Are DC, nat’l media losing interest in #NCSEN?
Prior to — and since — the May primaries, we were told that Kay Hagan is DEAD MEAT. Lately, it’s been hard to detect any evidence of that. The GOP campaign has stumbled and bumbled in trying to define its candidate to the voters and to communicate any kind of platform. And it’s been a LONG time since we saw a credible public poll showing Hagan down to her GOP challenger.
CNN tells us “Democrats are feeling cautiously bullish about exactly two of these races, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, and Sen. Kay Hagan, D-NC.” Fox News highlighted FIVE battleground states for control of the US Senate and released polling data on those races. Interestingly, North Carolina was not even mentioned. We weren’t even polled. I watched Bret Baier last night while he reported this polling data. As he was reviewing the electoral map for his audience, Bret got to North Carolina and said: “It appears North Carolina is going to stay blue, and Kay Hagan will be reelected.”
What’s going on here? For some insight, I turned to an old friend of mine who is a seasoned political operative at the congressional 
and presidential level. He has seen — and advised — a lot of big-time campaigns over the years. (For the record, he has NOT been involved professionally in any campaigns in North Carolina this election cycle.)
I asked my source for his take on the campaign thus far:
“It’s heart-breaking. This SHOULD have been a piece of cake. An awful lot of people I talk to are very frustrated with the Tillis campaign. They have done a lousy job introducing their candidate to the voters. They’ve done a terrible job communicating ANY kind of message or vision that says to the voters ‘Hey, we need to dump this broad and jump aboard the Tillis bandwagon.’ Barring some dramatic turn of events, I believe, in early November, a lot of folks on the Republican side will be thinking hard about ‘What might have been.’ ”
Here’s some food for thought. If Kay Hagan is reelected, it will be the FIRST TIME since 1968 that a Democrat has won reelection to the US Senate from North Carolina.
I would assume your friend/source at the end of the article is a GOP or Right winger since he used the anti-woman phrase “dump this broad”. War on Women = Out of Touch.
I assume that you’re some sort of left-wing troll just coming here to stir up dissension, so who gives a rip WHAT you think?
If Tillis loses, it is equally his fault and the Tea Party’s fault, in my opinion.
Tillis is simply just an asshole. Didn’t meet him until this year, and was turned off completely by his slick salesman type persona.
Many members of the Tea Party wing of the party are whiners who don’t play well with others when they don’t get their way.
If Hagan wins, who is easily the most pro-abortion senator we have EVER had, and the Senate is unable to block any Supreme Court appointees, we will RUE the day we missed the opportunity to send a prolife US Senator to D.C.
You can’t pin the blame on a potential loss on the “Tea Party”.
Not long ago, in this very forum, we read that the belief was that we weren’t needed – “Who were we gonna vote for? Hagan?”
Thom still has some time to humbly reach out and give some of us that are swayable a REASON to vote for him – yet, we are still being told we are not needed.
Here is a very good reason that the GOP could be giving except that the ”leaderhship” has discouraged it:
http://humanevents.com/2014/10/08/gops-big-idea-lets-not-have-a-wave-election/
Playing this issue right could have won this election for Tillis, but he has blown it royally, and playing the issue right would have brought around conservative and Tea Party voters. Tillis blew it – no one else.
Debate Watcher: Sorry to disappoint you, but it was a Republican Supreme Court that legalized mass abortion. It was a Republican Supreme Court that upheld Obamacare. It was a Republican Supreme Court that has just legalized gay marriage. You can’t blame the Democrats, or Hagan, for these disasters. The Republicans appointed and confirmed these disastrous GOP justices. Why do you think so many Republicans are leaving the GOP in substantial numbers?
I voted for Greg Brannon in the Republican Primary, and campaigned for him as well, and SENT some money to his campaign, I NOW FULLY support Thom Tillis for the Senate (what other real choice is there when our nation’s and great Old North State’s future is at stake?).
Proud Tea Partier, btw!!
I believe that if we reelect Kay Hagan it will indicate that North Carolina is slipping more and more into the “blue state” category. We are already “purple” and reelecting Hagan will be proof that this state is shifting to the left.
The metro areas of NC will dictate that the state elect liberal Democrats while the rural areas will scratch their heads wondering what happened.
Don’t give up, we aren’t a blue state, and we’re more redish than purple.
I believe with the right Republican Party, and candidates we could be great again, but WE have to retake the Republican Party from the consultant class in Raleigh-D.C. and then our state, nation!~
This likely loss of a race that with a better candidate and better campaign should easily have been won is a lot like Dole’s loss in 2008 or Broyhill’s in 1986. It was lost because we nominated a bad candidate who ran a bad campaign. Dole’s campaign architect, Fetzer, at least saw the handwriting on the wall and retired from political consulting after the Dole debacle. Republicans need to demand that the consultant behind the disaster of the Tillis campaign, Shumaker, do likewise. But the overall lack of strategic vision goes higher than just this campaign. The NRSC, Karl Rove, and the beltway consultants have promoted just this sort of issueless strategy that many cost the GOP other seats we should have won than just North Carolina. Karl Rove’s record to date is losing 10 of the 12 Senate races he has been involved in. He should be told that we do not want to see his ugly mug in North Carolina ever again. He is the one who bought the nomination for the loser Tilllis.
Rove had the money to bring to the table so he could front anyone he felt like throwing money towards.
As to the Washington media, the Washington Times did run this article four days ago which I think aptly sums up the GOP’s Tillis problem:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/5/thom-tillis-struggles-for-conservative-support-in-/
Tillis is going to win.The momentum is swinging to Tillis and the GOP and a major sweep is coming Nov.Hagen has thrown the kitchen sink at Tillis and failed to crack 45% and she is toast.Book it Dano.
Tillis may win, but not because of a good campaign. He certainly won’t have any coattails for down ballot candidates. In fact, his candidacy may result in a lot of collateral damage to other good Republican candidates. We’ll soon know. This has been far worse than the 1986 Broyhill campaign for Senate.