From the Talking About Politics blog, Gary Pearce on the Tea Party vote:
Thom Tillis is getting the worst of both worlds. The Tea Party doesn’t think he’s one of them, and voters think he’s too close to the Tea Party.
The right-leaning Washington Times quoted one Wilkes County Tea Party leader, Joe Greene: “He’s an establishment Republican. That’s why I’m opposed to him. A lot of people feel the way I do and won’t vote for him. He’s got a lot of things about him that’s not grass roots.” … Tillis has more boardroom about him than grassroots. Unfortunately for him in the Senate race, he presided over a House that has led North Carolina in the Tea Party’s direction the last two years. …
An old political adage comes to mind here: If you’re still securing your base in October, you’re losing.
Carter Wrenn on the televised debate between U.S. House candidates Clay Aiken and Renee Ellmers, moderated by David Crabtree:
Here’s the three tartest comments I heard about the Ellmers-Aiken debate.
“He has the silliest pompadour since Jim Hunt.”
“She was catty.”
“The person on stage most qualified to serve in Congress was David Crabtree.”
Pearce on same-sex marriage: Some North Carolina politicians sound today just like their predecessors in the 1950s, railing against the Supreme Court and rallying behind “state’s rights.”
Then it was racial discrimination. Today it’s same-sex marriage. Then – as today – the politicians were on the wrong side of history.
They say the state’s ban on gay marriages passed with 60 percent of the vote. Yes it did. In a primary two years ago. Want to try it again in a general election?