Voter’s views of politicians and candidates

The Raleigh-based John W. Pope Civitas Institute recent poll shows what likely North Carolina voters think about some politicians and current candidates:

Governor Perdue had a higher “Unfavorable” rating (45 percent) than “Favorable” (38 percent).

If the election had been held at the time of the poll Republican U. S. Senator Richard Burr would have beat Democrat Elaine Marshall 49-39 percent.

Libertarian candidate for U. S. Senate Mike Beitler polled only 3 percent; 17 percent were “Undecided” in this race.

Republican candidate Ilario Pantano is neck-and-neck with incumbent Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC) down the congressional stretch.

Republican Thom Goolsby “has a large lead over Democrat Jim Leutze for New Hanover County’s state Senate seat,” according to the Wilmington StarNews reporting on a Tel Opinion Research poll funded by the N. C. GOP (9/27/19).

It is a bit unsettling to note that 5-15 percent of those polled “don’t know,” “never heard of,” or are “not sure” about political issues and candidates. But, I suppose, many of us could give those answers depending on the wording of the poll questions and our current knowledge.

Let’s hope that these voters will become more knowledgeable and cast ballots resulting in improved government—but I don’t count on it.

Voter’s views on party politics

The Civitas Institute poll of likely North Carolina voters gives some interesting perspective on their views related to party politics:

In this poll, voters favor Republicans over Democrats (53-26 percent) to lower taxes and reduce spending.

The GOP shares their “values and beliefs” over Democrats (45-35 percent) and “offers better solutions” (44-35 percent).

They prefer the GOP to “lead our state” (45-37 percent).

However, these voters favor Democrats over Republicans (41-36 percent) to “improve our education and public school system.” (Is this because some think that Democrats will continue to dump more money in this failing system?)

If the election were held at the time of the poll, 44 percent would have voted for a Republican state representative; 33 percent would have voted for a Democrat.

What does this portend for November?

Unbelievable $14 Million Scam Over At Bald Head

This story really has nothing to do with politics, but in an age when good journalism seems to be fleeting, this is a well written, thorough piece over at the State Port Pilot. Ben Brown does a great job of explaining an extremely complex multi-million dollar scam. The entire story is worth reading over at this link.  Here’s a sample:

A man accused of swindling millions of dollars from residents of Bald Head Island and elsewhere was indicted by a federal grand jury this month on six counts of wire fraud and 14 counts of money laundering.

According to the indictment, James Edward Whitley promised healthy returns to investors in his “factoring” business. “In reality, Whitley’s promises to the investors were false.”

“He flat out lied about it,” said Eugene Grubb, a Greensboro resident who saw money disappear in the scheme. Between investors in Greensboro and Bald Head, mostly, Whitley may have drained $12.5 million to $14 million, creditors said.

$50k In Taxpayer Money Doesn’t Pay For Taxpayers

On the heels of a horrible decision to “donate” taxpayer dollars for the entertainment purposes of the Navy’s commissioning of the USS Gravely, WWAY has done a breakdown showing that there isn’t a return on that “investment” of YOUR money.  Interestingly enough, the calculations they used are from local government’s own assertions. Also worth mentioning, Loise McColl who requested and received the money as a volunteer for this project also managed Mayor Bill Saffo’s campaign and received $4k from county chairman Jason Thompson.  Access does have privileges apparently.

The recession has been hard on both the city and county, and both have talked about raising taxes to help make ends meet. But dishing out $50,000 for food and transportation is something city council members and county commissioners say is well worth it. So we crunched the numbers to find out the return on investment.

(Loise) McColl says about 6,000 people will visit Wilmington to witness the commissioning. We broke that down to 2,000 families of three. The Cape Fear Coast Convention and Visitor’s Bureau estimates the average family spends about $375 per day on hotel, food, gas and souvenirs. Over two days that generates $1.5 million.

Take out county sales tax, which increases to 2.25 percent Friday, and you get close to $34,000. That’ll be divided up among the city, county and beach communities.

Room occupancy tax also generates income. Two-thousand people at an average of $100 per night for two nights of hotel rooms is $24,000. But that money won’t go back into the city’s or county’s general fund. It goes toward beach renourishment, the Visitor’s Bureau, and the Convention Center.

So after investing $50,000, it looks like the city and county will only directly get back $34,000. The other $24,000 helps alleviate the tax burden, but won’t go back into budget.

$176k In Illegal Donations, $100k Fine, Two Years. . Repeat

Rust Carter got smacked around by the NC Board of Elections.  They gave him a $100k fine for over $176k in illegal donations to Gov. Bev Perdue (D), Senator Julia Boseman (D), and Marc Basnight (D), do you see a pattern here?

The $100k fine was paid on the spot apparently and in two years he can start donating again. Insiders, insiders, insiders. . . Prolific and successful in southeastern NC.  From WWAY:

Court documents show Carter provided extra money to his employees with the understanding that some of it would be contributed to political campaigns. Carter accepted responsibility for the improper donations at a court hearing this spring where he received two years of unsupervised probation and was fined $5,000.

What North Carolina voters say

Nonpartisan John W. Pope Civitas Institute staff from Raleigh presented the results of their recent survey of likely voters. Carrabba’s Restaurant hosted the luncheon meeting on Wednesday. President Francis De Luca and Chris Hayes, senior legislative analyst, gave a slide show on the data. Guest commentator Chad Adams, talk show host (WLTT radio) and blogger at this site, interjected his political observations.

Eighty-one percent of those polled said they were certain, or nearly so, to vote. The other 19 percent said there was a 50-50 chance or greater that they would vote.

