Tag search result

The Democratic National Committee renewed its television ad buy in North Carolina, as Dome reported earlier today, with a fresh plug of the American Jobs Act. And if the previous ad campaign is any indication, TV viewers will see it often.

Based on figures provided to Dome, the DNC spent $461,535 to run TV spots in the Raleigh and Charlotte markets in the two weeks after his address to a joint session of Congress. From Sept. 13 to Sunday, the DNC spent about $200,000 on Raleigh broadcast and cable and $260,000 in the Charlotte market.

A DNC spokesman refused to comment on the figures.

The Democratic National Committee is refreshing it's television advertising campaign in support of President Barack Obama's American Jobs Act.

Dubbed "Get Going," the ad is running in the Raleigh and Charlotte markets on broadcast and cable stations. The DNC refused to share details about its saturation or frequency. 

The 30-second ad replaces the "14 months" spot featuring clips from Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress. No Obama one-liners in the new one -- just a voiceover. DNC spokesman Alec Gerlach said the ad buy will last for the indefinite future. Read the script below.

BIG FREAKIN' VISIT: Vice President Joe Biden will be in the state briefly this afternoon for a Democratic fundraiser. (AP)

TAKING A LOOK: North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, responding to news reports about an NCAA investigation of the football team at UNC-Chapel Hill, launched an investigation Wednesday into possible improprieties by sports agents in the state. (N&O)

BIG BILL: Days before a Democratic selection panel checks out Charlotte as a site for their party's 2012 national convention, local organizers said "pursuit costs" could top $125,000. (Charlotte Observer)

OUR PHONE, THEIR TEXTS: A Wake County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that personal text messages sent by a state Highway Patrol employee from her personal phone to her immediate supervisor on his state-issued BlackBerry are not public records. (N&O)

PAYMENT PLAN: In a record setting year for ticket sales, the lottery collected more than $1 million from debtors who won lottery prizes. (N&O)

Vice President Joe Biden will attend a Democratic Party fundraiser in Chapel Hill later this month at the Carolina Inn.

The event, which will benefit the Democratic National Committee, comes at a time when the Obama administration is putting on a push in North Carolina, which is regarded as a swing state, reports Rob Christensen.

Charlotte, for example is one of the four finalists as a site of the Democratic National Convention in 2012.

The Biden event will be held on July 22. Cost of admission is $500 per person, although the invitation notes that the DNC can legally accept as much as $30,400 from an individual per calendar year.

Biden was last in the Triangle in March, when he visited the facilities at Cree and had lunch at Bullock's BBQ in Durham.

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE: The new state budget offers a little bit of political ammo for everyone. (N&O)

SHORT LIST: The Democratic National Committee announced Wednesday that Charlotte is one of four finalists for its 2012 convention, putting the city closer than ever to landing a national political gathering. (Charlotte Observer)

OMG:-P Text messages sent by one of the state's highest-ranking state troopers to his secretary suggest he had a romantic relationship with the woman, whose husband is also a trooper. (N&O)

The remnants of President Barack Obama's 2008 political organization in North Carolina will begin to swing into action Saturday by beginning to organize for the mid-term elections.

Organizing for America, an arm of the national Democratic Party, plans to hold 70 events across the state including canvassing neighborhoods and operating phone banks, Rob Christensen reports.

This is the beginning of a five-month effort to persuade the 842,000 first-time voters in the 2008 election to return to the polls in November, according to Lindsay Siler, the state director for Organizing for America.

“If Organizing for America is able to turn out even a small percentage of those who cast their first vote (in 2008) it will make a huge difference,” said Siler.

The effort also seems designed to keep the Obama political machinery well-oiled for his 2012 re-election campaign. North Carolina voted Democratic in 2008 for the first time in 32 years, but it was by a narrow margin.

Siler said the Democratic effort is designed to help the entire Democratic ticket including efforts to defeat Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, congressional and legislative races as well as local races.

This is part of a $50 million mid-term election effort being funded by national Democratic Party.

Organizing for America has had a small staff in North Carolina for the past year and an office in Raleigh. It is about to open a second office in Charlotte.

Jeremy Bird, the national deputy director of Organizing for America, said a special effort would be made in North Carolina.

"North Carolina is a very important state to the president in 2010," Bird told a group at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in April, according to YES! Weekly."

"We'll see the president come here and all (resources) committed to growing our grassroots support throughout the state."

U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge won't have to wait long to get a "thank you" from the Democratic National Committee.

The Fix reports that Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat, is one of 25 Democratic U.S. House members who will get a 30-second "Thank You" television ad.

Etheridge announced his support for the health care bill shortly before it came up for a vote. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine told Dome last week that the party was planning to help members who supported the bill, which polled unpopular in Etheridge's district.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said that the health care reform bill will prove to have been good politics for the party.

Kaine, the former governor of Virginia, was planning a day of events and meetings in Charlotte and Raleigh on Friday. He said in a telephone interview with Dome that the bill will be popular once it passes. Seniors will get a break on prescription drugs, families will be able to keep their children on their insurance policies until the children turn 26 and the worst policies of insurance companies will be curbed, he said.

"Americans will see that and they won't see the boogeyman argument the other side has come up with," Kaine said. "It's not only going to do good for virtually every American, it's really going to show up the fact that these guys are making stuff up."

Kaine said the party has been working to thank Democrats who are already supporting the bill. Others, who may need reassurance or help in the fall, are getting the party's promise of support. The party sought pledges from volunteers for a million hours of campaign work. It has received more than 9 million pledged hours, Kaine said.

"We're definitely trying to show all of our Democratic Congressmen, 'Stand with us and we're going to stand with you,'" Kaine said.

Kaine declined to say what kind of support Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell could expect this fall if, as expected, he votes against the legislation.

On Friday, Kaine was traveling to a meeting with Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx and had a fundraising lunch meeting in Charlotte and then an event at a Charlotte library with activists from Organizing for America, President Barack Obama's organization. Later he had finance events scheduled in Raleigh.

Durham City Council member Howard Clement is hosting a State of the Union viewing party at his house tomorrow.

Significant because Clement used to be a serious, national-convention-going Republican. He told a political action committee last year that he changed his registration to unaffiliated a few years ago.

Apparently, his Democratic Party ties aren't too strong. A press release from the Democratic National Committee repeatedly misspells his last name "Clements."

Update: The Rev. Melvin Whitley of Durham took the blame for misspelling Clement's name.

Said Whitley, who managed Clement's City Council campaign last year: "I got egg all over my face."

Clement said he changed his party registration yesterday to Democrat.

Democrats responded Wednesday to a letter from four N.C. Republicans asking that a final health reform bill not include unfunded mandates to states.

The letter, from Walter Jones, Patrick McHenry, Sue Myrick and Howard Coble, was written to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Republicans said proposed health reform bills would pass Medicaid costs onto states, and they asked her to pledge that unfunded mandates wouldn’t be included in the final bill.

In a response, the Democratic National Committee said the House health reform bill includes $23.5 billion help states plug existing short-term holes in Medicaid funding, Barb Barrett reports.

Democrats cited the Congressional Budget Office in saying that the Senate health bill would eventually cover states’ Medicaid costs at 90 percent. The figure currently is about 57 percent.
And Democrats said that for the first two years, the federal government would pick up 100 percent of all Medicaid costs. In the following years, the states would pay less than 10 percent.