I got a campaign flyer from Richard Hudson yesterday, touting his "service" to his constituents and vote for banning members of Congress from trading stocks.
But it wasn't paid for by his campaign - it was mailed using his Congressional franking privileges, which allows Congresscritters to use the mail for official business for free. It was an obvious campaign flyer that didn't mention he was up for reelection.
The other part of it that was desperate was that it was addressed to someone who lived at my address more than five years ago. I had gotten mail for that person before and looked them up in the NC voter database a couple of years ago - they were registered Libertarian, hadn't voted since 2016, and they never updated their address. I checked today and their registration had been removed.
So, Hudson is sending out campaign flyers using Congressional postal funds to people who haven't voted in a decade using a mailing list that's been outdated for at least five years. They're trying to dig up every possible conservative voter they can find.
Ojeda has him scared. And rightly so. While Hudson was perfecting the "Bunker Strategy" (hide in your bunkers until the shooting stops, the voters will forget all about it) Ojeda kept shooting -- working street by street all the way across the district. I've been following hi since before he even decided to run for congress. he was tearing a strip off TFG on YouTube during Trump I, when he was still in WV. He moved back to NC (he was at Ft. Bragg for years) right about the time a couple of jackasses decided to black out half of Moore Co shooting up a substation because of Drag Queen Story Hour. (Or at least that's when I learned the had come back here.)
And he's why I keep saying don't sleep on the 9th. Apparently the DNC agrees, because they're putting some money behind him now too. They moved his race to "in play".
Honestly, I think Hudson is hiding in obscurity behind the NC GOP's gerrymandering. The district has always been so weirdly drawn that I think people living in it don't really know who is representing them until they show up on Election Day and see his name on the ballot.
I suspect that's true in more than just the 9th. It's really sad the number of people -- not just here but everywhere -- who have no idea who represents them in government. Not just in the US House but even the US Senate. And forget about who their reps are in Raleigh -- worse yet even at the county/local level. This is one of the reasons I think Ojeda's personal canvassing is going to be so effective. He's not just sending people to go knock doors he's knocking on them himself. There's no substitute for eyeballs to eyeball contact, but it's *hard*, so most candidates don't do it.
And it's wearing thin. People are starting to set aside the fear of "other" in favor of the fear of "going broke because of failed R policies that are costing them their whole life savings". You can get people ot vote against their own interest for a while -- even a long while -- by convincing them they're voting against the interests of "those people", but eventually you reach a saturation point where they realize they've been had. And it usually ends badly for the ones who've been stoking the fear and resentment. so if the Democrats can quit trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (looking at YOU, CARVILLE!) they can clean up in November. (Obviously this also assumes an election that hasn't been tinkered with by Musk or the hacker Trump just hired to oversee elections.)
Not sure what you mean by "the modern GOP." George HW Bush ran his Willie Horton ad in 1988. Ronald Reagan, though not during an election race, cooked up the Welfare Queen driving a Cadillac with eight kids dining on steak during his presidency in the 80s to inflame public sentiment against the poor. During the 1884 election campaign, the Republican James G. Blaine used rumors about Democrat Grover Cleveland's love child against him. (And yes, I know that the political philosophies of the two parties have flip-flopped since then.) Republicans have been doing this for centuries.
Don't forget Nixon's "War on Drugs", which was nothing more than a way to demonize the hippies and the Blacks by welding their reputations to marijuana and heroin respectively. They couldn't get away with dragging the people, so they married them to drugs and dragged the drugs. Guilt by associations, even thoguh it was bullshit -- and they admitted as much. And Goldwater was no better, he just lost so we forget about him.
The GOP has developed this into a fine art over the past decade.
Try this sometime ... Go to Google's political ad database and look up some ads from the national and NC GOP and conservative PACs in recent elections and look for attack ads focusing on a race theme or featuring a Black or Latino Democratic candidate. Then, without changing any settings on your computer and monitor, look for video footage of the same Black or Latino individuals.
You'll quickly see that the GOP and conservative PACs subtly (and not so subtly) change the color timing and contrast in their ads to make Black and Latinos look darker and more menacing.
