Republican Party

McCain: An election like any other

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:35:09 -0400

John McCain's campaign says the election will be like past ones.

In a conference call with reporters this morning, McCain pollster Bill McInturff said that the breakdown of voters on Election Day will be similar to what it's been over the past 30 years.

He noted that Democrats Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton received roughly around 50 percent of the vote.

"It is very hard for a Democrat in a center-right country to get above that number," he said.

He argued that the historical voting patterns will be a "structural barrier" to Democrat Barack Obama winning the presidency.

McCain's national political director, Mike Duhaime, said that a high-level of cooperation between the campaign and the Republican National Committee will offset the spending advantage that Obama has.

Bartlett: It's greed, not partisan politics

bkrueger — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:25:41 -0400

State elections director Gary Bartlett heard about the RNC conference call today saying that voter registration fraud is rampant in North Carolina, and wants to clarify the state board's position.

The state elections board takes voter fraud seriously, but organizations have the right to participate in voter registration drives, Bartlett told Lynn Bonner.

"Certainly, when someone tries to commit fraud...it does slow us down, there is no doubt about that, but we have to balance everything," Bartlett said. The suspicious forms are "just a small portion of many things we’ll be reviewing."

The state has not finished its investigation into the bogus registration forms submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, he said, but it appears so far that the people who submitted them were motivated by "personal greed," not partisan politics.

"It doesn’t have anything to do with them supporting or opposing any cause," he said.

Update: Deputy Director Johnnie McLean told the Charlotte Observer that the bogus forms appear to have been filed by "a lazy worker" hired by ACORN. She says she does not see any evidence of voter fraud.

"For somebody to say that with no apparent evidence to support it, it just doesn't do very much to establish trust in the elections process," she said.

GOP: ACORN vote fraud 'rampant'

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:28:41 -0400

The Republican National Committee is arguing that voter registration fraud is "rampant" in North Carolina.

During a conference call with reporters this morning, RNC chief counsel Sean Cairncross and spokesman Danny Diaz argued that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, is submitting fraudulent registration forms here.

The State Board of Elections has found 135 bogus forms out of the nearly 28,000 submitted by the group in North Carolina this year, or about half of one percent.

Overall, more than 467,000 new voters have registered in North Carolina since the beginning of the year.

Diaz argued that the fraudulent forms are a burden to elections directors and risks leading to the disenfranchisement of legitimate voter registrations. He also argued that a percentage of the false forms may end up leading to voter fraud.

"It's hard to catch, but we do know in point of fact that these names get on the rolls," he said.

He pointed to a recent New York Post story that an Ohio man registered to vote multiple times and cast a ballot with a fake address.

An open-source GOP platform?

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:31:21 -0400

Can the GOP platform be like the Linux platform?

National Republican leaders, led in part by U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, today will unveil a website encouraging national participation in shaping the GOP’s 2008 party platform.

The site will create an online community allowing anyone with access to a computer to offer ideas, to comment on others’ ideas, and even to submit videos explaining their views, Barb Barrett reports.

"I feel certain we’ll get some great ideas," Burr said in an interview Thursday. "Will that be the majority? I have no way of gauging."

The Winston-Salem Republican is co-chairman of the Republican platform committee alongside U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California.

The all-inclusive online effort comes as presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain continues his work to keep the party’s most conservative and religious members inside the GOP fold and engaged through the November election.

The site also will hand the Republican National Committee a ready-to-go database of contact names for future fund-raising. Users will be required to register in order to comment.

Swindell won't return Hudson contributions

bniolet — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:21:36 -0400

State Sen. A.B. Swindell won't return $300 in campaign contributions he has received from Boyce Allen Hudson, a former state official who admitted to soliciting a bribe.

Swindell, a Nashville Democrat, said he has known Hudson for more than 25 years and considers him a friend. Hudson's wife, Maureen Hudson, is an assistant in Swindell's senate office. Hudson pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to extortion and money laundering. The charges arose from a scheme in which Hudson promised to guarantee a permit for an ethanol company in exchange for cash and a two-year consulting contract.

"I certainly don't cast my friends in a ditch," Swindell said. "This plea was between him and the courts. Obvously, my relationship with him has been as a friend and a professional."

On Friday, the state Republican Party issued a news release calling on Swindell to return the contributions: $100 given in 2000 and $200 given in 2008.

