Archive for the ‘Pat McCrory’ Category

VIDEO – NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR, PAT MCMCRORY ON THE DOJ LAWSUIT RE PHOTO VOTER ID

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013

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HOW NORTH CAROLINA BECAME THE WISCONSIN OF 2013

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013

 

THE ATLANTIC

How North Carolina Became the Wisconsin

of 2013

With a Republican takeover of state government and weekly protests in Raleigh, the Tar Heel State is the front line in America’s partisan battle
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Gerry Broome/Associated Press

Nowhere is the battle between liberal and conservative visions of government fiercer than North Carolina. From the environment to guns, abortion to campaign finance, religion to taxes, Raleigh has become a battleground that resembles Madison, Wisconsin, in 2011.

Just as Wisconsinites seemed shocked that their state could become so polarized, North Carolina seems like an unlikely candidate for such fierce political clashes. North Carolinians like to boast that their state is “a vale of humility between two mountains of conceit.” Until recently, it was certainly an oasis of political calm between Virginia — a fast-changing purple state fighting battles over transvaginal ultrasounds — and South Carolina, home of outspoken conservatives like Jim DeMint and Joe Wilson. The Tar Heel State was more moderate. For most of the last century, Democrats controlled the governorship, and they also tended to control the state legislature. Meanwhile, the state voted for a Republican in every presidential election from 1980 to 2004. In 2008, a major push by Barack Obama won him the state by a tiny margin, and it seemed that North Carolina, like Virginia, might be an emerging purple or even bluish state.

Then in the 2010 election, Republicans took control of both chambers of the General Assembly for the first time since 1870. Two years later, Republican Pat McCrory won the governorship (incumbent Governor Bev Perdue, a Democrat, opted not to run in the face of almost certain defeat). Obama, meanwhile, failed to hold the state in the 2012 presidential race, even after Democrats staged their nominating convention in Charlotte.

That’s where our story begins: when the Republicans took over Raleigh. McCrory seems like an unexpected man to oversee a dramatic rightward shift. He was the more centrist GOP contender for the gubernatorial nomination in 2008 (he lost to Perdue, barely) and had spent 14 years as mayor of Charlotte, earning a reputation as a moderate. But the combination of Republican control of both the governorship and the legislature has emboldened the GOP to take up a slew of conservative priorities. Central to the push is Art Pope, a wealthy businessman and political benefactor who is sometimes described as North Carolina’s answer to the Koch brothers, and whom McCrory appointed as state budget director. Pope and his associates spent $2.2 million in state races in the 2010 cycle alone, Jane Mayer reported in 2011. (more…)

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NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR PAT MCCRORY FACES A BUDGET MESS

Friday, February 8th, 2013

 

 
  •  

Pat McCrory Meets a Democratic Mess

| February 6, 2013 |

Rick MartinezBy Rick Martinez, News Director for WPTF Radio and columnist for The News and Observer

Pat McCrory didn’t run for governor intent on cutting unemployment benefits and limiting Medicaid access. But that’s what he might have to do to fix the fiscal and operational messes left behind by his Democratic predecessors.

Folks, there’s no nice way to put this: Democratic leaders such as Govs. Bev Perdue and Mike Easley, Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight and House Speaker Joe Hackney either refused to read the state’s balance sheets or were simply asleep at the wheel during their time in office. The problems they left behind in the unemployment insurance and Medicaid programs aren’t the result of the recession. They’re based in systematic neglect. (more…)

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UNIVERSITIES FAILING TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR THE ‘REAL WORLD’

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

 

The Wall Street Journal

  • February 5, 2013

Jane Shaw: Higher Learning, Meet Lower

Job Prospects

Outrage greets a governor who dared to suggest that college degrees should lead to employment.

By JANE S. SHAW

When North Carolina’s new governor, Pat McCrory, was interviewed last week on the syndicated radio show hosted by former U.S. Education Secretary William J. Bennett, the talk naturally turned to education. According to some listeners—or those who heard about the interview in the media echo chamber—Gov. McCrory committed a major error.