I've edited video since the early 1990s both on analogue and more modern digital video systems. If you're familiar with color timing, it's pretty obvious - the manipulation changes other parts of the image and it's easy to see this manipulation of you know what to look for. It's not so obvious to a casual viewer seeing the ads in a mix of programming on streaming or cable/broadcast tv.
TV news outlets, particularly in NC where this has been a constant them in political ads for several years, could call out the GOP and conservative PACs for this, but haven't. They stand to make too much money during an election cycle from running these ads.
I am glad to see that Whatley is running behind. I am also glad to see that Cooper is running a campaign based on what people in this state need and want instead of letting the GOP get him stuck on social issues.
However, I would remind each of your readers that this campaign is not over yet. If we pat ourselves on the back and do not continue to work and support Gov. Cooper, we could wind up the morning after the election wondering what happened. Do not let this happen. Make sure your family and friends are registered to vote and have a plan to get to the polls. Also make sure they vote both for Cooper and all the down ballot races as well or we could see some nasty surprises in the judical and other races. Go Dems. Screw the GOP.
I 'spect the vast majority of your readers feel, as I do: the Senate race is done, and Valerie, in the 4th District is solid.
But I'd sure appreciate your thoughts on a coupl'a US House races still cooking. Locally in particular, the 9th. Plus the 3rd and 11th perhaps?
As Mr. Riddle pointed out a half hour ago, Hudson (in the 9th) seems to be running just a bit shallower than the river. His absence from his district over the past months is notable. :-)
Past months? He's been MIA since the last election. He's the one who invented the strategy of not doing town halls or any kind of public outreach, and just let the gerrymander take care of it. He seemed to think the voters would develop amnesia about that once it was time to vote again, and it would appear he was mistaken. I live in the 4th, but I've been following Ojeda for a long tie now, and if there's anybody that can blast Hudson out of that seat, he's the one. He was almost custom built for the current 9th. Ranger, 24 year decorated vet, 3 combat tours and doesn't pull any punches. And he's gotten the attention of the DNC -- for better or worse. But he gets it. And he's earning it.
I've had the pleasure of spending some time with the Major in Siler City. He's one of the most straight-forward candidates I've met since I worked for Skipper Bowles in the dark, distance past.
AND he has a sense of humor: he describes graduating high school in Wet Virginia and finding he had three options: 1. work the coal mines 2, sell drugs 3. join the Army.
I ran into him in Raleigh at a Dropkick Murphys concert back in February. Not a campaign event, he was just there at the Ritz for the show with his son. And in the dark out of the district, at a rock show I saw no fewer than three other people come up and talk to him about his campaign. That's what getting yourself in front of people personally does for you. How many voters in the 9th do you suppose could pick Hudson out of a lineup? But 4 people at a random event picked Ojeda out in the dark in a space of under 20 minutes between bands. You can't buy that kind of recognition. Not with money anyway.
And I remember Skipper. I wasn't old enough to vote for him, but I remember his campaign.
Your observations are cogent and on the mark. The saddest aspect is that there is so much truth in what you write about today's so-called Republican party.
Cooper wasn't in ANY office when that happened. Who's doing Whatley's research? I'd say he should fire them, but they're doing a great job -- for Cooper.
Thank you for commenting on that ad. I saw it last night and cringed 😬. It helps to get a little background. I didn’t even catch who the victim was. I thought there were more than one.
It also talked about numerous people Cooper had released from prison. What’s the background on that?
FOLKS didn’t see her much. When they needed help, her office felt far away.
She spent her days in Washington and her nights there too, and folks back home noticed.
Her numbers slipped before the storm even hit. She carried the "title of incumbent" , but not the weight of it.
Her name didn’t run deep in North Carolina soil the way Helms once did.
The ground under her feet was soft, and she didn’t know it until it gave way. MOREOVER, HAGEN HAD THE OBAMA TIDE BEHIND HER THE FIRST TIME SHE RAN, BUT NOT THE SECOND TIME.
Here's another desperate act ...
I got a campaign flyer from Richard Hudson yesterday, touting his "service" to his constituents and vote for banning members of Congress from trading stocks.
But it wasn't paid for by his campaign - it was mailed using his Congressional franking privileges, which allows Congresscritters to use the mail for official business for free. It was an obvious campaign flyer that didn't mention he was up for reelection.
