our state's next generation." (The Long Leaf Pine Slate)

"Gov. Cooper lost the newly constituted NC-H20 by just 5 points in 2016, and the NC House race was just as close in 2018. The new map draws out the district’s former incumbent [Grange] and draws in NC House Rep. Ted Davis, Jr. (R), formerly of NC House District 19. The pool of left-leaning voters who stayed home in NC-H20 in 2018 was about 14 points more left-leaning than the folks who came out to the polls, and the great news is that 2020 primary turnout was up 30% over 2016! This district is flippable if we can get enough left-leaning voters to the polls in November." (FlipNC.org)

Erickson is up against an old possum in Ted Davis, who was appointed to his seat in 2012. At the time, he was most famous to us for voting to turn down a grant of $8,899 from the North Carolina state government for "family planning" supplies and services, particularly contraceptives for young women who wanted or needed them. Ted Davis said at the time, "If these young women are being responsible and didn't have the sex to begin with, we wouldn't have this problem to begin with."

Jason Cain (Dist. 51)

Bitzer rates it "Safe Republican," though FlipNC calls it "within reach" for Cain and REAL FACTS NC calls it "competitive." Trump took the district in 2016 with 55.54%.

"NC-H51 has a similar profile to NC-H1 [where Democrat Emily Bunch Nicholson is running as a first-liner], with Black and Latinx voters comprising the majority of left-leaning voters. Like NC-H1, flipping this district will require candidates and a statewide strategy that brings the Democratic base to the polls. Democrat Jason Cain, a 10-year Army veteran who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan five times, is challenging Republican John Sauls in NC-H51. His platforms include expanding access to Medicaid, ending the school-to-prison pipeline by providing equal access to a high-quality education, and championing economic development in the central region." (FlipNC.org)

Republican John Sauls has a controversial history: "Incumbent Republican John Sauls returned to the House in 2016 after a previous stint from 2003 to 2007 when he joined the coalition of rebel Republicans who voted for Democrat Jim Black for the co-speakership. Black was later indicted for corruption. Sauls seeks another term representing Harnett and Lee counties." (RealFactsNC)

Dan Besse Running Again for NC House in Forsyth County

Many of the Democratic rising stars who made good showings but still lost in 2018 laid the groundwork for coming out stronger, wiser, more organized, and better funded in the 2020 races ahead of us. I'm talking here specifically about the outstanding army of progressives who rattled the doors on the NC General Assembly last year and are back already for 2020.

Dan Besse, on the right

Our friend Dan Besse came within 2,000 votes of beating incumbent Republican Donny Lambeth in NC House District 75. The 75th is entirely inside Forsyth County and largely suburban. It creeps along Forsyth County’s southern border with Davidson County, from Kernersville in the east to Clemmons in the west, with a finger reaching into southwest Winston-Salem, including the Ardmore neighborhood.

Dan is an attorney, a graduate of UNC Law School, and a five-term member of the Winston-Salem city council.  He's made good (and alternative) transportation a special focus of his terms in office, including safe streets, good public transit, and a growing network of safe biking and pedestrian paths, greenways, and sidewalks. (Dan takes full advantage of those paths, greenways, and sidewalks because he's a pretty damn impressive athlete, competing in bike rides and foot races in that Forsyth County heat). He also represents Winston-Salem in leadership roles on the urban area Transportation Advisory Committee, the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation, and the National League of Cities. I contributed to Dan's campaign in 2018 and have again for the 2020 contest.

In his law practice, Dan has sought out cases dealing with environmental law and public health, clean energy and utilities, and fair employment, housing, and health care access for working families. He has taught classes in environmental law and policy, and in government, at colleges from N.C State University to Winston-Salem State University and Forsyth Technical Community College.

So ... no surprise he recently posted this on his Facebook page:

I focus a lot of attention on the need to change some of the most egregious failures of this Republican-led legislature: its refusal to close the health care coverage gap or protect coverage for people with pre-existing health conditions; its disrespect for our teachers and failure to pay them what they deserve or fund a good public education for every child; its outrageous attacks on voting rights, civil rights, and human rights.

But there's another Republican legislative failure that is hurting the health of our people today and jeopardizing our future: its rollbacks of clean air and water protections, its refusal to make polluters pay to clean up their messes, its baffling attacks on clean energy development, and its willful ignorance in the face of impending climate disaster.

