For What It's Worth...

Duly noted ... the Tea Party crowing in NC House Dist. 6 that they beat the "Thom Tillis machine" out of Raleigh:

...it is highly likely that the biggest loser yesterday DownEast was Thom Tillis and his ambitions to be U. S. Senator. He stirred up a massive amount of passion with redistricting, ferry tolls and meddling in local primaries. Whether he can redeem himself among the GOP base will likely depend on how he operates going forward and particularly going into November. If he and his staff continue to blunder as they have over the last year it is possible that the GOP may lose its majority in the House. That's how upset many grassroots Republicans and unaffiliated voters are.

Meanwhile, the Ultimate Tea Partier John Tedesco, the under-educated and over-caffeinated former member of the Wake County School Board, won the second Republican primary yesterday to run against State Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson. Apparently, Mr. Tedesco's forestalled plans to dismantle Raleigh's school system only fueled his ambition to dismantle the entire State of North Carolina's school system. Meanwhile, Mr. Tedesco's Center for Education Reform appears to be mainly a website meant to support Mr. Tedesco.

The Tea Party did less well in other second primary races. For example, Richard Hudson won against dentist Scott Keadle in the 8th Congressional District. Hudson will now face incumbent Dem Larry Kissell. Keadle was extravagantly backed by the Club for Growth, which reportedly poured over $700,000 into his campaign. Keadle now has the distinction (call it the "Vernon Robinson Halo") of being a three-time Congressional loser, in three different Congressional districts.

Retiring Congresswoman Sue Myrick's baby boy Dan Forrest won against Tony Gurley for the Republican Lt. Gov. nomination. Gurley will presumably go back to being a Wake County commissioner.

How They Voted in the NC Delegation

On the Billionaire Coup Act of 2011, a.k.a., Debt Ceiling and Deficit Reduction Surrender:

Democrat Heath Shuler voted yes
Republican Howard Coble voted yes
Republican Renee Ellmers voted yes
Republican Virginia Foxx voted yes
Republican Patrick McHenry voted yes
Republican Sue Myrick voted yes

Republican Walter Jones voted no
Democrat G.K. Butterfield voted no
Democrat Larry Kissell voted no
"Democrat" Mike McIntyre voted no
Democrat Brad Miller voted no
Democrat David Price voted no
Democrat Mel Watt voted no

Scott Keadle, Resurrected

You're forgiven if you've forgotten the name Scott Keadle. He's the Iredell County dentist and former one-term County Commissioner who was one of two Republican primary challengers against Little Patty McHenry in the NC10 in 2010.

Now, according to this Republican site, he's planning to run in another Republican primary totally out of his district, the NC8, potentially to challenge incumbent blue-dog Democrat Larry Kissell.

Despite some expensive Republican hired guns he's enlisted, just what is the track record of candidates running in congressional districts where they don't live?

The Latest in Gerrymandering

Republican U.S. Congressional map is now out.

Shuler's 11th gets redder (natch). He's lost big chunk of Buncombe (city of Asheville, mainly, which has been moved into Patrick McHenry's 10th), and gains four Republican counties (Avery, Mitchell, Caldwell, and Burke). That athletic director job at the University of Tennessee is perhaps looking better all the time.

Brad Miller's 13th adds Surry and Stokes, formerly in the 5th. He loses some of Raleigh, loses Greensboro, but also gets northern Durham and Orange.

David Price's 4th loses Raleigh and Wake County except for a small chunk. He's left with southern Durham and Orange, a piece of Chatham, and Lee, Harnett, and Cumberland counties.

Wake County (Raleigh) is now split up between four different districts: Miller's, Price's, Ellmers', and (amazingly) Butterfield's. Butterfield's 1st District now does the loop-de-loo from the coast into Wake County.

Larry Kissell's 8th gets redder with Rowan, Davidson, and part of Randolph.

Renee Ellmer's 2nd moves south, out of Franklin, Nash, Chatham, and Lee, loses most of Harnett but gets Sampson, most of Cumberland, and west Wayne.

Virginia Foxx's 5th adds more of Forsyth (but not downtown Winston-Salem) and gains parts of northern Davidson and Rowan counties in exchange for losing Surry and Stokes to Brad Miller. They managed to keep all those black voters in W-S out of Foxx's district by wrapping her around downtown.

Overreach

Somewhat dubious analysis of the Republican redistricting maps for NC in this morning's Politico ("dubious" because any article that quotes "Democrat" Brad Crone didn't dig very far). But the conclusion offers something that Republicans aren't thinking about (in their lust to shove the shiv in Miller, Kissell, and Shuler):

...Thomas Mills, a Democratic consultant in the state, said it’s possible Republicans might overreach and endanger their own incumbents by drawing Democratic-oriented areas into their districts. One possibility: that in weakening Shuler, Republicans would place the Democratic stronghold of Asheville within McHenry’s new boundaries.

