Who will make the big play in tonight's Senate debate
Published September 3, 2014
by Doug Clark, Greensboro News-Record, September 3, 2014.
Football teams need a strong defense and effective offense to win.
The same is true for political candidates. Tonight’s first debate between U.S. Senate contenders Kay Hagan and Thom Tillis (UNC-TV, 7 p.m.) gives them a chance to show what they’ve got. Let’s preview what we might see.
The Democratic incumbent from Greensboro will stress her hard work and visibility. She’s strived to serve all the people of North Carolina and visited every county in the state — most multiple times. She’s worked to promote small business, job training, exports and women’s issues. She supports the military. She’s traveled to Afghanistan several times to encourage the troops.
As a state senator for a decade, she helped balance the budget without tax increases. She raised teacher pay every year.
Tillis has cut school funding, curtailed voting rights, restricted access to abortion, denied Medicaid coverage for more than 300,000 North Carolinians, given tax breaks to the wealthy without helping ordinary working people, relaxed environmental protections and failed to adequately address the coal ash problem. Tillis represents the powerful and wealthy, not you.
Tillis on defense
North Carolina was in sad shape when the Republican from Cornelius took over as speaker of the House of Representatives in 2011. Its unemployment rate was among the highest in the country. The state was in debt to Washington for unemployment benefits. Teachers had not been given a raise in several years. The coal ash issue had been ignored. Under his leadership, all these problems have been turned around. The state’s economic growth rate is in the top 10 in the country. Unemployment has fallen. Teachers are getting a raise. The coal ash will be cleaned up. Tax cuts are creating a better business climate. State spending is under control.
Tillis on offense
Hagan votes with President Barack Obama 95 percent of the time, which isn’t what North Carolina wants or needs. She provided the winning vote for Obamacare, while promising that people who liked their current health care coverage could keep it. That was false. Obamacare is a boondoggle.
Hagan claims to support the military but wasn’t paying attention when the Department of Veterans Affairs was denying medical care for veterans and falsifying records. She supports an ineffective Obama foreign policy that has let world events spin out of control. Our country may be in more danger than ever.
He is a proven leader with experience in the private and public sectors. Along with Gov. Pat McCrory, he is leading a Carolina Comeback, which is producing a stronger economy, giving parents more choice in education and letting workers keep a larger share of their paychecks.
Hagan on defense
She has parted with Obama on a number of key issues, including defense spending, tobacco regulation and trade agreements. Nevertheless, the country is in a much better place than it was when he and she took office in January 2009. The economy was shedding 500,000 jobs a month then; now it’s been gaining jobs for the past five years. Our troops were still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan; they’re out of Iraq and soon will leave Afghanistan. Although it’s not perfect, millions more people have health care because of the Affordable Care Act. How would Tillis address their needs? She has called out the president for poor administration of the VA and pushed for improvements.
Overall, her record positions her in the middle of the Senate. North Carolina already has one Republican senator, and nine of its 13 representatives are Republicans. Who is going to stand for everyone else in North Carolina if another right-winger is elected to the Senate?
Special teams
In football, special teams play provides some of the best moments of unexpected drama. A long kickoff return. A blocked punt in the end zone. A holder who throws a pass for a first down.
The outcome in a debate could depend on which candidate makes a terrible blunder or issues a devastating one-liner. Maybe she’s found a new weak spot in his record and will exploit it at just the right time. Maybe he anticipates her attack and has prepared the perfect response.
Polls say the Hagan-Tillis campaign is very close, and opinions haven’t changed much throughout. Few voters are undecided. Tonight’s debate might be like a low-scoring football game where one turnover or one big play makes the difference.