I've spent much of my public service career working to cut pollution and protect public health and our natural environment. I understand in detail just how much damage this legislature is doing to us all now, and to the prospects for a good future for our children and grandchildren. And I understand how to go about repairing that damage and getting our state back on track as a leader in clean energy and a clean environment.

Donny Lambeth

Meanwhile, incumbent Donny Lambeth won his seat in 2012 with people suggesting he'd be a "moderate." Whatever that word meant when applied to Republican office-holders pre-Trump, it's become something of a joke now. (To Trump, a "moderate" is a limp dick.) But, really, moderate? Lambeth recently tried to wipe out Dan Besse, his 2018 election opponent, as a Winston-Salem city councilman in a "local bill" to redistrict the council seats, double-bunking Dan with a Republican member, while also incidentally punishing the four African-American women on the council. That proposed redistricting bill produced a fire storm, and Lambeth quickly withdrew it.

Even more recently Lambeth played a more obvious "moderate card" as chief sponsor of an (ultimately doomed?) Republican-lite Medicaid expansion bill that suddenly passed a Republican committee last week. The timing's everything, with the Republican majority currently thwarted in passing a vetoed budget until they cave to the governor on Medicaid expansion. That Lambeth bill passed its committee but has yet to reach the House floor, and so far the Big Boss, Mr. Berger in the Senate, has shown no affection for it. Lambeth, who always looks like the act of smiling is physically painful, of course stuck a work requirement into his legislation, because why would a "moderate Republican" pass up an opportunity to further humiliate the already working poor.


SIDEBAR ON PARTISAN SOCIAL MEDIA USE
The day after the election last fall, Dan hinted on Facebook that he would run again: "This race was not the end of our efforts, but the beginning. You can look for more news over the coming month." If he ever made a formal announcement about running again in 2020, I can't find it. But he's obviously running. The post excerpted above about a new emphasis on the environment was prelude to inviting everyone to a fundraiser for the 2020 campaign.

Dan is currently very active on Facebook, has a Twitter account but doesn't use it. He needs to up his game.

He also needs a campaign manager, preferably one with experience. He needs boots on the ground, lots of them. He needs a strategy (based on data) for identifying those Republican voters who're weary of Trumpian conduct wherever it takes place.

FOOTNOTE
Forsyth County was one of the most under-performing urban counties in all of North Carolina in 2018. All Democratic candidates running in all races in 2020 need to hold a private summit and figure out why and what to do about it before 2020 actually dawns.

Even Donny Lambeth Knows When To Take His Hand Off a Hot Stove

Donny Lambeth

NC House Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Forsyth) has withdrawn his "local bill" that would have remapped Winston-Salem's city council districts ... obviously, to eliminate some undesirables, mainly black women and Dan Besse, the Democrat who ran against Lambeth for the NC House last fall:

The new [city council] wards created in the Lambeth bill would have placed three black council members in one ward. The ward plan would have also placed Council Member Dan Besse, who ran against Lambeth in 2018, into a ward with Robert Clark, the council's only Republican. [Wesley Young]

 Lambeth apparently reached a compromise folded like a cheap suit in negotiations with Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines, agreeing to a "study commission" (to be named by Joines, I kid you not!) to determine if there's any real need to change the mapping of Winston-Salem's city council districts.

That's what I call a giant cave.

And a good thing too (though we would have enjoyed the campaign against Lambeth in 2020, based on his Winston-Salem meddling).

Shivving Winston-Salem ... Because They Can

Rep. Donny Lambeth,
forcing himself to smile

Currently, the city of Winston-Salem elects eight members to its city council (plus a mayor who only votes to break ties). Currently, seven of them are Democrats and one is a Republican. Currently, four are white and four are black. Forsyth County Republican reps in the General Assembly filed a vicious little bill last Thursday (March 28) to change that council in radical ways.

The bill would reduce council districts (wards) from eight to five. Three black incumbent women (D.D. Adams, Vivian Burke, and Annette Scippio) would be shoved into the same district, to run against each other. Incumbent white male Dan Besse would also be double-bunked with the lone Republican. The three dissolved ward seats would become "at large" council seats, the mayor would be given a vote on every measure before the council, and all terms of office would be reduced to two years.

Chaos.

