Democrats in North Carolina are going on the offensive early. They’re expanding the playing field in legislative races and turning a GOP talking point into a Democratic advantage. They’re already starting to communicate in areas that were thought to be safe for the Republicans.
In a memo sent to prospective Democratic donors, NCDP Executive Director Kimberly Reynolds lists 15 seats that Democrats are targeting that until recently weren’t even on the radar screen. All are in eastern North Carolina and all stood to benefit from the Atlantic Coast Pipeline fund that the Republicans scrapped. Most of those counties supported the pipeline as an economic development tool for areas that have struggled to recover from the Great Recession. Now, counties those legislators represent will either need to find a way to pay for access to the pipeline themselves or hope that the GOP finds money in an upcoming session.
According to WRAL, Democrats are already dropping mail in those districts to let voters know that Republicans killed the fund meant to provide jobs to eastern North Carolina. Communicating this early shows Democrats are confident in both their fundraising ability and the message they’re pushing. They believe they can make Republicans spend serious money to defend seats that they once thought were safe and that the issue of economic development is salient enough drive a wedge between the GOP and voters in those counties.
Republicans, for their part, have been trying to turn the fund into a Cooper scandal. So far, nobody’s biting. I’m sure they’ll blame the press but the circumstances of the deal are far too complicated and removed from most people’s lives. They’re not accusing Cooper of having misappropriated funds. They’re accusing him of setting up a fund that might have allowed him to abuse those funds sometime in the future. Since they confiscated the money, it’s pretty much a moot point anyway. At best for them, it’s a process argument and process arguments don’t fly in politics.
The whole episode turns the GOP strategy on its head. Republicans shifted the funds to education, hoping to offset criticism about shortchanging schools and teachers, but with teacher pay and per pupil spending still far below the national average, nobody’s buying it. Now, Democrats are attacking them for stifling economic development. Had the GOP confiscated the fund and used it for its original purpose, they would have muted the blow. Instead, they’ll need to explain to constituents why they thought their communities shouldn’t have access to the natural gas from the pipeline.
Clearly, Democrats in North Carolina are feeling confident. In a news conference last week, they announced that they’ve identified 13 Republican-held house seats and eight Republican-held senate seats where Democrats are leading and another 20 combined that are “on the bubble.” The pipeline issue gives them an additional eleven potential targets. The governor is using his fundraising ability to support legislative campaigns, an advantage the party didn’t have when McCrory held the office. Democrats believe they’ve got a political environment that favors them and they now have an issue in eastern North Carolina that gives them opportunities in districts that were once considered safe.
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 >
This makes the democrats look like complete hypocrites. Cooper should not have approved this pipeline because its economic benefits are way overblown, it’s a disaster for climate change, it’s a serious environmental justice issue, and Duke Energy will once again end up raising rates to pay for it so that they can send money along to their shareholders while everyone else foots the bill.
I have completely lost faith in Cooper and am extremely disappointed in this terrible decision. It’s an even worse decision for democrats to now use this as an argument to beat Republicans when they also claim to want to fight climate change. This is why people don’t vote for democrats. They have no spine.
What hypocrisy! Liberals scream that Republicans underfund public education (which is a blatant lie), and then when the GOP earmarks a windfall for public schools, Democrats complain that the Governor lost his slush fund.
And BTW, personal income data for 2017 has just been released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce. Personal income percentage growth in NC was 3.8 percent, well above the national average of 3.1 percent. Only eight states, all out West, had higher percentage income growth last year. NC tied with Georgia and Florida for the highest rate in the Southeast, well above our neighboring states of Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina.
Our General Assembly must being doing something right in the face of opposition from the Governor. Electing more Democrats to the state legislature will only jeopardize the substantial economic progress NC has enjoyed since Republicans took control of the General Assembly in 2011.
If you live in one odf thoses area, you may feel difference. Cooper take money for the gas pipe line but will not let us drill for oil.
Because what you ask for.