“The days of Democrats being in the majority are over, but the seats that Republicans hold may be competitive by the end of the decade,” said Mills. “Things change.” But, he said, “They’re going to make this as ugly as they possibly can.”

Republicans "overreach"? How out of character that would be!

They mention Republican pudge Patrick McHenry as ironically not prospering necessarily by a map drawn to hurt Shuler. They don't mention Foxx and how she may be weakened. Her 5th District seat was already under-populated, according to the Census, and the map-drawers were already going to have to add tens of thousands of new voters to the 5th. From where will they snatch them, and will they be as dependably Foxx-addled as, say, the pudding-heads in Stokes County?

Colbert Mocks Wake School Board While Kissell, Shuler Mock Kissell, Shuler

Stephen Colbert used the Wake County Board of Education as the main object lesson in a segment on The Colbert Report last night -- "The Word -- Disintegration." And the N&O duly covered it.

And Dem Reps Larry Kissell and Heath Shuler announced that they would not vote to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act today, despite the fact that they both voted against it originally. "Back then we were dorks," they said. "Now we're not dorks." The N&O duly covered it.

Kissell, Shuler, and McIntyre Get a Warm Reception

The main action yesterday at the state Democratic convention in Fayetteville -- or at least the most interesting -- swirled around a resolution put forward on the convention floor "to condemn" U.S. Reps. Mike McIntyre of Lumberton, Larry Kissell of Biscoe, and Heath Shuler of Haywood County "for their votes against health care reform."

Ouch.

The leadership of the state party were apparently fit to be tied.

Following heated debate, the resolution got watered down to asking the three congressmen to please please please don't vote with the Republicans in the future to repeal the health care reform. Andrew Whalen, the executive director of the state party, put on his best game face: "I think the fact that the resolution was amended and then passed shows the party is to work together to get Democrats elected. It demonstrates we are the big-tent party...." Blah, blah, blah.

Wish we had us a few Anthony Weiners in North Carolina ... instead of what we have.

Tim D'Annunzio: "Unfit for Public Office at Any Level"

They're ganging up on poor Tim "Machine Gun" D'Annunzio, who is locked in a primary run-off for the privilege of being the Republican nominee who will take on NC-8 Dem Larry Kissell in November.

D'Annunzio is mainly just a blunter version of Rand Paul, but he's so alarmed the state Republican establishment that NC GOP Chair Tom Fetzer came out on Friday and said, "By my personal observation of his behavior, and by acquaintance with his record and background, I consider Mr. D'Annunzio unfit for public office at any level. What he could do to the party as our nominee is secondary in my view to what he could do to the country if he got elected. If he got elected, for crying out loud, that would be a disaster."

We confess to a certain fondness for any major party spokesman who uses the phrase "for crying out loud" in 2010! It's more than just quaint. It's positively endearing.

But poor Tom Fetzer! To have to say such things about the man who took more votes (some 36.85% of the total) than the five other Republicans in the first primary on May 4th!

Fetzer loses either way, whether he succeeds in destroying D'Annunzio's candidacy or not, because he's earned himself and his state Republican Party several thousand potential enemies among the Tea Party and libertopian elements on the right.

The country club Republicans, of which Tom Fetzer is a shining avatar (for crying out loud), want blow-dried Harold Johnson to win the run-off, but Fetzer just knee-capped that campaign too by insuring that many of the D'Annunzio voters will stay home on November 2nd.

Winner ... Larry Kissell!

"Political Puppet," Empty Suit, and Not That Bright

Those are the characterizations of Republican Congressional candidate Harold Johnson, former sportscaster at WBTV and the man the Republican establishment hopes will save them from the hair-brained (and similarly triggered) Tim "Machine Gun" D'Annunzio, who actually led the voting in the 8th District Republican primary but failed to get 40% and must now face Johnson in the run-off election on June 22nd.

The person who used those descriptors of Johnson was D'Annunzio. He was reacting to the news that the former holder of that Congressional seat, Robin Hayes, had just endorsed Johnson, who does not scare the country club Republicans at all, something that evidently can't be said about D'Annunzio, who scares lots of people with more or less stable emotions.

If elected, Johnson will do as he's told by brighter men. D'Annunzio won't, 'cause nobody nowhere is brighter than he. Which sets up the basic conflict in this run-off between the tell-me-what-to-think mainline Republican Party and the up-yours-and-the-horse-you-rode-in-on insurgent tea partiers.

Meanwhile, the man who stands to gain the most from this herculean struggle, incumbent Democrat Larry Kissell, is understandably mum. First rule in politics: don't interfere while your enemy is destroying himself.

