Gov. Pat takes a page from Thad Cochran’s political playbook
In Mississippi, when incumbent US senator Thad Cochran appeared to be going down in flames to Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel, GOP establishment types sold their souls and threw in with Democrats to fend off the conservative hordes. It looks like Pat McCrory — apparently unable to get his fellow GOPers in the General Assembly to listen to him — is taking a page out of that Mississippi playbook:
Trying to drum up support for Gov. Pat McCrory’s budget veto threat, his education adviser Eric Guckian sent an email to lobbyists for education-related groups, about a half dozen school superintendents, and N.C. Association of Educators leaders asking for backing.
McCrory last Thursday threatened to veto any budget that included an average 11 percent teacher raise – a raise Senate Republicans are pushing – because it would mean deep cuts in other areas. McCrory said he backs a House proposal that includes 6 percent average teacher raises.
The same day, Guckian sent an email asking for “public statements in support” of McCrory’s veto pledge. The email went to Heath Morrison, superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools; Cumberland Superintendent Frank Till; State Board of Education Chairman Bill Cobey; NCAE President Rodney Ellis; and Democratic State Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson, among others.
Ah. The Republican administration teaming up with a bunch of folks who campaigned for — and likely voted for — Walter Dalton and Barack Obama. MORE:
Morrison and Till were two of the superintendents Republican Senate negotiators walked out on last week when House negotiators asked them to talk about the impact of losing teacher assistants, a spending category the Senate budget cuts by $233 million.
The budget – now two weeks overdue – has touched off an intense intra-party fight, with the Republican governor siding with the Republican-led House against the Republican-led Senate.
“Our state needs swift and public statements of support from you all,” Guckian wrote. “We simply cannot allow a small and powerful minority to control the future of North Carolina. This is not a partisan issue, as the House vote of 117-0 in support of the Education Promise Act confirms. This is about doing the right thing for children and for all of the educators that are charged with their care. Please feel free to call me with any questions or concerns, but I urge you to act. The time is now.”
Small and powerful minority? It’s the GOP majority in the North Carolina Senate.
And WHO exactly is this Guckian fellow that the governor has put on the point in the battle against his fellow Republicans? Well, for starters, he’s a Democrat from Chapel Hill. He’s also a big Common Core shill with extensive ties to the far-left Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Read more on this guy from our friend Lady Liberty.
Tillis is desperate to get the session closed, but it is his own stupid fault for being stuck there. If he had had the same common sense as Oklahoma State House Speaker T. W. Shannon did when he announced for US Senate and resigned as Speaker, Tillis would not be in this mess.
Now moderate Mecklenburg Republican McCrory is trying to help out moderate Mecklenburg Republican TIllis by throwing the conservative Senate under the bus. That is not going to help Tillis. It is just going to anger conservatives into not voting in the US Senate race. And at some point, it is probably going to start sticking to McCrory for his 2016 race, too.
The Democrats must be loving this circular firing squad.
There is a great risk for moderate Republicans when they team up with liberal Democrats against conservatives, because after that the notions of party loyalty and party unity have been thrown under the bus by the moderates, and if it is their nominees on the line, like Tillis, in November, they may well be seeing their chickens come home to roost.
Tillis is probably the biggest loser in what the Governor is doing.
I stand with my Republican state senator on this battle and will continue to do so.
Here in the 6th district, the moderate GOPers are not only backing Walker against Phil Berger Jr., but now they are forming a movement calling to defeat Senator Berger.
It really sucks. Jump over to the Walker and Blust facebook pages and see how these people are attacking Senator Berger as part of their push to defeat Berger Junior.
I’ll bet Berger is now kicking himself for not endorsing one of the NOT TILLIS candidates in the GOP Senate primary.
Correction: Gov. Pat said he would veto any increase of teacher pay over 6%