#ncpol: Saving Private McCrory
I have to be honest — the polling so far does not look good for our Republican governor. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a survey showing him on top. And those most recent two that did came from his buddies at Civitas.
Roy Cooper is one of the weakest sisters the Democrats have nominated for governor since Rufus Edmisten. Yet, the crowd in that big house on Blount Street seems ready to simply hand over the keys to Do-Nuthin’ Roy. So far, we’re seeing an incredibly weak reelection effort against in what really is a target-rich environment.
I’m about as far outside the McCrory inner circle as you can get, without being named Cooper. But, to be honest, it will be a loooooong four to eight years with Governor Cooper. I’d like to see McCrory right his ship. Here are my thoughts on how to pull Pat’s chestnuts out of the fire:
Show us your plan. (What is Act II?): McCrory ran for office the first time, and has governed, like he’s still the mayor of Charlotte. The governor’s team is spending a lot of time touting how much more money they’ve dumped into the public education cesspool. They’ve propped up Common Core. They’ve poo-pooed the 
size of tax cuts proposed over on Jones Street, and reluctantly went along with refusing the federal money for ObamaCare implementation. They’re handing out grants left and right, and proposing spending plans larger than what the legislature is offering.
All of that projects an image of being the caretaker of the welfare state in Raleigh. In 2010 and 2012, the state’s voters sent a message loud and clear that they wanted fundamental change in the way the state works. No more business as usual.
Instead of offering more business as usual, why not offer up some dramatic change? A Contract With North Carolina. A plan that the governor will push to fundamentally alter the way state government operates?
Can you tell us with a straight face that there is nothing else that can be cut or consolidated in the bureaucracy? Can you honestly tell us there is nothing else that can be shifted away from state government and back to local governments, or even THE PEOPLE?
Tell us specifically what Pat McCrory believes in and WHAT he will fight for if we give him four more years in Raleigh.
Reach to your right. It’s pretty obvious Pat McCrory is not a conservative-at-heart. Anyone who watched him as 
mayor of Charlotte could have told you that. But it can be argued that his current troubles are rooted primarily in the indifference or outright disgust many on the GOP’s right flank feel for him. The grand, game-changing ideas have been coming mainly from Jones Street with the governor hemming-and-hawing over them, and eventually being dragged along. With a veto-proof majority in both chambers, it is really hard for conservatives to see why we need four more years of Pat McCrory. Veto-proof majorities could very well just run right over Gov. Cooper.
Hanging out with Civitas a couple of times a year does not count as conservative outreach. Their audience really doesn’t extend much outside of the beltline. Make yourself available to grassroots groups outside of the Triangle. Listen to and reach out to those folks. Do it at events that don’t require coughing up a big check.
Everything does not have to revolve around fundraising. I’ve heard over and over — ad nauseous — about local party recommendations for state appointments being by-passed for the recommendations of establishment influence peddlers who wrote big checks.
Championing HB2 is a good first step. I’ve heard from many a conservative that HB2 is the only thing keeping them in the McCrory camp. A good solid PLAN for a second term — championing a laundry list of serious conservative reforms — could really aid in solidifying the support of this important group.
SCREW the drive by media. Who keeps advising the governor to go on Meet The Press and WRAL, or to talk to The N&O?
Team McCrory is way too concerned with being liked by the drive by media. They made it clear in that whole BluePrintNC leak in 2012-2013 they intend to “eviscerate” and “cripple” McCrory. Go AROUND them. Most of North Carolina already does. They are losing viewers and readers left and right. Our site arguably has as much reach as The Charlotte Observer does.
There is a burgeoning conservative alternative media blossoming out there from Murphy to Manteo. It encompasses talk radio, print, and even the blogosphere. Many of us are eager to help, if you GIVE US SOMETHING TO WORK WITH.
Define Roy Cooper. Politics is a contact sport. It’s pretty clear the ‘Peace and Love’ crowd on the left doesn’t mind putting on the pads and smacking our governor around.
Roy Cooper is even more of an empty suit than Walter Dalton was. Look at how bad McCrory killed him. From his time on Jones Street, to his time at the DOJ, Cooper has a really thin résumé. He’s had a talent for running up in front of the TV cameras after someone else in another agency has done all the hard work. With the Duke lacrosse case — where he gets his biggest kudos — I hear his decision to jump in the fray had more to do with screwups at the crime lab than any concerns about the quality of the case.
Bring forward victims of crimes where suspects had to be released due to crime lab screwups. Point out how Cooper has aided, encouraged, and abetted boycotts of the state. Point out how his gubernatorial ambitions have put serving the people a distant second and cost the taxpayers a lot of extra money. Point out how he was a loyal soldier for Tony Rand and Marc Basnight in the Senate as they raided the state treasury and regulated and taxed the people to near-death.
Teamwork. Getting some more Republicans on the Council of State could help make a second term go a lot smoother, and build a lot of goodwill for Team McCrory. In 2012, McCrory ran up a big lead over Walter Dalton. Instead of using his popularity and bulging bank account to help out 
down-ballot candidates, McCrory kept scooping up more cash and ignoring his ticket mates.
