Former Mayor Pat McCrory, who's almost certainly going to run for governor again in 2012, calls Daily Views to dispute today's earlier Daily Views post that quotes Chris Fitzsimon about McCrory's role in getting the proposed ethics bill sent back to committee. Nor was he happy with the DV headline: Pat McCrory tries to derail N.C. ethics bill?"
"I'm not against the ethics bill," McCrory said. What he didn't like, he said, was the last-minute addition to the ethics bill which would have expanded the state's public financing program for statewide campaigns to four more Council of State offices and pay for the financing with what the News & Observer of Raleigh, in its news account, dubbed "relatively modest new fees on the businesses and firms regulated by the elected offices involved – attorney general, state treasurer, agriculture commissioner, labor commissioner and secretary of state.
"For example, candidates for secretary of state could have received campaign money through an extra $5 fee imposed when a new corporation is formed."
It's that $5 fee that was the target of some overblown rhetoric, making it sound like a gigantic income tax hit, that you'll hear on this robocall (listen here) taped by McCrory and sponsored by the right-wing anti-tax, anti-health-care-reform, anti-climate-change legislation advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity. The robocalls urging voters to call their state senators succeeded, making enough pols nervous that the public financing measure was expected to be stripped from the bill.
McCrory said he opposes public financing for statewide campaigns. It forces N.C. taxpayers to support campaigns for people they may not support, he said.
As to Fitzsimon's jab that he "is desperately trying to stay relevant until the next election by appealing to the Republican's tea party base," hiz-ex-oner said, "First of all I'm not desperate. And what's wrong with trying to stay relevant?"
sponsored by the right-wing anti-tax, anti-health-care-reform, anti-climate-change legislation advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity
ReplyDeleteWow. No bias or bile in that description at all.
One day when this paper is closed, I hope someone does a study, and this article is highlighted.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are just a Fraternity and Sorority playing games.
Dear Dr. Horrible and Larry:
ReplyDeleteIf you'll notice, this blog appears in the "Opinion" section of the paper. So to complain that it contains opinion is to miss the point.
Further, Americans for Prosperity is proudly anti-tax, anti-health care reform and anti-climate change legislation. Those are among its key positions. How is it bilious to mention that?
Dear The Observer Editorial Board,
ReplyDeleteWe know all of you are bleeding heart liberals so it was the context with which you added that little jab in there. When it is included in this sentence "It's that $5 fee that was the target of some overblown rhetoric, making it sound like a gigantic income tax hit, that you'll hear on this robocall taped by McCrory and sponsored by the right-wing anti-tax, anti-health-care-reform, anti-climate-change legislation advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity."
What is so bad about Pat McCrory being governor? Also you act like Republicans are the only ones that use robocalls. Bev Perdue has one person to thank for her being Governor and it is Barack Obama and the people just voting for him voting straight ticket.
And Pat is right I shouldn't be funding somebody's campaign I don't agree with politcally. Its been proven in SC you don't really have to spend much money to run for office or any at all and you can still win a primary.
Dear Observer Editorial Board,
ReplyDeleteIt is your misguided and unwanted opinions, and the existence of your "Opinion" page, that is grinding your newspaper into the dust of history.
Please discontinue your "Opinion" section. We are quite capable of making up our little minds on issues of importance without your condescending liberal rhetoric.
Hey I will come and work for free.
ReplyDeleteThat way you can get at least ONE conservative person getting the conservative side of things out.
Why is it only the liberal opinion is the only opinion dished out from the Observer Editorial people?
You sold me my paper last year for about a third of what I use to pay. This year you will be calling me again. What do you think you are worth to the average person today?
Another example of Liberal BS from the CO.
ReplyDeleteCharlotte Observer- "We Luv Libs"
Do Republicans and Democrats do anything other than whine? I'm being serious.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess the Democrats take money from video poker lobbyists and the Republicans quote the Bible then hire rentboys, except for the ones that hold machine gun socials and claim a pyramid is going to land on freaking Greenland. But I mean useful stuff.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTo The Observer Editorial Board:
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that this blog does show up in the 'Opinion” section of the paper and therefore following logic, which seems difficult for the those on the The Observer Editorial Board, one can assume that this bias and bile opinion comes from the The Observer Editorial Board and therefore the Observer in general is bias and bile on this matter.
People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.- A. J. Liebling
"'sponsored by the right-wing anti-tax, anti-health-care-reform, anti-climate-change legislation advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity'
ReplyDeleteWow. No bias or bile in that description at all."
Nope...just complete accuracy.
What, are you embarassed by right-wing anti-intellectual anti-science anti-consumer groups like AFP, Dr. Horrible? You should be.
Perhaps the biggest reason for McCrory's losing his bid for governor was his association, beginning a few years ago, with AFP. I know that after many years of my respecting his job as mayor, the right turn he took - at least his pretend right turn, since he still had no problem adding nearly a billion dollars in new taxes in Charlotte to pay for his basketball gym and indoor junkyard - turned thinking conservatives away from him. When I got my first AFP-sponsored robocall from McCrory on a non-Charlotte issue, that ended any support I had for him. Nobody respects a panderer.
The simple answer is a politician should be voting his best judgement no matter if it involves a donors interests or not. If this is asking too much of our politicians, voting them out is the best answer. I dont want my tax dollars propping up a politician who cant vote his conscience over a special interest. Personal Responsibility.
ReplyDeleteTo The Observer Editorial Board...
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind Independents and Massachusettes Democrats are now right-wingers based on those parameters. Its become quite the mixer.
Also, is AofP anti-tax or for lower tax rates, anti-healthcare-reform or anti-healthcare reform that excludes tort reform/levies a fine on citizens who make a personal choice to go without healthcare/a reform that will go broke after 10 yrs of tax receipts and 8 years of service, (inhaling)...and I noticed you used anti-climate-change instead of anti-global-warming. Prey tell, what happened to global warming?
You want some more??
I just want to know when Pat McCrory started to dislike public spending, was it before or after he pushed through that $300m arena his city voted against?
ReplyDeletelol Good one Bobby! I'll have to laugh even though Im a McCrory supporter. Well, at least he didnt call it an "Ethics" bill. Hollywood should give our current politicians a call. Thats some imagination.
ReplyDeleteFurther, Americans for Prosperity is proudly anti-tax, anti-health care reform and anti-climate change legislation. Those are among its key positions. How is it bilious to mention that?
ReplyDeleteIf I have to explain it to you, I doubt you'd understand even afterward.
AfP is a free market group. Referring to them in those terms is not unlike referring to the Disturber Ed Bored as "anti-free-market, anti-freedom, and anti-American. Sure, it might be accurate, but it's much simpler and unemotional to just call them "leftists."