Where Elevators Don't Go to the Top Floor

The unfortunate second primary between Elaine Marshall and Cal Cunningham will not be the most entertaining. That dubious honor will go to the second primary run-off between Republicans Machine Gun Tim D'Annunzio and Blown-Dry Harold Johnson down in the NC-8, for the privilege of running against Larry Kissell this fall.

D'Annunzio has put a million dollars of his own money into convincing the Republican base that he's the most extreme candidate that anyone could possibly imagine. He's apocalyptic in his theocracy. The only other Republican who has come close to his toxicity is Vernon Robinson of Winston-Salem.

His run-off opponent is nice-guy Harold Johnson, a former Charlotte sports newsman for WBTV, and the old-guard Republican establishment, terrified of D'Annunzio, is lining up behind Johnson.

In other words, this is a tea-partyer's wet dream, a contest between the establishment devil and the born-again saint of anti-government millenarianism.

May the crazier man prevail!

North Carolina's Blue Dogs

On passage of H.R.3590 (219-212), North Carolina Democrats Mike McIntyre, Heath Shuler, and Larry Kissell all voted with the Republicans. Those no votes won't earn them any support from Republicans come November, while driving away their own base.

Kissell, particularly, can ill afford losing his base ... unless, of course, the Republicans actually nominate Machine Gun Tim D'Annunzio to run against him.

Shuler ... who knows? Haven't seen any Republican challenger among those running in the primary who looks like a winner.

McIntyre ... he's been voting with the Republicans so long he's barely indistinguishable from ... Howard Coble.

Elections Filing Update

Filing to run on the ballots of 2010 ended today at noon. Billy Kennedy does not have a Democratic primary, but Virginia Foxx has one on the Republican side.

Someone else filed to run in the Republican primary against Little Patty McHenry in the NC-10 ... David Michael Boldon. Two will be vying on the Democratic side to oppose the eventual winner of the Republican contest (who will be McHenry, we've said all along). We'll be trying to find out about these Democrats: Jeff Gregory and Anne Fischer.

Heath Shuler in the NC-11 has a Democratic primary opponent -- Aixa Wilson. Whole bunch of panic-stricken extras running in the 11th Dist. in the Republican primary.

Previously noted: Larry Kissell has a primary in the NC-8.

What's going on among Republicans in the NC-6? Poor old thousand-year-old Howard Coble has five primary opponents, which, as in the 10th, means he wins.

Clown Car

At the moment, Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell (NC-8) has only one filed Republican opponent, Tim D'Annunzio, with several others supposedly waiting in the wings to file. For the time being Mr. D'Annunzio will do nicely for the entertainment.

D'Annunzio plans a "Machine Gun Social" fundraiser at a local gun shop in Fayetteville this Thursday. For $25 (cheap!) you get to fire a machine gun until the bullets run out. No word on what the target will be.

After Jim Morrill publicized this event in the Charlotte Observer, over 70 comments came pouring in, some funny, some rude, many signed "Anonymous." D'Annunzio went ballistic over "Anonymous," posting in the same comment thread under his own name:

...Hiding behind these web sites as "anonymous" is the same as hiding under a the white hood, COWARDS. You wouldn't dare say these things to my face, but I wouldn't have any trouble telling you this same thing to yours, if you dared.

Interestingly, D'Annunzio has been posting anonymously since last May on his own blog, "Christ's War." Posting anonymously until today, that is. If you look at what he put up early this a.m., for the first time he uses his own name.

D'Annunzio's coming out from behind the "Anonymous" device owes a good deal, we suspect, to Laura Leslie's outing his blogging ways yesterday on Isaac Hunter's Tavern. Leslie's opening is priceless (and the whole thing, a must read):

"I don't know anything about that," Tim D'Annunzio's press flack Lauren Slepian told me this afternoon. Finding out from someone else that your candidate has a personal blog does not generally make for a good day. Finding out from a reporter is even worse.

So ... who else does the Republican Party have to offer in this race?

Long Way Down

The dangers of losing your base: "The woman who chaired Democratic U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell's two congressional campaigns has turned against him. Dannie Montgomery, a teacher from Anson County who served as first vice chair of the N.C. Democratic Party, said in a news release that Kissell 'has turned his back on the grassroots supporters who propelled him to office.' ..."

Kissell has drawn at least one Democratic primary challenger, writer Nancy Shakir of Fayetteville.

Kissell's Vote Against Health Care

Myron Pitts writes in the Fayetteville Observer under the headline "Kissell's no on health care reform hasn't hurt him." Pitts is basing that take on Public Policy Polling results that show Kissell ahead by double digits of all his potential Republican opponents.

