Well this is pretty awkward:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, does not support the Export-Import Bank, which puts him at odds with the Chamber of Commerce.
Keep in mind that the Chamber of Commerce helped buoy Tillis's candidacy in the divided Republican primary for Senate in North Carolina by pouring in $480,000 in spending to help Tillis in the weeks before the election, according to The Washington Post in April. But that hasn't moved Tillis to support the bank.
"The Export-Import Bank is set up to play political favorites and give huge taxpayer handouts to big, billion-dollar corporations, a glaring example of what's wrong with Washington," Tillis spokesman Daniel Keylin said according to The New York Times on Monday.
Keylin added the North Carolina Republican nominee for U.S. Senate would only support the bank if changes were made aimed at helping small businesses. - TPM, 8/25/14
Here's a little more info:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
In an election cycle where no single issue is animating voters, the relatively obscure lender, which provides loans and loan guarantees to foreign buyers of American products, has become an unlikely source of prominent campaign friction.
The fight over whether to reauthorize the bank, which Congress must do by the end of September to sustain its operations, has roiled Capitol Hill in unexpected ways, creating a divide between the Tea Party movement and establishment Republicans. It also is providing an avenue for Democrats to showcase their support for American companies and to try to drive a wedge between business interests and Republican candidates.
“Our candidates have been leaning heavily into this, and this really goes to the heart of making the economy work,” said Matt Canter, deputy executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Republicans who are pushing back say the agency is an example of corporate welfare and “crony capitalism,” a view held by conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation, putting these groups at odds with business lobbies like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“The Export-Import Bank is set up to play political favorites and give huge taxpayer handouts to big, billion-dollar corporations, a glaring example of what’s wrong with Washington,” said Daniel Keylin, a spokesman for Mr. Tillis, the speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives. He said Mr. Tillis would not support the bank unless major changes were made on behalf of small business.
The political glare on the agency, established during the Depression, is a relatively new development considering that it was renewed in 2012 by wide bipartisan margins in both the House and Senate. But in recent months it has become a new cause of the right, imperiling its chances for staying in business after Sept. 30, as conservatives inside and outside Congress push for its elimination. - New York Times, 8/25/14
Of course this hasn't stopped the Chamber from continuing to donate to Tillis' campaign:
http://www.newsobserver.com/...
Groups other than the candidates themselves have reported spending about $14 million for and against the Democrat Hagan and the Republican Tillis so far. An additional $14 million or so has been spent in North Carolina on so-called issue ads. These are ads that clearly target one candidate or the other but don’t explicitly call for a vote against them. That allows their sponsors, under Federal Election Commission rules, to keep secret their spending and their donors.
That, as some of you have calculated by now, is $28 million of murky out-of-state money influencing our U.S. Senate race. And remember: It’s only August.
Most troubling is that about three-quarters of that $28 million comes from who-knows-where. The donors of about half of the $14 million from outside groups are not disclosed. And none of the donors of the $14 million for issue ads is disclosed. So only about $7 million – just a quarter of the noncandidate spending – can be traced.
The money benefits candidates of both parties. The Brennan Center researchers found that by far the biggest spender across the nine states was the Senate Majority PAC, which spent $21 million supporting Democrats. Far behind was the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which spent $6.7 million supporting Republicans. Almost all the “issue-ad” money, which is sometimes announced but never reported to the FEC, has benefited Tillis. - News Observer, 8/25/14
We'll see how this plays out. Meanwhile, Hagan has been out on the campaign trail touting her record and bashing Tillis:
http://www.yourdailyjournal.com/...
Hagan touted the AMERICA Works Act, which she co-sponsored and which was incorporated into a federal job training bill signed by President Barack Obama last month. In an effort to retrain the nation’s work force to possess the skills demanded by employers in an increasingly technological world, the act required that job training providers prioritize training that will lead to nationally recognized credentials relevant in their area.
She also castigated Tillis by association with controversial state legislation concerning public education, including teacher assistant cuts and stagnant teacher salaries.
“We’re putting forward a strong effort to educate people about how important these issues are, and in particular education,” Hagan said. “I think Thom Tillis has led the most destructive legislative agenda we’ve ever seen by giving tax cuts to the wealthy and cutting $500 million from education. That’s not what the people of North Carolina want.” - Your Daily Journal, 8/25/14
If you would like to donate and get involved with Hagan's campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.kayhagan.com/...