This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this regular platform will give readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we work on taking back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please join us every week as we try to Connect, Unite and Act with our community of North Carolina Daily Kos members. You can also join the discussion in five other weekly State Open Threads.
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Please jump the fold for North Carolina news and insight you may have missed.
Editorial Praises McCrory for Helping the Economy...of Virginia
Governor McCrory finally got a newspaper editorial board to praise his work on the economy. The only problem is the paper is in Virginia. The Roanoke Times cited Governor McCrory as the politicians most likely to help the local economy. That's true of course, as a huge 730-job corporate headquarters recently chose to move to Richmond instead of Charlotte, specifically citing HB2.
Of course here in North Carolina newspapers that endorsed McCrory for the last 25 years are turning their back on him this time.
Another Company Refuses To Relocate In NC Because of HB2
Yesterday Virginia's Governor announced that real estate firm CoStar had chosen Richmond for its new 730-job headquarters. The news comes after Charlotte had been the top competitor, only to fall off the list thanks to HB2. As long as this law remains in place, we'll continue to lose out on jobs and events to neighboring states.
Moderates and Unaffiliated Voters Refuse to Back McCrory a Second Time
Many who voted for McCrory in 2012 because of his seemingly moderate stances will not be voting for McCrory again in 2016 because of his tendency to lean far right in Raleigh. HB2, coal ash issues, education and Medicaid expansion are just a few of the ways McCrory has failed moderates the past four years and unaffiliated voters are fed up with it. With unaffiliated voters making up about one-third of registered NC voters, their opinions matter. A lot.
Sunday News: Money laundering, by any other name
REPUBLICANS FUNNELED CORPORATE CONTRIBUTIONS TO NC GOP, DEMS CHARGE (WRAL-TV) — A national Republican organization appears to have funneled as much as $1.5 million in corporate contributions to the N.C. Republican Party in an effort to circumvent state limits on the individual contributions and the ban on corporate donations, according to a complaint filed by N.C. Democrats with the State Board of Elections. The RGA in turn put $13 million into RGA Right Direction, a super PAC that it controls and for which it is the sole funder. It is that super PAC that has donated $1.5 million this year, including $500,000 on Oct. 25, to the North Carolina Republican Party.
Be on the lookout for poll trolls in NC
In North Carolina, someone showed up to early voting with a badge saying “poll observer” and was photographing and videotaping cars coming and going and “generally, being a very intimidating factor there,” said Anita Earls of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham. The situation was stopped with a call to local officials.
Stop the Steal, a group linked to Trump confidant Roger Stone, says on its website that it will conduct exit polling to determine if the results are accurate. The Huffington Post reported Tuesday that another group connected to Trump supporters, Vote Protectors, has an “I.D. Badge Generator” on its site where volunteers can create an official-looking badge. Another part of the website said volunteers would post streaming video to the site.
Judge Mike Morgan the Best Choice for NC Supreme Court
In the race for North Carolina's Supreme Court, Judge Mike Morgan has picked up another endorsement in his race against incumbent Justice Bob Edmunds. Edmunds was the judge who approved racially gerrymandered congressional and legislative districts there were eventually thrown out by federal courts. He again sided with the far-right politicians in Raleigh when he signed off on a plan to divert public school funding to private schools.
Richard Burr’s Politics of Fear
Consider the sheer range of his dark insinuations. The attacks on Ross’s sex-offender registry almost register as old news. Since introducing that issue, Burr’s henchmen have presented Ross as an apologist for rapists, a person whose critique of post-9/11 civil liberties abuses (which included torture, something Burr jokes about) as evidence that she does not deplore terrorists, and an advocate for—welcome back to the 90’s—flag burners. An ubiquitous online banner claims that Ross thinks “flag burning is right.” These attacks plumb the emotional depths of voters who the Burr campaign clearly does not respect.
Ranked 49th in principal pay, lawmakers who haven’t funded raises consider tossing out salary schedule
School administrator pay in North Carolina is dismal, says Frank Till Jr., superintendent of Cumberland County Schools, but a new legislative call to alleviate the problem by completely nixing the state’s principal salary scale could be disastrous. “Without a salary schedule, it means we’d have to negotiate every single principal’s salary,” complains Till. “It would lead to inequities. You would open yourself up to a variety of things.”
That includes, according to Till and other critics, yawning pay gaps between rich and poor counties and uncertainty for school district leaders now tasked with negotiating scores of contracts with essential administration, critics say.
Thanks for reading, have a great week!