The two House sponsors of this snide innovation, Donny Lambeth and Debra Conrad, might relish the punishment they're meting out to their partisan enemies in the urban core of Winston-Salem. But they might want to take note of what happened in Guilford County after a vicious little attempt to upend the Greensboro city council in a similar way (see last paragraph below). Neither Lambeth nor Conrad won reelection last fall by unassailable margins. As a matter of fact, Lambeth beat his Democratic opponent, Dan Besse (where have I heard that name before?), by just over 2,000 votes, and Debra Conrad's Dem opponent, Terri LeGrand, came within 3,200 votes in a much more rural section of Forsyth. (Full disclosure: I contributed to both the Besse and the LeGrand campaigns.)

One of the black council women targeted with triple-bunking, D.D. Adams, ran against 5th District Congresswoman Virginia Foxx last fall, and she "emphatically denounced" Lambeth and Conrad to the Winston-Salem Journal "for what she described as a racist payback for the Democratic activism of black women":

"Everybody thinks we are going to hold hands and sing Kumbaya — it's not going to happen that way," Adams said a day after learning of the bill. "This is one of those times when we are going to have to fight."

Her message to Lambeth and Conrad: "How dare you?" ... repeated. "How dare you!"

Said Dan Besse: "It is no coincidence that they drew me into the only Republican-leaning district ... When you look at the fact that I challenged Donny, and D.D. challenged Virginia Foxx -- that has to flag the city on the radar of the Republican party structure."

No kidding, the arrogance. "I don't know what problem they are trying to solve," said the lone Republican on the council, Robert Clark, referring to Lambeth and Conrad. "I think the city council should be consulted before anything moves forward. They don't talk with anybody, they just do it ... I am absolutely puzzled." That's what the Republican thought.

Remember that Republicans in Raleigh also overreached for partisan advantage in a proposal to redistrict the city government of Greensboro. How did that attempt work out for them? In this last election, Guilford County saw a net gain of one Democrat in the NC House (Ashton Clemmons) and one Democrat in the NC Senate (Michael Garrett). Garrett actually beat the author of the Greensboro redistricting attempt, Sen. Trudy Wade, a comeuppance that could instill a little humility in Lambeth and Conrad.

Dan Besse Announces for NC House Seat

Our friend Dan Besse, a Winston-Salem city councilman, announced today that he is running for the District 75 NC House seat which is currently held by Republican Donny Lambeth. Dan is an attorney, a graduate of UNC Law School, and a five-term member of the Winston-Salem city council. He's a righteous dude and is going up against a powerful Republican in Donny Lambeth, who has connections to all sorts of Republican money.

Dan says, “Our state legislature has forgotten how to cooperate. We need a new set of priorities working for us at the state level: improving our schools, helping our people stay healthy, protecting clean water and air, and creating jobs. I’ll bring to this task the lessons I’ve learned serving in local government—it’s all about neighbors working together to help our communities.”

Lambeth was on the Forsyth School Board for a number of years before taking a seat in the NC House in 2013. He's sometimes been regarded as a moderate, so far as moderation goes with the NC GOP, and he was even mentioned a few years ago as the Forsyth Republican who could successful challenge Virginia A. Foxx for her US House seat. (He might be a vast improvement.) Despite the reputation, he's been a total foot soldier for the extremist leadership in the NC General Assembly.

According to the Triad City Beat, the NCGA's high-handed and dictatorial attitude toward our state's municipalities explains at least part of Dan's motivation for running this year. Besse "experienced the heavy hand of Raleigh up close and personal last year when his proposal to name Winston-Salem a 'welcoming city' was scuttled under the threat of punitive legislation that would withhold tax revenues from the city.​"

The 75th House District is "largely suburban." It "creeps along Forsyth County’s southern border with Davidson County, from Kernersville in the east to Clemmons in the west, with a finger reaching into southwest Winston-Salem, including the Ardmore neighborhood."

If you'd like to contribute to Dan Besse's campaign -- and you should like to very much! -- https://www.bessefornc.com/donate.

Grass Roots NC, A Bully Org

Paul Valone

We referred here once before to the intimidation meted out to WRAL reporter Mark Binker for his apparently unforgivable sin of delving into concealed handgun permits in the state.

