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archived: 10 - 16 Sep, 2006 Back Next UPDATED: Sept 14, 2006 REPUBLICAN EXORCISTS Conservative forces continue to purge the Republican Party of its moderates, referred to as RHINO’s (Republican In Name Only). State House District 10 held another primary election yesterday to select the Republican nominee as the primary in June was set aside for voting irregularities by the State Board of Elections. Rep. Stephen Laroque, the Republican moderate, has been defeated by Willie Ray Starling. The conservative Republican reaction (emphasis added) is predictable: The North Carolina State Board of Elections has just announced that Willie Ray Starling has once again won the Republican primary for the 10th House District. Starling carried Greene and Wayne Counties, while LaRoque led in Lenoir. The unofficial tally at this time shows Starling leading LaRoque by 93 votes. The official tally will be available after the results are certified. . . .
Now, the voters have had their say, and the primary is over. Once again, Willie Ray Starling is the winner.
Jim Rouse, former Chairman of the Lenoir County GOP said tonight, " we now have a true conservative Republican to stand behind as we move toward the general election."
Starling will face Kinston city councilman, Democrat, Van Braxton in November. With Republicans in the 10th House obviously divided, this seat is a possible pick up for Democrats. Van Braxton is a credible candidate for the Democrats. POWER TO WOMEN! Carolyn Alford, a staff writer for the Jacksonville Daily News (emphasis added), provides an interesting view of women in North Carolina politics. Did you know that 8.8 million more women than men voted in the 2004 national elections, according to the U.S. Census? The turnout gap between women and men was greater than in any previous election with a rate of 60.1 percent women compared with 56.3 percent men. Women outvoted men in every racial and ethnic group.
Yet in 2006, only 81 women serve in Congress. A record 14 women serve in the Senate and 67 in the House. The proportion of women in state legislatures is 22.8 percent. In North Carolina, only seven of 50 people in the state Senate are women and 32 of 120 women in the state House.
Only eight of the nation’s 50 governors are women, only one of them is from the South. Five of 15 women lieutenant governors are from the South. Four women from the South are among the 14 female U.S. Senators.
Aug. 26 marked the 86th anniversary of the constitutional amendment to grant women the right to vote. Women are exercising that right, but still are not participating in political life. Why is that?
Women outnumber men in Onslow County 64,834 to 60,867 despite all the Marines at Camp Lejeune. Yet, women holding elected office in Onslow County are as rare as hen’s teeth. There are no female county commissioners and a woman has not run for that office since 1992. You can count on one hand the number of former women county commissioners. That’s not the case in Carteret and surrounding counties.
Although the mayor of Jacksonville is a woman, only one of the six members on the city council are women.
Women are voting, but they’re not coming out to play, so to speak. Ladies, now is the time to come out to play in the Democratic Party. Lillian’s List (a TPJ favorite) is working to elect progressive North Carolina women to the General Assembly. Every Democrat should join. NORTH CAROLINA DEMS BUCK TREND Rasmussen reports that nationally those describing themselves as Democrats are rising while those describing themselves as Republicans is falling. The story: The number of Americans calling themselves Republican has fallen to its lowest level in more than two-and-a-half years. Just 31.9% of American adults now say they’re affiliated with the GOP. That’s down from 37.2% in October 2004 and 34.5% at the beginning of 2006. These results come from Rasmussen Reports tracking surveys of 15,000 voters per month and have a margin of sampling error smaller than a percentage point.
The number of Democrats has grown slightly, from 36.1% at the beginning of the year to 37.3% now.
Those who claim to be unaffiliated have increased to 30.8% this month. That’s the highest total recorded since Rasmussen Reports began releasing this data in January 2004.
Add it all together and the Democrats have their biggest net advantage—more than five percentage points—since January 2004. In the first month of 2006, the Democrats’ advantage was just 1.6 percentage points. Last month, 32.8% of adults said they were Republicans and 36.8% identified themselves as Democrats. . . .
Please keep in mind that figures reported in this article are for all adults, not Likely Voters. Republicans typically do a bit better among Likely Voters (in fact, the two parties ended up even among those who showed up to vote in 2004). In North Carolina, Republicans continue to best Democrats in voter registrations. TPJ’s latest chart of State Board of Elections data appears below. Republicans have gained a net advantage of 7,652 registrations since January. Between August and September alone Republicans gained a net of 1,226 registrations.
North Carolina is bucking the national trend, but in the wrong direction. Question for Democrats, voter registration anyone? _____________________________________________ UPDATE: September 12, 2006 CHAIRMAN MEEK The political pundits are already questioning what will happen to Chairman Meek if the Democrats are not successful in the mid-terms. Gary D. Robertson, writing for the AP: When Democratic Party members elected Jerry Meek state chairman in an upset 19 months ago, it was largely because he promised to pay closer attention to county and precinct-level officials like Betsy Wells.
