So Secretary of Transportation Tony Tata wants to run for Congress against Walter Jones, Jr. What hubris. The guy gives new meaning to the term carpetbagger. Not only has he only been in North Carolina for five years, he’s never lived anywhere near NC-03, the district Jones represents.
Now, there’s no law saying you have to live in the district you represent. In fact, at times, maybe even now, Walter Jones, Jr., has lived outside of his district. But that’s a function of redistricting. Jones certainly knows the district and his constituents. Tata knows neither.
Jones has always been a bit of an odd duck. He served in the North Carolina Legislature as a Democrat but always had an independent streak. He supported Joe Mavretic for Speaker in the coup that toppled Liston Ramsey, who was generally considered the most powerful man in the state at the time. After he lost a Democratic primary to Eva Clayton in a newly drawn NC-01 in 1992, he switched parties and ran for Congress in the neighboring NC-03 and won in the wave of 1994.
Jones may have switched parties but he didn’t change his independent ways. After coining the term “Freedom fries” to ridicule the French for opposing the war in Iraq, Jones became disillusioned with the war and became its most vocal Republican critic in the House. As the Congressman representing Camp Lejune and several other military bases, he saw the human toll and felt like we were losing too many soldiers for too little gain.
He’s also been critical of GOP fiscal policies and, in 2012, lost prominent committee assignments. In both 2013 and 2015, Jones voted against keeping John Boehner as Speaker. Republicans have dreamed of taking him out ever since. Now, it seems, they’re getting behind a guy with no ties to the district other than a military background.
But even if Tata beat Jones in a primary, he might have a hard time in a general election. Jones wins with a lot of Democratic support–folks who like his independent streak. Democrats outnumber Republicans in the district by 40% to 33%. African-Americans make up about 20% of the electorate. Jones has won on the strength of his independence and personality more than any ideological purity.
With Tata as the nominee, Democrats would have a clear shot at the district. To win, they would need to nominate a conservative Democrat who can raise serious money (can you say Mike McIntyre anyone), but the numbers clearly show a competitive district if Jones isn’t on the ticket. A well-funded campaign could make an issue of Tata’s lack of connection to the district and the national GOP’s attempt to hijack the seat. It would be an especially powerful argument if a defeated Walter Jones endorsed the Democrat. Given his history, that’s more than a slight possibility.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
You are an idiot. Look at Hillary Clinton when she ran for NY Senate. She moved there exactly one year prior to the election just to fit the letter of the law. Shut your pie hole and eat your crow.
CAN GOVENOR MCCORY PROVE TO ME THAT WE DID NOT HAVE ONE SINGLE MAN OR WOMAN IN NORTH CAROLINA WHO WAS QUALIFIED FOR THIS POSITION, THAT HE SHOULD HAVE HIRED OR APPOINTED?????
Thomas, no Democrat has any shot whatsoever at representing NC-03. It does not matter who the Republican candidate is. While you might take heart from the registration numbers, a huge portion of the “Democrats” here have not voted Democrat foe federal races in 20+ years. This district has an R+11 Cook PVI, a full 5 points more Republican than the most Republican district held by any Democrats in Congress right now. Romney won this seat by over 17 points, McCrory walloped Dalton by 21 points, and every single Republican Council of State member won here in 2012, even as most were losing statewide. In 2014 Kay Hagan lost by nearly 17 points to Tillis and she couldn’t even hit 40 percent of the vote.
The only areas of this seat represented by Democrats in the legislature are some small Republican-voting parts of counties in black-majority legislative seats and downtown Wilmington, so there is no Democratic bench at all here. The fact that you suggest Mike McIntyre, who just joined a Raleigh law firm as a lobbyist and whose represented less than 10% of this seat in the old iteration of NC-7, shows how bad the situation is here for Democrats. The DCCC would never in a million years invest a single penny in this seat barring Edwin Edwards famous dead girl/live boy situation.
Tata or McIntyre whats the difference?