That intimidation got considerably worse, when the intimidator in chief, Paul Valone of Grass Roots North Carolina, published a picture of Mark Binker's wife and small children. Dan Besse, a Winston-Salem City Councilman, could not abide the false equivalency behind Mr. Valone's targeting of a reporter's family. Hattip to BlueNC for the exchange of correspondence between Besse and Valone that followed:

Initial message to Mr. Valone (Thursday, July 26, 4:22 p.m.):
FROM Dan Besse
SUBJECT attempted intimidation
MESSAGE
Mr. Valone, Your attempted intimidation of a reporter by posting online his nearly complete home address, together with a link to photos of his wife and small children, followed by urging your members to contact him, is truly shameful behavior. It goes beyond the usual aggressive tactics and bare-knuckled political advocacy. Arranging hostile emails to politicians is one thing. Holding up a reporter's minor children to public view and enhanced risk as an advocacy tactic is something else again -- and is beyond the pale of acceptable behavior in our country. You may wish to consider a public apology to Mr. Binker and his family, followed by a resignation from your organizational position, as a means to attempt to salvage some credibility for your organization. Dan Besse
-------------------------------------------------
Mr. Valone's response (Friday, July 27, 3:24 p.m.):
Dan:
Thanks for the note. As I am about to point out in the Charlotte Observer, 400,000 permit-holders had no idea their personal information would be “outted” by Binker. By contrast, Binker make a willful action, exposing their information, for which he should have anticipated consequences. That he published family photos openly on the Internet while engaging in such behavior indicates an arrogant disregard for his own family. As you note, we did not publish photos, we linked to his own (which are presumably pulled down by now), we did not publish his full address, and we did not advocate contacting anybody but Binker himself and WRAL – and I would hope we agree that they are fair fame.
An aggressive response? You bet. But an example had to be set to the media to let them know that unlike decades past, they can no longer attack gun owners with impunity.
Paul Valone
President, Grass Roots North Carolina
---------------------------------------------------
Response to Mr. Valone (Friday, July 27, 5:31 p.m.):
Mr. Valone,
Thank you for your response, but your comparison is invalid. No permit holder was “outed”—much less 400,000 of them.
The information online at the WRAL news site does not include names, contact information, addresses, or other identifying information of individual gun owners.
The information you posted regarding Mr. Binker’s family included all of those, including a nearly complete home address, and a link to a photograph of his wife and children. In the context you posted it, it constituted exposing him to personal retaliation for his reporting, and you included Mr. Binker’s wife and children among those swept into the sights.
No one “targeted” individual gun owners. You targeted an individual’s family, including his small children. That is not acceptable behavior in our country.
I continue to call for you to make a public apology to the Binker family; and I hope that your organization will ask for your resignation. If it does not, that tells us something more about the group Grass Roots North Carolina.
Dan Besse

Gov. Perdue Should Veto S 781

Intercepted e-mail ... Winston-Salem City Councilman Dan Besse, on the ineffable environmental badness of the new Republican majority in the NC General Assembly:

Not satisfied with adopting the most anti-environmental budget in North Carolina history, this Republican-controlled legislature has sent a flurry of other anti-environmental bills to the governor.

One of the worst of the lot is Senate Bill 781, the so-called “Regulatory Reform Act of 2011.” As with most of the Republican mischief coming out of this nightmarish legislative session, the GOP idea of “reform” means to give their big polluter campaign contributors everything they want.

Here’s what SB 781 would really do: tie up what’s left of our state’s environmental enforcement staff in so much additional red tape that big polluters would have a free hand to hurt clean air, water, land, and public health across our state.

Too Dumb for School

The short-sightedness in the new Republican General Assembly can't be surpassed in any deliberative body currently in operation on the face of the earth.

The new Republican bunch, who claimed their Number One priority was jobs, is seriously considering in the NC House Transportation Committee this afternoon this piece of true troglydytism, a petulant Teahadist refusal to accept a federal grant to improve rail service in the state.

But I'll let Winston-Salem City Councilman Dan Besse sum up the dismal prospect of politicians who first enclose themselves in (wet) paper bags and then fail to fight their way out of them:

[Via Facebook] Bad news: NC's jobless rate is still near 10% and we're short on dollars to modernize our transportation system. Good news: We've won a federal grant of over $500 million to modernize rail tracks and crossings on our most heavily used state rail lines--creating 5,000 construction jobs. Crazy news: A dozen NC House Republicans have a bill being heard today which would force the state to turn down the grant.

