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27 Apr - 3 May, 2008
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Next UPDATED: APR 29, 2008 AN ACCOUNT The public call to hold the NC GOP to account for their race baiting ad nominally aimed at Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue has ignited. Respected newspapers from across America and North Carolina have waded in: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/opinion/26sat4.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin The New York Times Editorial
NAACP says GOP ad inserts 'racist sentiments' into election http://www.charlotte.com/204/story/596365.html Charlotte Observer
Gutter politics in North Carolina
Ad will hamper appeal to blacks, Republicans say http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/NRSTAFF/671630358/-1/NEWSC Greensboro News & Record
GOP activist stays calm in storm over ad http://www.charlotte.com/171/story/597109.html Charlotte Observer
GOP ad the latest in N.C. to rely on race http://www.charlotte.com/291/story/598432.html Charlotte Observer
State GOP ad is the ghost of Jesse Helms http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1051683.html News & Observer
Campaign ads 'race' for the bottom http://www.newsobserver.com/570/story/1051621.html News & Observer
Don't try to make Wright '08's Willie Horton http://www.charlotte.com/289/story/598495.html Charlotte Observer
State GOP leaders use Helms' fear-and-prejudice strategy http://www.reflector.com/local/content/news/stories/2008/04/28/cheriecolumn.html Greenville Daily Reflector
GOP stoops low in North Carolina Sen. Doug Berger, NC State Senate, District 7, took his Republican opponent to account in a rather unique, but effective way. Sen. Berger and his opponent appeared before the Henderson-Vance Black Leadership Conference this past weekend. Sen. Berger called for his opponent to either condone or condemn the advertisement as his opponent is an officer of the Franklin County GOP whose website features a link to the ad. The Henderson Daily Dispatch (emphasis added) describes the events: During the Henderson-Vance County Black Leadership Caucus Candidate Forum Saturday, N.C. Sen. Doug Berger challenged his opponent, Chuck Stires, to “repudiate” the “horrible ad” the state Republican Party plans to air this week linking gubernatorial candidates Richard Moore and Bev Perdue to Barack Obama’s controversial pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Stires, a Republican who is challenging Democrat Berger for the District Seven seat in the N.C.Senate, sought to avoid the issue, saying he wouldn’t let Berger “set my agenda.” Pressed about the ad later by a Daily Dispatch reporter, he stood by his party’s plans to air the aid. The national Republican Party and its standard-bearer in the upcoming presidential election, Arizona Sen. John McCain, have asked the N.C. Republican Party not to air the ad, which includes a (censored) obscene sound bite by Wright from a sermon at his United Church of Christ congregation in Chicago. . . . At Saturday’s forum, Berger compared the Wright ad to the Willie Horton spot from the 1988 presidential race; the race-baiting tactics used against U.S. Sen. Frank Porter Graham in North Carolina more than half a century ago, and even the Wilmington Race Riots of 1898. Berger said Vance County voters had rejected unfair, mean-spirited politics in electing Peter White as the county’s first black sheriff in 2006. When he called the proposed Wright ad “as horrible as the Wilmington race riots” and asked Stires to join McCain in calling on the state party to stop the ad, Berger received a thunderous standing ovation from the crowd of 50 or so at the Elks Lodge on Rockspring Street. Stires said he would not allow Berger to set his agenda. Every Republican candidate in North Carolina should be called upon to take a position on their Party’s use of a race baiting ad. Stires’ refusal to answer publicly before a largely Black audience, while later being “pressed” by a reporter to admit, is telling. It is time that more NC GOP leaders and candidates be held to an account.
MY VOTE Since I don't subscribe to or follow any other political blogs but am a bit disturbed by something I received in the mail today, I will send this comment on to you. It may be of interest. Today, one week before the Primary to select the Democratic candidate for Governor, I receive a newsletter in the mail today from the State Treasurer’s Office. I am a public employee in North Carolina and a member of the State Retirement System. This "newsletter" is a publication of the NC Retirement System. On the front page is a large picture of Richard Moore along with an article he authored about the health of the NC State Retirement System. In addition there is an article describing Mr. Moore's efforts to have the NC Legislature repay the money it borrowed from the fund to fill a budget gap in 2001. And another article about his efforts to get unclaimed money being held by his office back to the rightful owners. This publication was paid for using public funds. There is nothing in the publication that is news to me or that has not been widely reported in the media. Mr. Moore's efforts to promote himself at tax payer expense one week prior to an election are shameful. I know with certainty now who will get my vote. _____________________________________________ UPDATED: APR 27, 2008RACE WAR The 2008 election in North Carolina will be a race war – one deliberately initiated by the NCGOP. The NCGOP’s ad representing the opening salvo can be viewed at this hyperlink. Sen. McCain calls for the NC GOP to stop the ad. North Carolina Republican leaders defy their presumptive Presidential nominee and continue raising money to launch the ad commercially. Sen. McCain retorts: They're not listening to me because they're out of touch with reality and the Republican Party. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and this kind of campaigning is unacceptable." The National Republican Party disavows the ad: Per the RNC, the national leadership of the Republican Party has been in contact this morning with the North Carolina GOP, urging them to refrain from running the "Extreme" ad. The party says that the content of the anti-Obama ad, which references the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is "not appropriate" and "unhelpful." The ad represents the political race wars of NC generations past. North Carolinians have worked hard over subsequent generations to provide a community in which all are equally entitled to live and strive to achieve their fullest potential. NC GOP wants to return to the past to pit one North Carolinian against the other. Republicans start the race bating misrepresenting Sen. Obama’s position on Rev. Wright’s sermon. The NC GOP ad is premised on the fact that Sen. Obama agrees with Rev. Wright’s statement. That is false and the Republicans knew it. Sen. Obama has condemned Rev. Wright’s statement: Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue. Every clear thinking Republican is denouncing the ad, except North Carolina Republicans. To date, has any NC Republican gubernatorial candidate disavowed the ad; any Republican running for the North Carolina Council of State, any Republican running for State House or State Senate? The simple fact is that the North Carolina Republican Party is so extreme and out of step with the North Carolina that we live in today that its own Party elders and the National Republicans have rejected the introduction of race into the campaign. The simple question for all North Carolinians is this: If Sen. McCain, the National Republican Party and decent Republicans across America disavow the race bating by the North Carolina Republican Party, why should citizens of this State vote for any North Carolina Republican? Citizens of North Carolina should be asking EVERY North Carolina Republican candidate if they endorse or repudiate the actions of their Party. The answers, individually and collectively, will say a lot about the NC GOP and what kind of North Carolina we want to live in. STIFFED There will be no debate between Sens. Clinton and Obama in North Carolina. The State Democratic Party made the announcement: Clinton had agreed to an April 27 debate with Obama at the RBC Center in Raleigh. CBS was scheduled to host and televise the debate. Obama had agreed to a previous date but never committed to the April 27 debate. The state party said the debate was canceled because of time constraints and logistical issues associated with such a large, national event. “While there was great interest in the debate, there were also growing concerns about what another debate would do to party unity,” the party said in a statement. Party spokeswoman Kerra Bolton declined to elaborate. In actuality, Sen. Obama refused another debate with Sen. Clinton. The Pennsylvania debate was likely the last debate of the Democratic primary. Sen. Obama’s refusal to debate in North Carolina is politically the correct strategy. He leads in the campaign for pledged delegates and his debate performance in Pennsylvania was poor by any standard, including his own previous performances. Sen. Clinton is financially challenged. So, why give Sen. Clinton another, free, opportunity to make the case for her nomination? North Carolinians are left with a lost opportunity however. The Charlotte Observer editorially notes: A Clinton-Obama face-off would be terrific if it centered on issues important to North Carolinians. There are many that have broad interest. What would the candidates do about education? Job creation? The adverse impacts of global trade? The environment? Energy and conservation? Social Security and Medicare? And so on. With the right moderators, that could've happened. Sen. Obama’s political stratagem is gamesmanship as usual – the challenger wants to press the attack, the leading candidate wants to get to the finish line. Therein lays the “rub” for Sen. Obama. He built the central premise of his campaign on changing “politics as usual:” He continued with the theme he has been harping on, “politics as usual” which he says existed before President Bush came into office. It also happens to be a similar message to the one that helped President Bill Clinton get elected in 1992. Barack Obama also knocked Hillary Clinton subtly by raising the issue of triangulation and getting away from worrying about what Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani have to say. He urges us to lead by polls, not principles and not by calculation, but conviction. His message is fantastic, he wants change, and he wants to see other candidates “say what they believe and not what think we want them to believe.” North Carolina is one of the largest states in the Union and NC Democrats have not had a meaningful Democratic Party primary in modern history. North Carolinians deserved the full measure of a campaign debate – Sen. Obama chose politics as usual. ZOUNDS TPJ’s formula for making North Carolina competitive in the ’08 Presidential election is relatively simple. Democrats must: 1. Drive Democratic turnout in November to about 45% of all voters (Democrats comprised only 39% of all voters in 2004 even though Democrats constituted some 46% of all registered voters. Failure to turnout Democrats in 2004 accounted for 44% of Bush’s margin of victory.)
2. Improve performance among Unaffiliated voters to 48% Democrat; 52% Republican (Democrats lost Unaffiliated voters in 2004 by 44% Democrat, 56% Republican.)
3. Reduce Democrat losses in Party “crossover” (16% of Democrats voted for Bush in 2004 while only 4% of Republicans voted for Sen. Kerry). In order to drive ’08 turnout to 45%, Democrats will need to increase new net voter registrations by some 200,000 and “wake up” some 200,000 out of 800,000 “sleeping Democrats” who have not voted since 2000. Are they ambitious objectives? – YES! Can Democrats reach those objectives? – YES! In fact, Democrats have passed the half way mark in registering new voters if 200,000 is the target. As of April 26th, Democrats have a “net” voter registration gain of 105,459. Reaching 200,000 by the General Election is entirely feasible. In fact, North Carolina Democratic registrations may well exceed 200,000 as Sen. Obama’s national campaign will launch a national voter registration drive, “Vote For Change,” after the May 6th primaries. The broad parameters have been outlined: "Vote for Change" will summon the volunteer army that Obama has amassed in the 47 states and territories that have already held primaries or caucuses this year, along with the nine yet to come. Deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand described the effort as a "sustained 6-month campaign" aimed at driving up turnout for all Democratic candidates in November. Obama's campaign has waged aggressive turnout drives in individual states, including Pennsylvania, where nearly 230,000 Democrats registered before the April 22 primary, most of them Obama supporters. New registrations have hit 165,000 in North Carolina and topped 150,000 in Indiana -- and unlike in Pennsylvania, both of those May 6 states open the primaries to unaffiliated voters (and Republicans too in Indiana), meaning they don't have to register as Democrats to participate. Where does your county stand?
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