It's a topsy turvy world in North Carolina. While Democrats cheer and Republicans moan over election results in Washington, it's the other way around in the Tar Heel state. Democrats are moaning over election results here from the governor's office through the N.C. General Assembly, and wondering how to resurrect a state party that's on its knees. Meanwhile Republicans are cheering their big wins, which include a majority on the state's high court, and looking with confidence on pushing the state farther right on policy and governing.
Barry Smith of the John Locke Foundation publication Carolina Journal lays out "the magnitude of the dramatic gains made by the Republicans in the Nov. 6 election." He said a postelection briefing by the N.C. FreeEnterprise Foundation showed:
"Republicans picked up three congressional seats in the state, with one seat (the 7th District) still in doubt. In that district, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre holding a razor-thin 411-vote lead over GOP state Sen. David Rouzer. The GOP also picked up seats in the 8th, 11th, and 13th Districts... The gains for the Republicans mean that they will enjoy a nine-to-four advantage in the states congressional delegate. Currently, Democrats hold a seven-to six advantage.
"Republicans also padded their majorities in the General Assembly. When lawmakers convene in Raleigh in January, Republicans will have a 32-18 advantage in the Senate (currently it’s 31-19) and a 77-43 majority in the House (currently it’s 68-52)."
The foundation also found:
• The new Senate will have 13 freshman members, five Democrats and eight Republicans.
• Thirty of the 50 senators next year will be serving in either their first or second term.
• Half of the members of the Democratic Senate caucus — nine of 18 —will be African-American.
• There will be 43 freshman members of the House next year – 12 Democrats and 31 Republicans.
• Sixty-nine of the 120 representatives will be serving in either their first or second terms.
• Twenty-two of the 43 House Democratic caucus members will be African-American.
Key reasons for N.C. GOP gains are no secret: Republican lawmakers redrew district lines in the state to give GOP candidates in several districts an advantage, and Republicans outspent Democrats to help get their candidates elected. That's politics. It's what Democrats did in the past to Republicans.
Progressives bemoaned the outcome, with Chris Fitzsimon, director of N.C. Policy Watch, calling the N.C. Democratic Party a "party in shambles, marred by internal scandals and open feuds between party leaders and top elected officials that made fundraising almost impossible."
He's right.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Is N.C. Democratic Party in shambles?
"Add it all up" (the redistricting, the money and Democrats' self-inflicted wounds) "and it’s a recipe for electoral disaster of historic proportions for Democrats and that’s what happened, the worst general election in memory, even as much of the nation was headed in a progressive direction," Fitzsimon writes.
N.C. Democrats, like Republicans nationally, will have to have a come-to-Jesus moment and find a path to some governing authority in the future. It won't be easy or quick. Many experienced Democratic legislators are gone - either leaving voluntarily or being ousted by voters. Who's in the pipeline or could be to be a charismatic and visionary leader or leaders of the Dems and the state is still an open question?
Fitzsimon says for now progressives should be prepared for a right-wing assault with GOP lawmakers in the General Assembly pushing a far-right agenda.
The saving grace could be Pat McCrory, the former Charlotte mayor elected governor - the first GOP governor in 20 years. Said Fitzsimon: "That’s what in store after the election debacle for progressives unless McCrory himself steps in and leaves his campaign rhetoric behind and governs the state like he governed Charlotte, as a moderately conservative mayor who supported public investments in things like mass transit and economic development."
With some of McCrory's far-right picks to help with his transition, you've got to wonder if that's likely.
Posted by Fannie Flono
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12 comments:
It's a Flono.
Typical Flono/Democrat hypocrisy...
So in your eyes, Pat should be moderate and not listen to his constituents on the far right, but it's okay for Democrats to listen to the head socialist and his cronies to the far left?
When will you demand Empty Chair do the same thing nationally?