Seriously, isn't there a point when wrong-headedness can become life-threatening?

Goss & Tarleton Gain Headwaters Campaign Endorsement

Received this afternoon from our friend Dan Besse, who is both a Winston-Salem City Councilman and chair of the Headwaters Campaign:

...Whether you call him Senator Goss or Reverend Goss, Steve Goss (Senate District 45) is an individual seen by those who know him as so beyond reproach that he has been named the Senate Chair of the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee. That helps explain why a conservative mountain district has twice elected this moderate Democrat to represent them in Raleigh.

As both a legislator and a minister, Goss takes his responsibilities to his community seriously. As he explains, "In committee meetings I would often mention our senior citizens who should never have to make a choice between buying medication or food because of spiraling costs or lack of insurance coverage." Goss understands that his legislative mission includes addressing concerns ranging from unemployment, to the costs of fuel and electricity and the cost of a college education, to the well-being of our natural world.

State Representative Cullie Tarleton of Watauga County (House District 93) also puts a high value on educational and economic opportunity for all, and protection of our air, water, land, and public health. Among his leadership efforts, Tarleton was a primary House sponsor of the School Violence Prevention Act, which requires public schools to adopt strong policies against bullying and harassment, including bullying based on race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other factors. Tarleton's leadership posts include chairing House committees on water resources, commerce, and the environment.

Both Goss and Tarleton received high marks on the Conservation Council of North Carolina's 2009 environmental legislative scorecard. Together, they teamed up to add ecologically important tracts of mountain land to our state parks system.

For more information on these legislative leaders, and how to help their campaigns, go to http://www.headwatersnc.org/hwendorsements.html.

North Carolina Round-Up

Where was the celebrated Republican/conservative resurgence in North Carolina yesterday? Nowhere much.

Charlotte
...elected its first Democratic mayor in 22 years, Anthony Foxx (no relation), pictured left, and increased the Democratic majority on the city council to eight out of 11 seats.

Asheville
Progressives swept the election. Mayor Terry Bellamy was reelected for a second term, and liberal Democrats Esther Manheimer, Gordon Smith, and Cecil Bothwell won council seats, beating two-term incumbent Republican Carl Mumpower, who ran such a weird campaign against Heath Shuler in the NC-11 last year. Both Smith and Bothwell are well known local bloggers.

Chapel Hill
The N&O summarized this race succinctly: "The liberal establishment held off a band of businessmen trying to change the town's course." So Chapel Hill has a new mayor, Mark Kleinschmidt, and the developers took only one of four available seats on the town council. Shades of Boone's Templetons: The pro-business candidates "were being influenced heavily by a specific group of developers, and I think in the end that backfired on them," said the top vote-getter, Penny Rich (love that name!).

Winston-Salem
Big reelection win for Dan Besse after "a sometimes-heated campaign" against Republican challenger Ted Shipley. Wish I'd been following this one! Dan is a personal hero of ours. Looks like a Democratic sweep otherwise in Tobacco City.

Durham
Democratic incumbents trounced their challengers, though the top vote-getter among the losers, a Libertarian, crowed that his 27% of the vote was a personal best for him and a sign of great things coming in the future.

Greensboro
The major bright spot statewide for the GOP. The mayor and city council turned over to Republican control. Mark Binker discusses it here.

Time for Foxx to Put Up or Shut Up

Late yesterday afternoon Dan Besse posted this wholly reasonable suggestion on BlueNC:

Every elected representative who rails against the stimulus as fundamentally a bad idea should be expected to file an opt-out bill on behalf of his or her district. Under the opt-out, no infrastructure funds, no education funds, no broadband money, etc., from the stimulus-funded programs would be used in his/her district.

With Rep. Virginia Foxx taking every opportunity to fog-horn her utter disgust with President Obama and his economic stimulus, it's time for her to have the courage of her convictions and actually do what Dan suggests ... DEMAND that the 5th Dist. is waaay too American, too patriotic, too Godly to accept any of the president's ill-gotten funds.

To sit silently by ... why, Foxx might as well have voted for the stimulus.

All she has to do is follow the lead of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who yesterday said he intends to sniff every single dollar of the $4 billion that his state was due to receive, to make sure the wrong people hadn't handled it. That is the right thing to do, if you're a conservative extremist who believes in casting out demons and federal dollars with equal fervor.

