I've been pretty sure the Republicans will get back control of the North Carolina legislature next year but now I'm not underestimating their chances to defeat themselves.
Just got an e-mail from the party that they're bringing in Doug Hoffman to speak at their Hall of Fame dinner in a couple weeks. The same Doug Hoffman of course who managed to blow a Congressional seat the party had held for over a century.
If the Hoffman model is what they want to emulate they may just find a way to screw it up in a political climate that appears to be very favorable for them. Democrats have kept power in recent years despite one corruption scandal after another because voters in North Carolina think the Republicans are just too extreme and incompetent. You'd think they'd try to learn from those lessons and put a different face forward that could actually appeal to voters in the center but I may have overestimated them.
They are not going to regain control! You seriously think that? Don't you think the rejection of two tea party types in Charlotte has some meaning...other than a lot of Dems voted early?
ReplyDeleteBeing a boots on the ground volunteer I'm getting a sense that a lot of people learned about grassroots organizing from the Obama campaign here in NC and are continuing to put those lessons to good use. Let's hope so!
Sorry I can't be in Washington next week to hear you speak. Hope you have fun.
There is a very serious chance of losing the Albertson, Boseman, Soles, Queen, Goss, Davis, Hoyle, Foriest, and maybe Snow seats and unfortunately those are pretty exclusively places where Obama didn't do all that well. We'll be fine in Mecklenburg County, it's the rural areas I worry about!
ReplyDeleteIt's amusing that y'all still don't get what NY-23 was all about. Teheeheee.
ReplyDeleteI don't doubt that the NC Senate seats you list are competitive and have been thought to be competitive for several cycles.
ReplyDeleteHowever, having Obama on the ticket was a liablity, rather than an advantage, in certain districts of the state.
Indeed, I can think of one NC House seat (long-held by a Dem) that probably tipped for the GOP because of McCain vs. Obama straigh-ticket voting.
It's one thing for Obama to have coattails in statewide races or certain districts, but he surely hurt Dems on the ticket in other districts.
Wisely targeting those districts in the mid-terms is key.