So Wells was impressed when Meek traveled the 200 miles from Raleigh to Cleveland County over Labor Day weekend to knock on doors for Betsy Fonvielle, who is challenging incumbent GOP Rep. Tim Moore in November.
"To be here on a holiday Saturday, for him to come and be a part of that, is just awesome," said Wells, Cleveland's Democratic Party chairwoman. "Jerry Meek has followed through on his promises."
But as Meek heads into his first major election season as the party's leader, promises and good feelings won't matter much unless the Democrats retain control of the General Assembly and make gains in local elections.
"It's a thankless job because you're at the mercy of the trends of the popularity of your party," said Andrew Taylor, a political science professor at North Carolina State University. In the public eye, "you're judged almost entirely on your peformance come election time." . . .
"I feel a lot of pressure about performing well this fall because I (shudder at) the thought of North Carolina falling into Republican hands," Meek said in an interview. "It's all about turnout. Whichever party does the best at mobilizing the base is the party that's going to win."
Soon after the November election, Meek could face an election of his own, since his two-year term as party chair ends early next year.
The Fayetteville attorney, who has decades of experience as a party activist despite being just 36, pledged to shake things up when he won election in February 2005.
He persuaded delegates that state party leaders weren't listening to county officials, and that he would give them more of a say in campaigns and get-out-the-vote efforts. Meek defeated Ed Turlington, a John Edwards confidant who had the backing of Gov. Mike Easley and former Gov. Jim Hunt.
Since his victory, Meek has focused on strengthening communication between Raleigh and county leaders, improving technology and reinvigorating the Democrats in areas where Republicans have surged over the past 30 years.
Meek hired three regional political directors to assist in field work, including historically Republican western North Carolina, where some Democrats have felt forgotten. A series of roadside ads - multiple signs that deliver a message when read in sequence, modeled after the old Burma-Shave ads - have gone up in 400 locations in 33 western counties. The ads address topics that are designed to reconnect voters to the party.
"We felt it was an effective way to get a positive message out to the counties," Meek said.
Meek began monthly conference calls with county chairs and has given them access to state donor lists as a source of potential volunteers. The state party also trained local workers to access the party's voter database and has helped some county parties get their first Web sites up and running.
Campaign finance reports show party fundraising is strong compared to other mid-term elections. And although Meek and Easley have clashed at times, he reached out to Hunt by creating an annual fundraising event named for the former governor and the late Terry Sanford.
Several Democratic activists say their party seems more energized and organized heading into the mid-term elections, particularly with polls giving low approval numbers to President Bush and the GOP-controlled Congress.
"This (Meek's) administration has gotten people to take notice," said Hunt Johnson, the Alamance County Democratic Party chairman. He's one of dozens of local party leaders statewide sponsoring low-key "house parties" scheduled for Tuesday, that are to be used to recruit volunteers heading into the Nov. 7 elections. "They're ready for a change." Robertson may be creating a bit more controversy than actually exists. Absent a collapse of the Party in the mid-terms, an unlikely event, Meek may not have any opposition for a second term. Three principal reasons: a) Meek has worked hard, b) he has garnered a great deal of respect from rank and file Democrats and c) he has been successful at fundraising. The only major failure of the Party has been in competing with Republicans to register voters; a subject on which TPJ has written much. Meek has consciously committed all available resources to turning out the vote among existing registered voters. The strategy may be successful, but it has potential short term risks and certain long term consequences. Meek has begun talking superficially about statewide voter registration, a least a start. Weighing Meek’s overall performance, TPJ believes that Robertson is describing a contest that will never occur. _____________________________________________ VOTER REGISTRATION State Party Chairman Jerry Meek announced the Democratic Party’s 2006 statewide voter registration plan. The plan is “10 new voters.” Chairman Meek outlines the plan in a letter sent to all Democrats: Voting is the most important grassroots activity, and Election Day is the day we get to see the fruits of our labor. In just 69 days, the voters of this state and nation will have their say, and the future is on the ballot.
This week, the North Carolina
Democratic Party is launching a statewide voter registration effort.
Your
County Party has
already been contacted and will be spearheading the drive in each county
in the state.
You can use the form letter or enter your
own text. Be sure to follow-up with them! Given the continuing advantage that Republicans have gained over Democrats in 2006, TPJ welcomes Chairman Meek’s opening the Democratic Party effort to engage voter registration. The stark reality is conveyed in the latest voter registration statistics for 2006. Republicans have gained a net advantage of 7,652 registrations since January. Between August and September Republicans gained a net of 1,226 registrations.