No, he actually just stated an uncomfortable truth. Gov. McCrory, a former mayor of Charlotte, said he is concerned that many college graduates can’t get decent jobs. The problem, he suggested, might be that many academic disciplines have no real practical applications.

Referring specifically to North Carolina’s 16-campus state university system, Mr. McCrory wondered if state funding incentives should encourage areas of study that align with the job market. Other disciplines, such as gender studies, Mr. McCrory said, might be subsidized less. The funding formula, he said perhaps a bit indelicately, should not be based on the number of “butts in seats, but how many of those butts can get jobs.”

The education establishment immediately went bonkers. The pundits piled on. But Mr. McCrory raised a legitimate concern. And the solution he proposed, sketchy as it is at this stage, is not a bad one.

The truth is: Elite universities, such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, are doing a disservice when they lead students into majors with few, if any, job prospects. Stating such truths doesn’t mean you’re antagonistic to the liberal arts.

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REFORM IS UNDERWAY IN NORTH CAROLINA

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

 

Townhall.com logo
January 30, 2013

In Some GOP Circles, Reform Is Already

Underway

By Byron York

1/28/2013

The Republican National Committee chose to hold its recent winter meeting in Charlotte because North Carolina was a rare bright spot in last year’s presidential election. Although it was the high-profile site of the Democratic National Convention, North Carolina became one of just two states won by Barack Obama in 2008 that went for Mitt Romney in 2012. (The other was Indiana.) So being in North Carolina made Republicans feel a little better.But not much. The 168 members of the RNC grappled with the consequences of losing the presidential race, losing the Senate and losing seats in the House. Everybody knew something was wrong with the party. To fix things, some emphasized outreach to Hispanics. Some emphasized modernized voter turnout efforts. Some emphasized the search for better candidates. No one pushed just one solution; most saw the answer as a mix of those and other ideas.

But they might also start by asking themselves the most basic of questions: Other factors aside, did Republicans in 2012 address the concerns of the overwhelming majority of Americans who cite the economy and jobs as the nation’s most pressing issue?

The answer, mostly, is no. But some Republicans did. At the RNC’s opening night event, at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, members heard from one of those Republicans, new North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory.

McCrory first ran for the state’s top office in 2008. He lost to Democrat Bev Perdue in what became a brutal lesson in the overwhelming power of the Obama wave. “In ’08, I got killed by the Obama ground machine,” McCrory recalls. “We didn’t even know it was happening. The amount of money Obama put on the ground was something we’ve never seen before in North Carolina.”

 

Defeated, McCrory reassessed and decided to run again in 2012. But he knew he had to run a smarter race the second time around. He started earlier. He thought through his positions and the way he articulated them. He built relationships with more people across the state. He worked harder.

The new and improved McCrory stressed jobs, the economy and education. He highlighted — and did not run from — his 14 years of experience as mayor of Charlotte, even though that big-city resume was not a plus with many rural voters. He took advantage of Perdue’s disastrously bad performance as governor. And on Election Day, McCrory defeated Democratic rival Walter Dalton by nearly 12 points. (more…)

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9 STATES LEAD THE WAY TO TAX REFORM

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

 

The Wall Street Journal

  •  January 30, 2013

The State Tax Reformers

More Governors look to repeal their income taxes.

  • EXCERPT FROM THIS ARTICLE:  A new analysis by economist Art Laffer for the American Legislative Exchange Council finds that, from 2002 to 2012, 62% of the three million net new jobs in America were created in the nine states without an income tax, though these states account for only about 20% of the national population. The no-income tax states have had more stable revenue growth, while states like New York, New Jersey and California that depend on the top 1% of earners for nearly half of their income-tax revenue suffer wide and destabilizing swings in their tax collections.