The other part of it that was desperate was that it was addressed to someone who lived at my address more than five years ago. I had gotten mail for that person before and looked them up in the NC voter database a couple of years ago - they were registered Libertarian, hadn't voted since 2016, and they never updated their address. I checked today and their registration had been removed.
So, Hudson is sending out campaign flyers using Congressional postal funds to people who haven't voted in a decade using a mailing list that's been outdated for at least five years. They're trying to dig up every possible conservative voter they can find.
Ojeda has him scared. And rightly so. While Hudson was perfecting the "Bunker Strategy" (hide in your bunkers until the shooting stops, the voters will forget all about it) Ojeda kept shooting -- working street by street all the way across the district. I've been following hi since before he even decided to run for congress. he was tearing a strip off TFG on YouTube during Trump I, when he was still in WV. He moved back to NC (he was at Ft. Bragg for years) right about the time a couple of jackasses decided to black out half of Moore Co shooting up a substation because of Drag Queen Story Hour. (Or at least that's when I learned the had come back here.)
And he's why I keep saying don't sleep on the 9th. Apparently the DNC agrees, because they're putting some money behind him now too. They moved his race to "in play".
Honestly, I think Hudson is hiding in obscurity behind the NC GOP's gerrymandering. The district has always been so weirdly drawn that I think people living in it don't really know who is representing them until they show up on Election Day and see his name on the ballot.
I suspect that's true in more than just the 9th. It's really sad the number of people -- not just here but everywhere -- who have no idea who represents them in government. Not just in the US House but even the US Senate. And forget about who their reps are in Raleigh -- worse yet even at the county/local level. This is one of the reasons I think Ojeda's personal canvassing is going to be so effective. He's not just sending people to go knock doors he's knocking on them himself. There's no substitute for eyeballs to eyeball contact, but it's *hard*, so most candidates don't do it.
What a weenie … got nothing
This is what Republicans do: the politics of fear
And it's wearing thin. People are starting to set aside the fear of "other" in favor of the fear of "going broke because of failed R policies that are costing them their whole life savings". You can get people ot vote against their own interest for a while -- even a long while -- by convincing them they're voting against the interests of "those people", but eventually you reach a saturation point where they realize they've been had. And it usually ends badly for the ones who've been stoking the fear and resentment. so if the Democrats can quit trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (looking at YOU, CARVILLE!) they can clean up in November. (Obviously this also assumes an election that hasn't been tinkered with by Musk or the hacker Trump just hired to oversee elections.)
Not sure what you mean by "the modern GOP." George HW Bush ran his Willie Horton ad in 1988. Ronald Reagan, though not during an election race, cooked up the Welfare Queen driving a Cadillac with eight kids dining on steak during his presidency in the 80s to inflame public sentiment against the poor. During the 1884 election campaign, the Republican James G. Blaine used rumors about Democrat Grover Cleveland's love child against him. (And yes, I know that the political philosophies of the two parties have flip-flopped since then.) Republicans have been doing this for centuries.
Don't forget Nixon's "War on Drugs", which was nothing more than a way to demonize the hippies and the Blacks by welding their reputations to marijuana and heroin respectively. They couldn't get away with dragging the people, so they married them to drugs and dragged the drugs. Guilt by associations, even thoguh it was bullshit -- and they admitted as much. And Goldwater was no better, he just lost so we forget about him.
The GOP has developed this into a fine art over the past decade.
Try this sometime ... Go to Google's political ad database and look up some ads from the national and NC GOP and conservative PACs in recent elections and look for attack ads focusing on a race theme or featuring a Black or Latino Democratic candidate. Then, without changing any settings on your computer and monitor, look for video footage of the same Black or Latino individuals.
You'll quickly see that the GOP and conservative PACs subtly (and not so subtly) change the color timing and contrast in their ads to make Black and Latinos look darker and more menacing.
I've edited video since the early 1990s both on analogue and more modern digital video systems. If you're familiar with color timing, it's pretty obvious - the manipulation changes other parts of the image and it's easy to see this manipulation of you know what to look for. It's not so obvious to a casual viewer seeing the ads in a mix of programming on streaming or cable/broadcast tv.
