For Pete's sake

GREENSBORO, NC -- The News & Record mocks congressional candidate Laura Fjeld today "for thinking she could carry the primary victory into the general election in a district that has been a Republican stronghold for decades."

A Republican stronghold for decades?

Sigh...

No.

If the staff at the News & Record are going to belittle someone, they might want to make sure they aren't making fools of themselves in the process.

The district in which Fjeld ran was newly drawn in 2012.

As of 2012

Prior to that, it included much of the Democratic leaning 13th district, held by Democrat Brad Miller for a decade.

Through 2011

Fjeld was not running in a district that has been a "Republican stronghold for decades." It is a newly drawn district in existence for only two years and which actually has more registered Democrats than Republicans.

Fjeld was not crazy for thinking she had a shot. On the other hand, what does it tell us about those on the political beat at the News & Record that they are so ignorant of their home turf?

Why the mystery?

GREENSBORO, NC -- On the mysterious genesis of state legislator Trudy Wade's idea to monkey around with the make up of Greensboro's city council, News & Record reporter Amanda Lehmert writes:

"Council members, former elected leaders and political wonks have been left to speculate which one of them poked the bear."

Add to the list of those left to speculate News & Record readers — which is not where a news organization should want to leave its audience.

A few days ago, Lehmert reported:

"Wade said she was prompted to consider the issue by local business owners, who she said asked not to be identified."

That's fine and dandy, but a reporter should not acquiesce to a preference for such secrecy; in fact, a reporter should challenge it vociferously. Who are the people pushing these proposed changes to city government and what are their motives? If only we had some kind of person whose job it was to challenge authority, to investigate and uncover information for the public benefit.

Communications with Wade on this matter would be public record. They would likely end the "speculation" and fill the gaping hole in this story. A professional reporter covering this should not hesitate to ask for them.

"We have seen a really flawed campaign from the Fjeld folks"

I have to agree with this assessment from Matthew DeSantis, an assistant professor of political science at GTCC, when he says of Congressional candidate Laura Fjeld:

"We have seen a really flawed campaign from the Fjeld folks."

The demographics of this, the 6th Congressional district (in which I live), make it ideal for a grassroots campaign, but the advantage there goes to Fjeld's opponent, Mark Walker, by a mile.

Fjeld's website invites people to sign up for an email newsletter or to donate money. That is the limited extent of the doors it opens to potential supporters. There is nothing specifically related to volunteering or getting a yard sign. Inquiries sent through the limited generic contact form go unanswered.

Walker's site, by comparison, has a panel on the main page that offers five ways of engaging the campaign. There is a prominent link to volunteer, click it and it suggests numerous possibilities to become involved with the campaign, from going door-to-door to distributing yard signs.

The differences are more than esoteric. I suspect they reveal a difference in approach: Fjeld's as tightly (if not poorly) managed and unapproachable, Walker's as accessible and responsive.

I'm not sure how Fjeld thinks she's going to win, but it's pretty clear she is not doing much to maximize or even enable the efforts of potential supporters. Walker, on the other hand, is clearly interested in leveraging the enthusiasm of supporters to the fullest extent.

My guess is that will be the difference-maker and Fjeld will lose a race she could have won.

Prognostication: Walker prevails in runoff

GREENSBORO, NC -- Based on an examination of the primary turnout and my sense of the race since then, I predict Mark Walker will prevail in tomorrow's Republican runoff for North Carolina's Sixth Congressional district by a margin of 400 to 500 votes.

For local elected officials (and the News & Record)

GREENSBORO, NC -- To our local elected officials who insist on planting their online presence exclusively on Facebook (usually with a mandatory log in, no less): I'm sure the ability to be able to "block" people who ask inconvenient questions has its appeal, but you should think about what the guy in this video has to say and the implications of requiring your constituents to use Facebook as the online conduit to you.

What are you asking us to acquiesce to to be able to connect with you? This applies too to the News & Record too, who not only requires a FB log in to post comments, but requires that users accept the FB tracking cookie just to be able to even see comments.

News & Record's superficial endorsement of superficial candidate

GREENSBORO, NC -- Is the News & Record even serious any more? In endorsing Greensboro district three city council person Zack Matheny in the Republican primary for United States House of Representatives, N.C. district 6, they ask readers to ignore important issues, ignore the realities of the political climate, local and national, and suggest we join them in a willful suspension of critical thinking.

The News & Record touts what they see as Matheny's:

"[W]illingness to work across party lines for the benefit of the people [he] represent[s]. That approach is sorely needed in Congress."

The fact is, Matheny is a member of a non-partisan city council where party matters so little that the mayor has served on council as a Republican, then unaffiliated and now as a Democrat. Such an environment gives us no indication of how Matheny will operate in the partisan pressure cooker of the U.S. House of Representatives. A better indication is in Matheny's campaign platform and here, the News & Record gives Matheny cover from scrutiny. They write:

"Matheny’s top issue in this campaign isn’t repealing Obamacare, opposing same-sex marriage, banning abortion, denying climate change or impeaching the president — topics that occupy some of the other candidates. It’s finding ways to create more jobs."

In congress, