NC 2016 Gubernatorial Discussion Thread

[Miles]

Yes, its a ways off, but the race is starting to shape up now. We have various threads on this race and factors affecting it, so I figured we should consolidate stuff here.

[Miles]

Just to be clear, those darn poor people will not get more Medicaid and if you think otherwise, you're a dumb liberal activist.

[Miles]

You really can't tell with Foxx. At this point, it would be really dumb for him to run for Governor, with the Democrats already having a great candidate and all...

[Miles]

Hmmm...Governor Pat will spend $167K on installing bulletproof windows in the Governor's mansion. Kinda seems paranoid to me.

Perhaps its because he signed a law last session allowing guns in parks and playgrounds.

[Miles]

Remember the hell that broke lose in Watauga County because of what the Republican hacks who took over the state elections board tried to do?

It looks like there's still a bit of backlash.

Turnout was was up in the Boone municipal elections compared to 2009. The newly elected mayor, my friend Andy Ball (a fellow former NC Young Democrat ), says that was due to anger at the elections board:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Hopefully, McCrory is defeated so that the county elections boards will be back to Democratic control.

[Miles]

A look at how McCrory's style is costing him politically:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Miles]

Though PPP's last batch on NC polls wasn't great news for Democrats, McCrory is remains unpopular, though less so than last time.  He's up to 39/51 approvals from 35/53.

I would have liked to see a matchup with Cooper, though.

[Miles]

Sketchy as hell.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Miles]

Chuck Todd interviews McCrory at the RGA.

He compares himself to Chris Christie a few times. He also says that a majority of Democrats favor his voter ID laws. I don't know what polls he's getting that from...

[Miles]

This is unbecoming. McCrory's staffers are charging fees for access to public records which were provided for free by the previous administrations.

So is this part of the transparency platform that he ran on?

[Miles]

MSNBC looks at NC's shift to the right and highlights Moral Mondays. As much as I dislike him, I think the article casts McCrory as the villain a bit much. Yes, he's been a poor Governor, but I think its because he's had to play ball with the real loony tunes who control the Assembly.

The challenge for Moral Monday supporters and the NAACP will be keeping up the 'flame', so to speak, into 2014 and beyond. There will likely be less momentum for them in 2014 though. Traditionally, the more controversial bills are passed in the first session after an election cycle while the second session is reserved for the less polarizing stuff. Still, this Assembly is quickly throwing out vestiges of the old 'regime'...

[Miles]

Well, Democrats have a solid recruit for Cooper's open AG slot. Senator Josh Stein, who represents a seat in western Wake County, will run.

Stein serves as the minority whip and has been one of the more outspoken critics of the Republican leadership. He should be a good fundraiser. Stein actually served as one of Cooper's deputies before winning his Senate seat.

[Miles]

Constantly blaming the 'liberal media' is getting really old. Who are you? Sarah Palin?

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Miles]

NC's 'Hilariously incompetent' Governor in 15 quotes.

[Miles]

PPP has McCrory up to 42/47. A bit higher approval than I'd like, but I guess it could be 'worse'!

The General Assembly is at 20/53, which has been pretty much par for the course. Democrats keep a slight 45/43 generic ballot edge.

[Miles]

FWIW, Democracy NC has a study on the changing electorate of NC.

The electorate is getting less white and more Independent.

Since 1993, registration has gone from 60D/32R/8I to 43D/31R/26I. The good news for Democrats is that the share of white voters has dropped to 71% from 81%.

[Miles]

Civitas has slighty rosier numbers for McCrory than PPP; they have his approval at 45/45.

[Miles]

North Carolina should consider making the Lieutenant Governor's office more influential and powerful like we do here in my home state of Texas.

NC has always had one of the weakest executive branches in the country, similar to the TX Governor.

[Miles]

This goes with the NC demographics study I posted. In two counties, Currituck and Watauga, a majority of voters are Independent. Independents outnumber at least 1 of the major parties in 42 other counties.

[Miles]

This isn't really relevant to this race, but here's a good WATN on Gonva Perdue:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I'm glad she's still working on education issues. When she did a semester visiting at Harvard, one of my Crimson friends got to meet her; she did an event with the NC students there.

[Miles]

Bill Moyers has a documentary on the upheaval in NC these past few years. If you have about 45 minutes, its pretty good.

[Miles]

Bill Moyers has a documentary on the upheaval in NC these past few years. If you have about 45 minutes, its pretty good.

Link doesn't work.

Here we go.

[Miles]

Thanks, StateBoiler. Its always good to have local perspective on this stuff!

How's that rebrand going?

I'll have a more substantive post on that in a while

From the signs so far, though, McCrory isn't likely to make an substantial changes to the general tone/image/style of his tenure.

[Miles]

One of the candidates I'll be most excited to support in 2016 is State Sen. Josh Stein, who's running for AG.

In a floor speech during this last session, he ripped the Republicans to shreds over the voter ID bill.

[Miles]

PPP's latest is a mixed bag.

McCrory is back down to 37/47 approvals.

The Assembly is at 17/53, which has been more or less constant.

The good news for Republicans is that they're now leading 43-42 on the generic Assembly ballot, despite their 35/51 approvals.