TV news outlets, particularly in NC where this has been a constant them in political ads for several years, could call out the GOP and conservative PACs for this, but haven't. They stand to make too much money during an election cycle from running these ads.
Disgusting. But sadly, not surprising.
I am glad to see that Whatley is running behind. I am also glad to see that Cooper is running a campaign based on what people in this state need and want instead of letting the GOP get him stuck on social issues.
However, I would remind each of your readers that this campaign is not over yet. If we pat ourselves on the back and do not continue to work and support Gov. Cooper, we could wind up the morning after the election wondering what happened. Do not let this happen. Make sure your family and friends are registered to vote and have a plan to get to the polls. Also make sure they vote both for Cooper and all the down ballot races as well or we could see some nasty surprises in the judical and other races. Go Dems. Screw the GOP.
100%
Hope you're feelin' better, Thomas!
I 'spect the vast majority of your readers feel, as I do: the Senate race is done, and Valerie, in the 4th District is solid.
But I'd sure appreciate your thoughts on a coupl'a US House races still cooking. Locally in particular, the 9th. Plus the 3rd and 11th perhaps?
As Mr. Riddle pointed out a half hour ago, Hudson (in the 9th) seems to be running just a bit shallower than the river. His absence from his district over the past months is notable. :-)
Past months? He's been MIA since the last election. He's the one who invented the strategy of not doing town halls or any kind of public outreach, and just let the gerrymander take care of it. He seemed to think the voters would develop amnesia about that once it was time to vote again, and it would appear he was mistaken. I live in the 4th, but I've been following Ojeda for a long tie now, and if there's anybody that can blast Hudson out of that seat, he's the one. He was almost custom built for the current 9th. Ranger, 24 year decorated vet, 3 combat tours and doesn't pull any punches. And he's gotten the attention of the DNC -- for better or worse. But he gets it. And he's earning it.
Spot on.
I've had the pleasure of spending some time with the Major in Siler City. He's one of the most straight-forward candidates I've met since I worked for Skipper Bowles in the dark, distance past.
AND he has a sense of humor: he describes graduating high school in Wet Virginia and finding he had three options: 1. work the coal mines 2, sell drugs 3. join the Army.
We are collectively fortunate he chose 3. :-)
I ran into him in Raleigh at a Dropkick Murphys concert back in February. Not a campaign event, he was just there at the Ritz for the show with his son. And in the dark out of the district, at a rock show I saw no fewer than three other people come up and talk to him about his campaign. That's what getting yourself in front of people personally does for you. How many voters in the 9th do you suppose could pick Hudson out of a lineup? But 4 people at a random event picked Ojeda out in the dark in a space of under 20 minutes between bands. You can't buy that kind of recognition. Not with money anyway.
And I remember Skipper. I wasn't old enough to vote for him, but I remember his campaign.
Your observations are cogent and on the mark. The saddest aspect is that there is so much truth in what you write about today's so-called Republican party.
Cooper wasn't in ANY office when that happened. Who's doing Whatley's research? I'd say he should fire them, but they're doing a great job -- for Cooper.
Craven, crass, creepy
I'm supporting Ojeda even though I can't vote for him. I think that NC will really help take the House.
Thank you for commenting on that ad. I saw it last night and cringed 😬. It helps to get a little background. I didn’t even catch who the victim was. I thought there were more than one.
It also talked about numerous people Cooper had released from prison. What’s the background on that?
ELIZABETH DOLE WAS FROM "AROUND HERE" BUT,
FOLKS didn’t see her much. When they needed help, her office felt far away.
She spent her days in Washington and her nights there too, and folks back home noticed.
Her numbers slipped before the storm even hit. She carried the "title of incumbent" , but not the weight of it.
Her name didn’t run deep in North Carolina soil the way Helms once did.
The ground under her feet was soft, and she didn’t know it until it gave way. MOREOVER, HAGEN HAD THE OBAMA TIDE BEHIND HER THE FIRST TIME SHE RAN, BUT NOT THE SECOND TIME.
Yes
Has Dole been spotted in N.C. since she lost?
Is she still alive?
Elizabeth Dole is alive, well, and living in Washington, D.C., continuing her long-standing work supporting military and veteran caregivers.