Can Pat McCrory Beat Bev Perdue?
Pat McCrory wraps himself in the cloak of conservatism, and that is enough to sell himself as a conservative to those that don’t look beyond his Republican label. His record as mayor of Charlotte is more revealing (link). Pat McCrory left Charlotte the highest taxed city in North Carolina ten years in a row (link). In 2008 he lost the race for governor against Bev Perdue. What was alarming about that loss is Pat failed to carry Mecklenburg County, home to Charlotte where he was reported to be a very popular mayor for an unprecedented fourteen years. Many argue Bev Perdue rode Barack Obama’s coattails to win Mecklenburg (link). There are also those that argue Pat McCrory failed to carry Mecklenburg because conservatives didn’t bother to vote for him (link).
More telling may be the loss by John Lassiter a year later for Pat McCrory’s mayoral seat against liberal Democrat Anthony Foxx. Lassiter served on the Charlotte City Council with Pat McCrory, and in my opinion he was the most “McCrory-like” of any councilperson. That election was a year after Barack Obama was elected, and the conservative uprising had been shocked into high gear. Despite being McCrory-like and riding a high wave of conservatism, Lassiter failed to get out the Republican vote in large enough numbers to win McCrory’s mayoral seat (link).
I heard from a source within the Lassiter campaign that David Axelrod of the Obama Administration sent three operatives from Chicago to assist Anthony Foxx. The fact Charlotte will be hosting the Democrat National Convention in 2012 illustrates how important the Democrats view North Carolina. Approximately a week before the Lassiter/Foxx election a poll was released stating voters could not differentiate between the two candidates. I recall hearing that poll, but I cannot find it on the Internet. There is some question as to whether or not that poll was actually taken, but the Charlotte press and broadcast media ran with it. According to my source within Lassiter’s campaign, that release was a stroke of genius by the Foxx campaign. It kept conservatives home on Election Day because it was believable. Welcome Chicago-style politics.
The two most powerful Republicans in the General Assembly, Thom Tillis and Phil Berger, have anointed Pat McCrory as their gubernatorial candidate (link). Considering it is more than a year until the 2012 elections, and Pat McCrory hasn’t officially announced his candidacy, isn’t an endorsement now premature? Wouldn’t it be wiser for these high ranking Republicans to leave the field open so others will find it easier to get into the race, especially since Pat McCrory is still weak with conservatives (link)?
North Carolina will certainly be a battle ground state in 2012 where the National Democrat Party will play an important part. Democrats will undoubtedly raise a lot of money for NC races from their number one contributor block, unions, since North Carolina is a right to work state. If Pat McCrory is the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Democrats will certainly use his big spending, high taxing record against him.
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