    In the case of North Carolina, a new study by the Civitas Institute concludes that a tax reform that shifts more of the burden to consumption from income would increase average annual personal income growth by 0.38% to 0.66%. That’s enormous over time and would lead to much higher state tax revenues. North Carolina’s top income tax rate is 7.75%, which is higher than that of most nearby states that it competes with for investment. Virginia’s top rate is 5.75% while Tennessee has no personal income tax.

Washington may be a tax reform wasteland, but out in the states the action is hot and heavy. Nine states—including such fast-growing places as Florida, Tennessee and Texas—currently have no income tax, and the race is on to see which will be the tenth, and perhaps the 11th and 12th.

Oklahoma and Kansas have lowered their income-tax rates in the last two years with an aim toward eliminating the tax altogether. North Carolina’s newly elected Republican Governor Pat McCrory has prioritized tax reform this year and wants to reduce the income tax. Ditto for another newcomer, Mike Pence of Indiana, who has called for a 10% income-tax rate cut. Susana Martinez, New Mexico’s Republican Governor, has called for slashing the state corporate tax to 4.9% from 7.6%, and the first Republican-controlled legislature since Reconstruction in Arkansas is considering chopping its tax rates by as much as half.

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Associated PressLouisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (more…)

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NORTH CAROLINA’S RED-STATE RESURGENCE

Sunday, December 9th, 2012

 

The Wall Street Journal

  • December 8, 2012

North Carolina as the Blueprint for a

Red-State Resurgence

With party unity, good candidates and an inclusive message, conservative campaigns can prosper.

By FRED BARNES

Democrats across the country are celebrating the re-election of President Obama and the pickup of two seats in the Senate and eight in the House. But in two formerly Democratic states, Republicans have much to be joyful about.

The GOP victory in North Carolina included the governorship, veto-proof majorities in the state Senate and House, control of 54 of the state’s 100 counties, three new U.S. House seats, and a pivotal seat on the state Supreme Court. All this lifted Mitt Romney to a narrow victory in a state that Mr. Obama won in 2008.

It is premature to declare North Carolina a reliably red state, but Republicans are “positioned to be the dominant party in North Carolina for at least a decade if not beyond,” says GOP consultant Marc Rotterman.

The same is true in Arkansas, the second-best state for Republicans in last month’s election. Both states offer Republicans an opportunity to unseat Democratic senators in 2014. In Arkansas, the GOP trend has moved so quickly that Sen. Mark Pryor, who had no Republican opponent in 2008, is now considered highly vulnerable. In North Carolina, Sen. Kay Hagen, when matched against an unspecified Republican challenger, led just 45%-41% in a Public Policy Polling survey last month. The last Democratic senator to win re-election in North Carolina was Sam Ervin in 1968.

Republicans in the Tar Heel State were unified, with all elements of the party, including social conservatives, engaged with the various campaigns. The GOP ticket was ideologically balanced, with moderate gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory at the top. The party, Republican campaigns, and GOP-oriented groups joined in a massive turnout operation. Republicans exploited every opening that Democrats gave them—and there were plenty.

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Associated PressPat McCrory

The administration of incumbent Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue—though not Ms. Perdue personally—was marked by scandals. The John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank, uncovered numerous instances of misconduct and reported them in its publication, Carolina Journal. Gov. Perdue’s job approval sank to 25%, making her the second-most unpopular governor in the country (behind Pat Quinn in Illinois). (more…)

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PHOTOS – PAT McCRORY AND SCOTT WALKER

Thursday, September 27th, 2012

THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS WERE TAKEN AT A LUNCHEON FOR PAT McCRORY, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR AT THE CAROLINA COUNTRY CLUB IN RALEIGH ON SEPTEMBER 25, 2012.  GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER OF WISCONSIN WAS THE GUEST SPEAKER.

 

From the left: Pat McCrory, candidate for North Carolina Governor and Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin

Pat McCrory

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin

Pat McCrory

Governor Scott Walker

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