Enough already? Not even close
Published November 13, 2014
by Patrick Gannon, The Insider, November 10, 2014.
The results of last week's elections aren't even official, yet the battle for one very important seat in 2016 -- North Carolina governor -- has begun in earnest.
And outside groups already are spending money on ads.
Sigh.
Neither Republican Gov. Pat McCrory nor Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper has officially declared his candidacy for the seat, which is expected to be hotly contested. Asked last week if he was running for re-election, McCrory said he hopes to but hasn't made a final decision. Cooper hasn't declared either, but he is acting like a gubernatorial hopeful, and he is the likely Democrat to challenge McCrory in November 2016.
The 2016 governor's race started even before voters went to the polls in 2014. For months, commercials have aired attacking McCrory's response to the Dan River coal ash spill, and McCrory wasn't on the ballot this year. An ad from the Natural Resources Defense Council says McCrory "has coal ash on his hands. It's time for him to clean it up." Last week, McCrory deemed the ads a "total waste of money," cash that could have been spent on the environment instead.
Cooper hasn't been immune to attacks either. Republican legislative leaders and others have criticized him for not defending in court North Carolina's constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, a change approved by a majority of voters.
Neither Cooper nor McCrory wasted any time after last week's elections to spread their messages. The day after, Cooper sent out a fundraising email saying results at the polls "strengthened my resolve to make big changes in Raleigh." "Now more than ever, I’m determined to take on the challenges that North Carolina will face and make sure we live in a place that values a quality education, clean water and air, and good paying jobs," Cooper said in the email, which included a "Contribute" button.
That same day, McCrory spoke to television and print reporters from the Executive Mansion about Republican successes on Election Day, but said it wasn't time for the GOP to "spike the ball." Instead, he stressed the importance of governing and leadership for two more years. The governor also talked about his goals for 2015-16, including reforming Medicaid and improving roads.
In the months leading up to the 2016 elections, North Carolinians can expect significant outside spending on the governor's race, along with plenty of spending by the candidates themselves. As of June 30, McCrory and Cooper had more than $1.2 million each in their war chests. Those totals have probably grown since then.
But most of the spending will come from outside. Joe Stewart of the N.C. FreeEnterprise Foundation, who held a day-after presentation on the 2014 elections, said voters should prepare for an onslaught of political ads over the next two years, with the governor's race, a U.S. Senate race, and of course, the presidential race, on ballots in North Carolina in 2016.
"We should fully expect another $100 or $150 million coming into the state from outside groups in support of or opposition to the various candidates," Stewart said.
And it won't be long before we see those ads regularly.
Sigh.
November 13, 2014 at 10:40 am
Norm Kelly says:
Two years of political ads! Yeah! Since I can't fight it, I might as well pretend to enjoy it.
However, I have to disagree with Gov Pat on the issue of spiking the ball. It is DEFINITELY time to spike the ball!
When was the last time libs/socialists/demons went slow on their agenda? Have they continued to push socialized medicine, even in view of the absolute failures of the system? Have they taken ANY steps back on the scheme even in view of the videos that have recently come out by one of the architects stating that they purposely lied to pols in Washington, lied to citizens, called voters stupid? Nope. Because they are ideologues they continue to push forward.
Voters chose the Republican party across the country! Demons were slammed to the mat, hard. How do Republicans respond now that they are in office in the majority? They proceed to implement the plans they told voters about, that voters CHOSE, that will differentiate them from the socialist party pols. If Republicans do NOT push forward, hard, with their agenda, it has two effects. First, it reinforces the idea that there is no difference whether we vote for the socialists or the Republicans. Second, it shows that Republicans are weak, and afraid to govern, and an admission that the socialists have the only acceptable 'ideas'. Except voters voted for Republicans as much as they voted AGAINST the socialists. It's time the Republican party proved there IS a difference between freedom lovers and socialists. It's time that Republicans prove that the socialist way of doing things actually does destroy families, does destroy incentives to take care of yourself, does trap people in government subsistence schemes. It's time the Republican party proved there is hope for medical care for our veterans by introducing the free market into the VA Health system. The scheme from the occupier to hire thousands of more doctors and nurses into the existing VA Health system is NOT the answer. The answer that is both right and correct is to release veterans into the private health care system, but have the feds pay for it because it IS OUR DUTY to take care of veterans. Total elimination of the VA Health care bureaucracy, except for a few in oversight, is the best answer. Who best to do this? Will the socialists EVER agree that their socialist schemes have failed? Nope, not even close. Their answer ALWAYS is that too little money was spent on the scheme, too many Republicans were allowed to muddy the water, and finally, the American voters are too stupid to know that socialist schemes are always the answer they just can't tell us!
Move forward HARD with conservative plans. Prove that freedom is best, works best, improves the lives of MORE people, allows people to move out of poverty instead of trapping them. It's time to prove the socialists wrong, and only bold moves will accomplish this. We don't need to prove to the socialist pols that they are wrong, we need to prove to a majority of LEGAL VOTERS that the socialist pols are wrong!
