The Morning After: Looking back at Tuesday’s vote
Well, the mainstream media did its best to tamp down enthusiasm about the state’s runoff elections.
(Our local paper ran a grand total of TWO stories about the runoff — even though a local yet highly-despised resident was on the ballot. One, about a week before the race, moaned about how much taxpayers were spending for a low-turnout affair.
It’s *nice* when lefties worry about government spending. Enough of this democracy! Dump that election money into welfare and food stamps!
The other came today on its web site — giving partial election results. )
Congratulations to Mattie Lawson and her team out in Eastern North Carolina. They were heavily outspent, and had to fight the full power of the GOP establishment, but won big on Tuesday. Here’s hoping that Thom Tillis has to spend the next two years looking at Mattie Lawson on the House floor.
The Tea Party: Grassroots activists showed their strength in some state legislature races and council of state races. In addition to Lawson’s big victory, an incumbent GOP senator in western North Carolina was defeated in his runoff.
Grassroots voters pummeled Richard Morgan ONE MORE TIME in the face of deafening silence and indifference from the party establishment. It’s amazing that Raleigh had little to no interest in stopping someone who cut a deal with the Democrats from attaining a party nomination.
Tea Partiers were highly influential in picking a council of state slate that included: Dan Forest for Lt. Governor, John Tedesco for DPI superintendent, Mike Causey for Commissioner of Insurance, and Ed Goodwin for Secretary of State. All of these candidates campaigned hard for Tea Party support, and it paid off for them on Tuesday.
The U.S. House Races: As in May, the Tea Party got rolled in the congressional races. The DC and Raleigh establishment pretty much got what they wanted in the 8th and 9th districts. (Some say the 11th, as well.) Granted, Eric Cantor can’t vote in North Carolina, but the thousands upon thousands his cronies sent down to the state allowed his hand-picked candidates to flood the airwaves with unchallenged propaganda.
If Pittenger and Hudson make it to DC, they will join Renee Ellmers in the OWNED BY D.C. caucus of North Carolina’s congressional delegation. John Boehner and Eric Cantor’s “orders” will come first. Your calls will be put on HOLD.
We in the grassroots are getting our act together — slowly but surely — at the local and state levels. But if we are really going to try to save our country, we need to come up with some quality candidates for Congress who can run competitive campaigns.
South Carolina has been able to stack their congressional delegation with staunch conservatives. We could too.
11th District winner Mark Meadows was backed by some national conservative groups such as the Madison Project. The NRCC’s choice was knocked out in the first primary.
In the 9th, it was a choice between two establishment candidates, and Pittenger is by inclination probably a bit more conservative than Pendergraph. Pendergraph was a longtime Democrat sheriff who once contemplated running for Congress as a Democrat to help Nancy Pelosi. Conservatives really did not have a good choice in that race, and Pittenger was probably the lesser of the evils. The best conservative, Ric Killian was eliminated in the first primary.
You are spot on in the 8th. Boehner and Cantor and their surrender monkey clique have bought themselves a lapdog in Richard Hudson. Disgusting!
Other than the 6th House district, I have not followed the other legislative runoffs. What is the score on the other four?