On the question of statewide issues, a total of 60 percent said the economy, jobs (38 percent), holding down taxes (9 percent) and reducing government spending (13 percent) were personally most important. Another 37 percent cited health care costs, illegal immigration, public education, moral issues, or government corruption was most important, ranging from 5-13 percent on each issue.

Seventy-five percent said they vote to support a person or party; 16 percent vote against a person or party. Four percent don’t know why they vote. A majority (53 percent) feel that (I assume, government) is “on the wrong track”; 31 percent think the state heads in the “right direction.”

Predictably, 46 percent say their representatives should fight to bring federal money (“earmarks”) back to the district (in my opinion, this accounts for Rep. Mike McIntyre’s political successes); 41 percent said that congressional members should forego earmarks, and 14 percent “Don’t Know.”

The most important qualities for a candidate cited by those polled were “ability to lead and get things done” (43 percent); “faith and values” (23 percent); “ideology” (13 percent) and “stand on an issue” (11 percent). Only 6 percent said “political affiliation” was most important to earn a vote.

__to be continued

Insiders And Your Tax Money

Wilmington insiders have learned well that being connected is the key to getting YOUR money.  Case and point, the commissioning of the Navy’s new USS Gravely.  Should this cost taxpayers $25k in local tax money?  Should it cost an additional $25k from New Hanover County?  The answer is, of course, NO, but that won’t stop Loise McColl, president of McColl & Associates, from having easy access to taxpayer money because, well, she’s connected.

In this struggling economy, many worry Wilmington’s City Council needs to be saving money, not shelling it out. But council members voted unanimously to give out another $25,000 to (her) local PR company.

And McColl plans on going to the county as well.

McColl says she plans on asking New Hanover County for another $25,000. (City Councilman Charlie) Rivenbark . .  says giving the money is the least the city could do.

McColl worked closely with Mayor Bill Saffo on his campaign and received $4k from Jason Thompson who is chairman of the county commission.  Working closely doesn’t make it right and she should be turned down and raise the money locally w/o taxpayers footing the bill.  But she has learned that she only needs a majority vote to get YOUR money to HER firm.

Convention Center: WECT Runs With Propaganda

WECT ran with a story today about the local Convention Center generating $16 million in local benefits without a single question about the validity of the claims.  ”WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – The Wilmington/Cape Fear Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates the first offerings at the new Wilmington Convention Center will bring an economic impact of at least $16 million to the Port City.”

It doesn’t say how the money is coming to Wilmington or even ask anyone with an economics background how this would be measured.  Here’s the funniest line:

The CVB says its efforts will bring an economic impact of $4.3 million, while the SMG events are expected to bring in another $2 million.  Multiply that by 2.5, the total impact for those events reaches around the $16 million dollar mark.

No explanation provided for the absolutely ridiculous math.  WECT should have done better on this one.  This isn’t news, this is propaganda plain and simple.

Warning: Government Hazard Area

Feckless legislators, lacking courage, wisdom or from laziness, rely on “commissions,” “study panels” or other assorted interest groups. Behind this seems to be a compulsive need to meddle in or try to fix every public complaint—most of them insignificant, invalid or foolish. A bureaucratic “fix” is the worst choice, and often makes things worse. A recent Wilmington StarNews report illustrates how this happens.

The N. C. Coastal Resources Commission “science panel” (thrice removed from The People) established new restrictive rules about development at certain ocean inlets. Commission and other state staffs have no accountability for the financial havoc this will cause.

Reporter Gareth McGrath dutifully writes that the CRC “has good science”; undefined, but supposedly to justify expanding its control of land use. The “panel” (unidentified) has “found” that land owners at some “inlet hazard areas” should be more restricted than others in using their land. McGrath’s report from beach officials shows that this political issue has little to do with science.

In this situation the word “science” is either misused or irrelevant. Every grade-schooler living here knows about potential hazards to property from periodic storms along the coast. They don’t know (because of environmental indoctrination) that those hazards would be greatly reduced if our legislators used common sense instead of “panels” to decide public policy.

Land owners need freedom to protect their property, not more restrictions adding cost and limiting their choices. Government’s role is to preserve that freedom, not to limit it.

RINOs for Demos

Wilmington StarNews “Watchdogs” (Sept. 21, 2010) eye RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) that support Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC). David Jones, former Wilmington mayor, heads this political treason. He likes Mike because he “does what is best for Southeastern North Carolina” and because he has “a record of social and fiscal conservatism.” What’s wrong with that picture?

This ideological distortion begs the question: “If he is ‘conservative’ why does McIntyre run as a Democrat?” The terms ring oxymoronic. The Republican Party houses principled conservatives; why hide behind conservatism while supporting a National Socialist-Democrat Party clearly emerging here in America? And, please, don’t give us that feeble ploy: “He doesn’t work for Nancy Pelosi.” What do we imagine Mike and Nancy discuss in their Democrat caucus?

Mike M: “Madam Speaker, I can’t vote for your unpopular high-profile bills. Back
home they think I’m a conservative.”

Nancy P: “OK, Mike, I’ll give you a pass on some bailout bills and, maybe, Cap-and-
Trade, but you’ll have to toe-the-line on most other Democrat legislation.”

M.M: “Yes, ma’am…one other thing. I need lots of cash to help buy votes from
local officials, public employees, senior citizens and military supporters in my
district.”

N.P: “Alright Mike. But remember, you owe us. Make sure that ‘D’ behind your name
doesn’t stand for ‘Dummy.’ Cross us and you’ll be cleaning restrooms in this
House.”