I could find precious few policy proposals listed on Mr. Cooper's site, and I've seen only a few letters mentioning the policies he would promote. So, I wanted to encourage him to put a detailed agenda on his site so that Democratic voters would have reason to go to the polls.
Roy,
Please do not run as Republican-Light in the upcoming Governor's race. Democratic voters, casual voters, and 'never have' voters need policy prescriptions they can get excited about to get them to the polls. I'll vote for you in any case, but here are some policy prescriptions which would make me a rabid supporter, and just might win you many more such supporters. Perhaps you can promote a subset of these ideas.
1. Roll back the Tea Party policies enacted by the McCrory Administration and the Art Pope-bought-and-paid-for legislature.
a. Roll back all of the un-Constitutional voting restrictions.
i. Repeal the photo id voter law.
ii. Bring back same-day voter-registration.
iii. Bring back Sunday early voting.
iv. Repeal the law penalizing parents of college kids for voting at their college instead of in the parents' district.
v. Disallow poll watchers from questioning voters about their citizenship.
vi. Re-enact publicly funded elections of judges. BTW, I think an investigation of Art Pope's tampering with that Republican's vote for that bill is warranted. How about disallowing someone who has contributed a certain amount of money to the Governor's campaign from being in the Governor's cabinet? I can't believe that's legal, but with our campaign financing free-for-all allowed by the Citizens' United decision, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
vii. Bring back the ability to vote in any district instead of just the one in which you are registered.
b. Roll back their education-killing policies.
i. Limit the creation of new charter schools.
ii. Regulate existing charter schools.
iii. Re-enact the requirement for a teaching degree to teach in our k-12 schools regardless of whether they are charter or public.
iv. Bring back tenure.
v. Bring back extra teacher pay for getting an advanced degree.
vi. Bring back More-At-4, and Early Infant Development programs.
vii. Re-populate the UNC Board of Governors with people who actually care about higher education.
viii. Encourage the new Board of Governors to re-instate the degree programs the current board eliminated. I know NCCU had their Jazz degree eliminated; that was a bald display of spite by Republicans.
c. Roll back their environment-killing policies.
i. Repeal the law stating that government scientists cannot track the rise in ocean-levels.
ii. Re-fund DENR and encourage their strict regulation of our environment and water by setting a watchdog agency over them.
iii. Investigate Duke Energy's progress in the elimination of the coal-ash pits. Make Duke Energy pay for all clean-up.
d. Repeal the laws impinging on municipalities' self-governance. Cities should be able to have their own minimum-wage law as long as the wage meets or exceeds that of the state. They should be able to control their own water supply and airports. Especially repugnant to me is the state's gerrymandering of city elections. It's unbelievable to me that that is allowed by the state's constitution.
e. Repeal the odious anti-abortion laws.
f. Re-enact funding for Planned Parenthood.
g. Roll-back the unemployment cut-off date to where it was before McCrory took office.
h. Roll-back the open-carry laws.
i. Repeal the right-to-work(-for-less) law. I know the Pope Legislature was not responsible for it, but just the same.
2. Implement the Expansion of Medicaid (I see you are already promoting that).
3. Have an independent commission draw the district lines as California does.
4. Publicly fund state elections.
5. Require all government buildings be powered solely using solar energy.
6. Require all government cars be electric-powered.
7. Legalize marijuana.
8. Free wi-fi for all NC citizens.
9. Encourage worker-owned businesses.
10. Spread the program Asheville is implementing to house the homeless to other cities in the state.
Boy, this legislature has set us back decades, hasn't it? But, my point is that you need to dream big and convey those dreams to state voters in order to inspire a movement capable of pulling us out of the mire the Republicans have driven us into.
Thanks for your attention.