We expect Gov. Mark Sanford of South Em-Effing Carolina to do likewise, to gather the hem of his cloak up tightly 'gainst his thighs, to wave off the Obama stimulus, and to pray to God to save his state from all such intrusions of Northern Aggression.

Madam Foxx should be so brave, or at least as intellectually consistent as her incessant carping.

Madam Gas Pump Tells a Joke

What would we do for comedy without an e-mail from Madam Foxx?

This a.m. our comedienne in Mugstomp-on-the-Potomac scolds us that we’ve GOT to reduce our dependence on oil, and she has the sure-fire solution: GET MORE DEPENDENT ON OIL, by letting those humanitarians in Big Oil drill off all our coasts (and behind the sofa, if need be), and soon alternative energies will magically appear, but not until Big Oil sells our natural resources back to us at inflated prices and leverages all the patents to alternative energy solutions so they can sell that to us too.

It’s not enough, those undrilled 68 million acres of federal land that Big Oil already holds drilling rights to. Corporate America has a bigger appetite. And our best interests in the deepest recesses of their microscopic hearts.

Thank gawd Madam Foxx has volunteered to fight for the beast.

FOOTNOTE
Dan Besse has written an excellent letter to the editor (as found on BlueNC):

To the editor:

Pat McCrory has just called millions of North Carolinians "hypocrites."

According to the Raleigh News & Observer (6/30/08), McCrory said that anyone who drives daily and opposes drilling [off North Carolina's coast] is "hypocritical."

In McCrory's view, it doesn't matter whether you drive an efficient car or even a hybrid vehicle. He doesn't care whether you cut back on driving by taking the bus or a bike or a carpool where possible. To him, it makes no difference whether you already use ethanol or biodiesel in your vehicle, or actively support development of biofuels so that you can. It doesn't matter that you don't control where the oil companies drill for oil or from whom they buy it.

If you aren't willing to jeopardize our coast and our fisheries and tourism industries in order to increase Big Oil's profits, then McCrory says you're a hypocrite.

Pat McCrory owes an immediate apology to the people of North Carolina.

The NC Senate's Proposed Budget

Very interesting thread called "Dear Senator Hagan" over at BlueNC, and if you want to educate yourself a little about the NC Senate's proposed budget, its implications and the roles of Kay Hagan and Walter Dalton in the making of it, and how it's a document that might seem to give political cover to the reelection of Sen. Liddy Dole, against whom Kay Hagan is supposed to be running, and the morality of children's health insurance specifically, on which topic do NOT miss Dan Besse's several comments in the thread ... then you should read it fer shur.

Some Watauga Numbers

On the Democratic side, Obama won his match-up with Clinton in early voting, where some 3,185 votes were cast (including mail-in absentees), 1,974 of those for Obama to 1,174 for Clinton. That winning margin for Obama could not be overcome in precinct voting today, even though 11 of 20 precincts today went for Clinton.

Generally speaking, Clinton was strongest in the more rural parts of the county but not everywhere. For example, Elk and North Fork tipped to Obama. Watauga precinct (Foscoe and Valle Crucis) went for Obama. The three Boone precincts and New River 1 went for Obama. Blowing Rock and Blue Ridge turned in dead-even ties between Clinton and Obama.

Fifth Dist. congressional candidate Roy Carter carried Watauga by some 1,300 votes but appears to be slightly behind Diane Hamby district-wide (as of this writing).

U.S. senatorial candidate Jim Neal had an impressive showing in Watauga (2,291 votes), though he lost to Kay Hagan by a thousand votes in the county and to Hagan state-wide by a huge margin. Watauga was probably one of his best counties, perhaps because he made two visits here prior to the voting.

Likewise, Dan Besse came in second to Walter Dalton in Watauga. Good showing for Besse here, while he was losing the rest of the state.

On the Republican side, the most astounding local numbers were local dentist Jerry Butler's loss of his own county to Alexander Co. resident Dwight Shook in the State Senate Dist. 45 primary. Shades of Virginia Foxx! Butler can't carry his own county but wins the district and will be facing incumbent Senator Steve Goss this fall.

Oh, and Ron Paul didn't win the Republican presidential primary, though with 367 Watauga votes, he did out-poll "No Preference."

A total of 2,660 Republican ballots were cast, to 7,081 Democratic ballots. That may turn out to be the most significant bellwether of the night.