"Though Sen. Swindell may not have known of Boyce Hudson’s illegal activity, he badly misjudged the man’s character. Sen. Swindell should return his tainted money immediately," state GOP chariwoman Linda Daves said in a statement.

More after the jump.

Huckabee returns for GOP encore

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:01:15 -0400

Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was such a crowd pleaser when he spoke to the GOP convention in New Bern two years ago that he has been invited back for an encore performance.

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, is scheduled to speak to the Republican Convention at their luncheon on June 7th at the Koury Center in Greensboro, Rob Christensen reports.

The last time he addressed state Republicans, Huckabee was a virtual political unknown. But since then, Huckabee ran a surprisingly strong — and underfinanced campaign for president — before eventually withdrawing in favor of Arizona Sen. John McCain earlier this year.

Taxes, by the second

bniolet — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:09:09 -0400

It's hard to fathom how big a number 21.5 billion really is.

Try counting it this way: $678 per second. That's the figure you get if you divide $21.5 billion by the number of seconds in a year. It's how the state Republican Party wants people to think about the $21.5 billion budget proposed by Gov. Mike Easley. The party has launched a site that ticks up the dollars by the second.

"When you see it in real numbers, I think that makes it come to life, just how much government has grown in North Carolina in the last five to 10 years," said Brent Woodcox, a spokesman for the state Republican party.

There are obvious problems with the math here. Not all of the state's revenue comes from tax dollars or from individual taxpayers. And not every North Carolinian pays the same amount. Nor does all the money come in at equal amounts over the course of a year.

Most voters switch to Democrat, unaffiliated

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:57:47 -0400

More than 45,000 voters switched party registration this year.

According to figures provided by the State Board of Elections, 45,665 voters changed to or from Democratic, Republican or unaffiliated registration between Jan. 1 and the April 14 deadline.

(Voters may still update their registration or register to vote during the one-stop voting period that ends on Saturday, but they cannot switch parties.)

Of them, 42 percent switched to the Democratic Party and 42.2 percent switched to unaffiliated. Just 15 percent became Republicans.

Unaffiliated voters in North Carolina can request either party's ballot or a nonpartisan ballot featuring local and judicial races.

The biggest jump this year was from Republican to unaffiliated, with 11,748, or more than a fourth of voters who changed their registration. The second biggest jump was from Republican to Democrat, with 8,704, or 19 percent of voters who changed.

The smallest group was unaffiliated voters who reregistered as Republicans, with just 3,300, or 7 percent of voters who changed.

Still, the numbers are pretty small overall, representing less than 1 percent of the number of registered voters at that time.

Ham: Moore ad is 'race-baiting'

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:49:47 -0400

A conservative blogger has called Richard Moore's radio ad "race-baiting."

Tar Heel native Mary Katharine Ham, who blogs on the national site Town Hall, writes that the Democratic gubernatorial candidate's barber-shop ad shows the North Carolina Republican Party "what a real race-baiting ad looks like."

"Moore's new radio ad takes place in a barber shop, and comes complete with exaggerated dialects," she writes, noting that Moore condemned the N.C. GOP's ad linking presidential candidate Barack Obama to Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"I wonder if Obama will call on Moore to stop running it. Ha. Enjoy playing the, 'Imagine if a Republican ran this ad' game."

The state Republican Party e-mailed a link to the column to reporters this afternoon.

Cheney stopped by Fetzer's place

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:09:02 -0400

Dick Cheney stopped by Tom Fetzer's place Monday.

The vice president came for a fundraiser for the North Carolina Republican Party's political victory fund at the Raleigh political consultant's apartment on Hillsborough Street.

About 70 people came to the event, said Fetzer, a well-known consultant and former mayor of Raleigh. He said it was the first time he's hosted a major fundraiser.

"The White House and the Secret Service come in and they turn you upside down for about two or three days," he said.

Cheney spoke for about an hour and a half about the war in Iraq, the state of the nation and his hopes to leave the presidency and the vice presidency "in good hands" next year.

Fetzer said Cheney was much different from his public image.

"He's different than most politicians," he said. "He's very reserved, very soft-spoken, but very knowledgeable, not bombastic in any way. I think that people here really enjoyed his remarks."

he talked about the war in Iraq, a little bit of the state of the nation and he and the president were not coasting to the finish line but wanted to finish strong, but would hopefully leave the presidency and the vice presidency in good hands which I took to mean Republican hands.

The street outside Fetzer's apartment, above the offices for Fetzer Stephens, was closed during the visit, which was from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Previously: Cheney coming to North Carolina.