At campaign events, it can help to tell the gathering how important it will be for ol’ Pat to have help from Treasurer Dale Folwell, Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, Attorney General Buck Newton, and Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, and Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. A continued me-me-me attitude will likely result in a lot more me-me-me alone time over the next four years.
Good advice but the McCrory campaign is full of kids and yes men. And it is showing.
Yes, McCrory has never been one to take advice from the conservative wing of his party and now he’s paying for it. Not sure about these polls, though. And didn’t Civitas pretty nearly nail the results of the last election in advance? I thought I read that here on DH.
Civitas got close on the spread, predicting a McCrory win by 11% in september, but was off on the numbers significantly. (Final spread was 11.4%.) Several other polls also predicted a 11.0% win for McCrory that year.
For the Tillis race in 2014, both Civitas and PPP picked Hagan to win. Civitas had Hagan 45-43, while PPP said Hagan 48-46. Thillis won 49-47.3.
McCrory has been a disappointment as governor, but if you look at his opponent, Roy Cooper, then there is no question that McCrory is far preferable. Roy Cooper is heavily funded by some of the most obnoxious extreme leftwing political puppet masters out there, George Soros and Tom Steyer. North Carolina does not need a Soros / Steyer governor.
I personally think McCrory could care less if he loses. He has a lucrative lobbying career in front of him in multiple industries.
If he loses, he’ll just blame Trump and move on to start making $$$.
What kind of “conservative” Lt. Governor do we have … That is content to sit out another eight years of Cooper/McCrory for ” his turn” ” to be Governor. With no more spunk than he has shown, the opposition will chew him up and spit him out, over the next four years.
Like the weak campaigning of McCrory, I see very little effort from current state reps and senators to campaign on CONSERVATIVE issues. That solar money has muted a lot of them.
Marm, you are such an advocate of registering Unaffiliated, maybe it is time you took it upon yourself to build a mechanism to run some Unaffiliated conservative candidates in legislative, especially House, races against the RINOs, especially in races where there is no Democrat candidate filed.
Too many consultants are telling candidates how to run their races, which we are seeing what we are seeing in campaigns. In my county, neither our State Senator nor our State Representative are aligned with the Solyndra Republicans, aka the Solar Goons. Both openly support the repeal of the renewable energy mandate. We need more like them.
Word circulating is that McCrory knows he will lose this election but is gearing up for Congressman Pittengers spot in 2018.
How conservative is Pittenger’s district? That would explain why McCrory came out swinging on HB2 in an ad I saw televised this morning.
My guess is that those rumors stretch back to the rumors when he was mayor and supposedly only ran for governor in 2008 because Rep. Sue Myrick wasn’t retiring as fast as McCrory wanted. The same is supposedly true about then State Sen. Pittenger who ran for Lt. Gov. that year. They both wanted Myrick’s seat but she wasnt stepping down so they ran for something else.
I wish someone would explain to me how any NC statewide Republican candidate expects to win this fall with the entire GOP Establishment backing Hillary. What cave are NC Republicans living in? Turn on TV–all you see are Hillary ads. The GOP Money Establishment has cut off all money for Trump and a coordinated GOP campaign effort to benefit all candidates up and down the ballot. As a result, there will be a Republican bloodbath in NC this fall. If the NC GOP can’t see this coming, they are in worse shape than I thought. It’s going to be ugly. Tragic, but true.
The GOP may as well be “Shaving McCrory’s Privates”, no more than it has done to thwart his milque-toast moderate agenda.
The North Carolina Senate has done a pretty good job in staving off some of McCrory’s liberal moves. The Senators were the ones who forced McCrory and Tillis’ hands in rejecting Obamacare in NC. McCrory and Tillis wanted to keep their options open. It is the Senate which has done the heavy lifted against spending, while the Governor and the House have tried to significantly increase spending. It was Senate President Phil Berger who stood up and said the Senate would not pass McCrory’s effort to eliminate SCV license plates. The list could go on.
The Senate cannot do everything by itself. We need to get more conservatives into the House. Tim Moore is little different from Jim Black.
We should also never forget that Dallas Woodhouse, now NCGOP executive director and de facto chairman, in his previous job did push polls in key Senate districts to try to intimidate Senators into caving in and abandoning conservative issues. Dallas Woodhouse was an awful choice for this position and he badly needs to go.
The GOP officials have been more afraid of political retaliation by McCrory and his surrogates in Raleigh, than they have courage to do what they know to be right. I don’t get it, either, Private McCrory. I’m willing to pitch in and buy that bunch a can of shave cream. If they’re no more useful at curbing Moderate McCrory, perhaps they’ll prove themselves good at SOMETHING!
No need, Oneida. McCrory probably gets a discounted bikini waxing at the same salon where he gets his pedicures in Raleigh. He is a Charlotte LIBERAL, plain and simple. And the blogger who suggests he has a chance at Pittenger’s seat is delusional. McCrory is guilty of felony flip-flopping, and even Charlotte’s liberals know better than to trust him.
If the Bush-Romney operatives keep savaging Trump I am not even sure the NC Senate can survive the impending disaster awaiting the Tarheel GOP. So much depends on the top of the ticket and Trump is being outspent 4-1.
It is possible that “Moderate McCrory” is a bigger drag on the “down-ticket” than the Establishment folks who’ve thrown Trump under the bus, Stephen. McCrory is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.