The most interesting factoid from that poll, however, is that some 44 percent of those polled, a plurality, "believe Kissell did indeed vote for the [House] bill."

Now that's a wrinkle! What does it mean that Kissell is winning among people who think he voted for insurance reform? What happens when they find out he didn't vote for the only bill that actually offers some reform?

Dunno.

Never a Good Idea

It's Politics 101: Never appear to waffle.

So we experienced one of those head-slapping moments just now, brought on by too much waffle ingestion. NC-8 Congressman Larry Kissell, he who voted against the House health-insurance reform bill in November (one of 39 Democrats who did so), is quoted today in the Charlotte Observer as liking the House reform bill much better than the Senate "reform" bill, which is especially galling now that the Obama White House has signaled very clearly that it wants the Senate bill and not the House bill, so what difference does Kissell's inconsistent druthers and his voting record make anyway?

"I happen to think the House bill is better," sez Kissell.

Whattya gonna do with hind-sight like that?

Larry Kissell's Possible Primary Opponent

Larry Kissell, the first-term Democrat representing the NC-8, voted against the health insurance bill which the U.S. House passed and which is several light years better than the hardened turd favored by Joe Lieberman and Barack Obama in the Senate.

Kissell has been in trouble with his Democratic base in the NC-8 ever since.

There's a movement to recruit lawyer Chris Koury to run against Kissell in the 2010 primary, and no less than the chair of the Mecklenburg Democrats is cheering Koury on.

There's going to be a lot more of this sort of primary activity if the Democrats in the U.S. Senate get their way with what they are currently proposing as "reform" of health insurance.

Republicans Have Them a Celeb To Run Against Kissell

Well known and now retired Charlotte sportscaster Harold Johnson sez he's just the empty suit to take on Larry Kissell in the NC-8.

Johnson's got the time. Johnson's got the hair. Johnson's got the smile. He's THE PERFECT Republican, all hat and no cattle.

Now, Kissell's got his own problems these days with his base, but he's also got time to make some repairs to those bridges.

And Johnson, a teleprompter-reading celebrity in the rah-rah sports arena, might be our choice for an opponent, if we were running the Kissell reelection campaign. Anyone remember famous race-car driver Richard Petty's run against Elaine Marshall in 1996? It actually takes a little more than (totally unqualified) TV notoriety to get into office.

Oops
Inadvertently lost the link to the Jim Morrill story in today's Charlotte Observer.

Kissell Has Some 'Splainin' To Do

Rep. Larry Kissell is North Carolina's newest representative in Congress, elected in 2008 from the NC-8 (which includes all the counties on the South Carolina border, from the eastern suburbs of Charlotte to Cumberland County and Fayetteville). Most analysts agree that Kissell won his seat against the wealthy Republican Robin Hayes partly on Barack Obama's coattails, since Obama carried the district.

Which makes Kissell's vote against the House's "Affordable Health Care for America Act" last Saturday very puzzling. Make that "very maddening," since Kissell was elected on the strength of progressive activism and was thought to be an actual Democrat, as opposed to NC representatives Mike McIntyre (NC-7) and Heath Shuler (NC-11), the Blue Dogs who owe some secret, shadowy allegiance to the political power cult known as "The Family."

For his part, Kissell has been ducking comment since Saturday, while his constituents are pouring on some heat. A group of protestors organized by the Cumberland County Progressives stood in the rain outside Kissell's Fayetteville office yesterday, holding up wet signs that said "Blow the Whistle on Larry Kissell" and "Give Kissell a Big Dismissal." (Rhymes are apparently still the preferred genre for political protests.)

"In the 8th District, we only have one voice in Congress, and that one voice voted against us," said a spokesman for the group. "We're upset that Kissell has been elected -- and really by the coattails of President Obama -- to represent a district where a lot of people need health care," said the president of the local NAACP. "And he didn't vote for it. That bothers me."

Disappointment Over Larry Kissell

The U.S. House voted yesterday 239-191 to pass H.R.1106, Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, written "To prevent mortgage foreclosures and enhance mortgage credit availability."

Some 24 Democrats voted against the bill. Based on his developing track record, we fully expected that one of those 24 Democrats would have been Heath Shuler, The Blue Meanie. But, no. Shuler voted for it. So did Republican Walter Jones.

Voting against it were all the rest of the N.C. Republican delegation and ... Democrat Larry Kissell, newly elected last fall.

We've been searching for much of the day for any on-the-record explanation from Kissell of why he voted against the bill. Haven't seen anything. We have seen, however, angry reactions from some of the folks over at BlueNC. Kissell often posted at BlueNC while he was running against Robin Hayes, and at least one poster is calling for him to come on back and 'splain his vote.

He needs to do that.