The Democratic Party in NC is all but dead. It will be a slow, slow recovery. It is going to be up to McCrory to keep the social issue wingnuts from embarrassing the state. Can he do it? Or will headlines read, "NC Assembly Passes Don't Say Gay Bill," "NC Erases Evolution from the Public School Curriculum," "NC Amends School Bullying Policy to Allow Bullying of Gay Children," "NC Defunds Planned Parenthood." It's up to you, Pat. Do you have what it takes?
"Progressives" is a code word for "Socialist". It's failed everywhere it's been tried, but of course we should try it again here. As they saying goes... the definition of insanity is in doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result!
bobcat99,
You seem to be assuming that the only wingnuts are on the right... the ones on the left have been embarrassing us for decades!
"N.C. Democrats will have to have a come-to-Jesus moment"
Some jokes just write themselves...
Nah, it just means they did get the voting fraud machine here as well as they did in other states. Not one state with voter ID law in place went to the clown President, oh by they way does anyone know what his plans are for the next 4 years?
Then there are the statistics, such as this staggering fact: in 59 Philadelphia districts, Romney failed to get even one vote. Final Obama-Romney tally: 19,605 to 0.
From The Columbus Dispatch:
More than one out of every five registered Ohio voters is probably ineligible to vote.
In two counties, the number of registered voters actually exceeds the voting-age population: Northwestern Ohio's Wood County shows 109 registered voters for every 100 eligible, while in Lawrence County along the Ohio River it's a mere 104 registered per 100 eligible.
Another 31 counties show registrations at more than 90 percent of those eligible, a rate regarded as unrealistic by most voting experts. The national average is a little more than 70 percent.
[...]Of the Buckeye State's 7.8 million registered voters, nearly 1.6 million are regarded as "inactive."
And this:
Then there is the case of the missing military ballots because our "Commander and Chief" cares. As Rachel Alexander at Town Hall reported:
The conservative-leaning military vote has decreased drastically since 2010 due to the so-called Military Voter Protection Act that was enacted into law the year before. It has made it so difficult for overseas military personnel to obtain absentee ballots that in Virginia and Ohio there has been a 70% decrease in requests for ballots since 2008. In Virginia, almost 30,000 fewer overseas military voters requested ballots than in 2008. In Ohio, more than 20,000 fewer overseas military voters requested ballots. This is significant considering Obama won in both states by a little over 100,000 votes.
We don't need no sinken voter ID laws, so what did we get, 4 more years of a clown who dumbed the election and made it about Big Bird and contraceptives.
Sounds like an open call for the "...charismatic and visionary..." Anthony Foxx to step up and lead the party whose caucus in Raleigh is 50% black!
Yes, the NC Democratic Party is in shambles and will remain so for possibly a decade and beyond.
This is a clear case of the tail wagging the dog. The state wanted to dictate to the national. The national even gave in to NC and put on their convention in NC but the state is still out of step.
Case in point, voting demographics were right for a Purdue re-election but she shot herself in the foot by FRACKING, the national is studying it for water , ground and air damage. So she gave the govenorship back to the Republicans because she was out of touch with the national.What has Perdue done to research fracking Pro and Con? She could have gone on the internet and they would have seen damaging news on fracking in Ohio and Texas.
The Republicans had a unified campaign, The state and the national campaigned out of separate offices and you could cut the tension with a knife.
A smart state would have gotten on the national's coattail and glided into victory. Especially with the aforementioned demographics. That is what they did in 2008. I wonder if they were bought off. Or was there another Democratic scandal. Are the Democrats the crooked party in the state: former Gov. Hunt; and former POTUS candidate John Edwards? Then the incumbent governess does not seek re-election. Somethings just do not add up!!!
They are not dumb. To get the Republican Tea Party out of Wake County's educational system in 2011, the national lent a hand and the Republican Tea Party was gone, defeated. But for some odd reason that will come out in the wash later, the state bit the national's hand in 2012. Money talks and bullsh@# walks
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