Chairman Meek’s call for a “Register 10 plan” may help to stem the tide, but it is doubtful that his call will ameliorate the Republican effort prior to the November election. Democrats need a professional, full time voter registration program. The objective is to build a continuing voter registration effort that produces results year in, year out. This is an outline of the plan that Democrats need in place: Professional Core/Volunteer Backbone The Democratic Party needs to hire a full time voter registration coordinator to oversee the effort across the State. At the core of the system should be sufficient staff and technology to identify every unregistered citizen eligible to vote and to identify the subset of those citizens who are likely Democratic Party registrations. Develop and implement a plan. If the Democratic Party is to expand its success at the ballot box, Democrats have to elect more candidates. For example, for State Senator Joe Sam Queen is making a bid to regain District 47. At the moment, Republicans are out registering voters in the District, making Queen’s effort harder. In May, Republicans gained a net of almost 500 voter registrations in this District:
While Democrats have picked up a bit on the effort to register voters since May, Republicans have continued to inch up their margins:
What might this District look like for Queen if Democrats had a well trained cadre of volunteers registering voters over the past year backed up by a professional staff in Raleigh? The professional corps should also consist of trainers. Their objective would be to work with County Party and auxiliary organizations to train a cadre of volunteer Democrats in every county possible. County Parties County Party organizations need to make voter registration a year round effort. It can become a core function around which the Party can attract volunteers and give them a vital task to accomplish. TPJ suspects that this would be a perfect function to attract new, younger citizens into the Party. Volunteers need not only enthusiasm, but the State Party needs to provide a professionally developed plan for every County and the contact lists. Think Long Term The NC Democratic Party did not lose voter registration over night. Democratic Party registration has been on a general decline for over a decade. Party registration will not be rebuilt over night, it will be a long road. Putting an active, effective structure in the field will take time and dedication to purpose. The trick is to start a professional program and start it with the resources that are needed. One reason given for not having a statewide voter registration plan in place earlier this year is the lack of financial resources. The logic of the position is that with very limited resources, those recourses are best spent turning out the Democrats that are already registered. That strategy may work in 2006. But, if Republicans continue to register more voters, the year by year strategy currently in place will fail at some point. Stated another way, Democrats cannot continuing to win elections without raising the resources to register voters. It is just that simple. It is too late for 2006. Democrats should start getting ready for 2008 – today. VOTE REPUBLICAN? Last week, TPJ published this article, written by a Brazilian economist. Excerpts from the article are being republished in TAR HEEL DEMS to bring the macro perspective to a North Carolina point of view. The article is a chilling analysis of the decline of America under Republican economic theory: Never in the history of the world have we had an economic revolution similar to the one that it is under way today. The global reallocation of economic power from the current superpower - the United States - to the new emerging powers of the future such as China, Brazil, India, Russia and the Arab Gulf countries is mind-boggling. . . .
In contrast, the United States (where billions of petrodollars have been parked temporarily waiting for better long-term investment opportunities) has an old and aging economy - with a very mature and declining manufacturing base that is struggling to carry the heavy load of its legacy costs, such as pension and health care obligations; these costs are related to a large number of retirees from the old American economy.
The agricultural portion of the US economy depends heavily on US government subsidies to be able to survive. And today its service industry and the remaining manufacturing are being outsourced out of the United States at the speed of light to countries such as India and China among many other countries around the world.
We can say that today the United States economy is comparable to a very large company that is fast becoming obsolete and many of its viable and surviving parts are leaving the United States through outsourcing for better opportunities around the world including Brazil.
On a daily basis, the lifeline of the American economy is being exported overseas - including its R&D, American "know how" and with it the potential of future innovations. Everybody knows that this is going on, but still there is a major disconnect between the perception of what people think is happening and the actual speed of this process and economic revolution. . . .
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, in theory the U.S. has a lot more competition from other countries than in the past for this pool of money available for investments on the international financial markets. But the people from countries around the world are still operating under their old mindset and they have been financing the US government's humongous budget deficits. Global insecurity regarding terrorism created an unique situation in the last five years in which the United States has been allowed the hogging of almost 90 percent of total global savings - year after year.
This unique situation can't continue much longer and an investor's mindset has finally started to change. There is a real possibility that in future years the competition will become very tough, and a large portion of this pool of global investment money will go to other countries instead of the United States. . . .
Because of [the] technological revolution, only in the last year or so did it start making economic sense to outsource everything in sight. With the current technology, we can outsource probably 50 percent or more of all American jobs to a cheaper country such as India, China, Brazil and a zillion other places around the globe.
Today the United States is not outsourcing only jobs that Americans don't want to do. The US corporations today are exporting millions of hi-tech jobs as fast as they can. At the same time, China and India are moving very fast into the future. They are investing heavily in R&D and they are developing the new state-of-art software, and the future in electronics. Today, there is something revolutionary and new regarding outsourcing; and it moves at the speed of light.
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