Tag search result

Pat McCrory will be blessed by the Tar Heel Republican establishment next week at a Greensboro fund raiser attended by the “Four Jims” of GOP politics.

Laying on of the hands will be Jim Broyhill, a former congressman and former senator; Jim Gardner, a former lieutenant governor, congressman and three-time gubernatorial candidate; Jim Holshouser, a former governor, and Jim Martin, a former governor and former congressman.

They, of course, hope that McCrory will be next Republican governor.

The fund raiser is being hosted by Don, Jim and Joe Brady of Brady Energy Services. But helping put it together is Phil Kirk, who served as chief of staff for Broyhill, Holshouser and Martin.

“I think they accepted our invitation to participate because they were afraid of what I might say about them in their absence,” Kirk quipped.

The cost of admission to the the event ranges from $250 to $2,000.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will stump for GOP gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory in Charlotte on Thursday, touring a Coca-Cola bottling facility.

McDonnell is chairman of the Republican Governors Association which began a $865,000 TV ad campaign on Tuesday tying Democrat Walter Dalton to Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue.

He is the latest in a string of Republican governors who have visited North Carolina to help McCrory's campaign including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

A new poll shows the North Carolina governor's race is much closer than expected with Republican Pat McCrory holding a 6-point edge against Democratic rival Walter Dalton.

The survey released Tuesday is the first of the general election and shows Dalton moving closer to erase a double-digit deficit from two months ago.

McCrory gets 46 percent support compared to 40 percent for Dalton, according to a survey of 666 voters by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm. About 13 percent of voters remain undecided.

In early March, McCrory boasted a 46 percent to 35 percent lead on Dalton, who was in the middle of a primary contest against former Congressman Bob Etheridge, according to PPP. 

UPDATED: The Republican Governors Association launched a TV ad in the governor's race Tuesday seeking to hit Walter Dalton at his weakest point, just after a primary battle that forced him to spend most of his small campaign coffer.

The ad is running in the Triad, Raleigh and Greenville at a cost of $865,000 with most on broadcast television through June 3, according to media buyers. (Points breakdown: 820 in Greensboro/Winston-Salem, 750 in Raleigh and 490 in Greenville.)

The ad ties Dalton to the unpopular Gov. Bev Perdue and put the tax label on the candidate, reiterating a theme the N.C. Republican Party has been using for months with its "BevPart2" initiative.

UPDATED: Walter Dalton's campaign issued a statement thanking GOP opponent Pat McCrory for accepting the proposal for eight town hall debates across the state.

But it turns out McCrory didn't accept, his campaign says. "Mr. Dalton and his campaign team clearly need some rest after his hard fought win in his primary campaign," McCrory said. "Instead, the McCrory campaign will continue to review the multitude of debate requests and of course plans to accept as many as possible."

UPDATED: Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton is calling for eight town hall debates with Republican rival Pat McCrory across the state before the November election.

In a Monday press conference in Charlotte, Dalton proposed two debates a month at community colleges across North Carolina. The town hall forums come on top of the traditional debates held in October, he suggests.

McCrory's campaign issued a statement later Monday but it didn't directly address Dalton's challenge. "Of course, there will be debates in the race for governor, and the McCrory campaign has already been discussing multiple requests from sponsors throughout North Carolina. The campaign will announce each debate upon accepting the invitations," the statement read.

The North Carolina governor’s race between Democrat Walter Dalton and Republican Pat McCrory is likely to be a money magnet for outside groups who see it as the GOP’s best chance to pick up a governorship this year.

Both national parties, conservative super PACs, anti-tax groups and labor unions are likely to pour money into North Carolina, the largest state holding a governor’s race in 2012. Some campaign strategists estimate at least $20 million will be spent between now and November. Read the full analysis of the race here.

More political headlines:

--Scandal-stained David Parker burst from behind the curtain, strutting on stage to reclaim the chairmanship of the troubled N.C. Democratic Party in grand fashion Saturday with some saying the wizard orchestrated the dramatic party convention to his favor. To get a glimpse of how the event hurts Democrats broadly, take a look at this headline.

--In his column, Rob Christensen discusses how religion courses through the state's politics, helping to explain Tuesday's vote on the constitutional marriage amendment.

The attention shifts toward the legislative session starting next week and away from the election as Gov. Bev Perdue releases here budget proposal this morning. Perdue will ask legislators to spend an additional $562 million on K-12 schools and increase the state sales tax in the $20.9 billion budget.

Republican lawmakers on Wednesday made it clear they weren’t interested, setting up a rematch of last year’s budget battles between the Democratic governor and the GOP-led legislature. Get more details here.

But before Jones Street consumes the news, here's more from Tuesday's election:

--Angry and frustrated, organizers of the opposition campaign vowed to use the momentum to continue to push for legal protection. Activists in Durham and Wilson kicked off a seven-day protest across the state by sending gay couples to apply for marriage licenses. All the while, amendment opponents are refusing to accept that the 61-39 percent loss reflects how people in North Carolina feel about the issue.

--More amendment news: President Barack Obama shifts his stance on gay marriage, a day after the vote. North Carolina is ridiculed in social networking and online sites for its vote. A move to uproot the Democratic convention from Charlotte because of the amendment won't happen. And columnist Barry Saunders asks who the amendment backers will target next.

Business owners snaked down a dim hallway in the state Industrial Commission’s headquarters Thursday, awaiting stern orders for failing to pay workers hurt on the job. It was an unprecedented day at the Industrial Commission, a little-known state agency that handles disputed workers’ compensation claims when people get hurt on the job. 

Following a News & Observer investigation, commission officials are dusting off opinions rendered years ago and demanding payment. In the coming months, hundreds of employers will be called to hearings to defend themselves and to explain how they will pay. More here.

More headlines:

--Former staffers have testified this week that John Edwards’ extramarital relationship was not such a well-kept secret. More Day 9 trial coverage: Bryan Huffman, 47, funneled checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy Rachel “Bunny” Mellon to political aide Andrew Young.

Pat McCrory's campaign is taking shape for the November general election with the addition of two new staffers.

He hired Ricky Diaz, a former spokesman for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, to serve as press secretary. Diaz, a Vanderbilt grad, helped get Christie elected in 2009 and was a former deputy communications director in U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's 2010 campaign. 

And he brought Matthew McKillip on board to serve as a policy and research coordinator. McKillip, a Georgetown alum, formerly worked at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, where he specialized in domestic policy research.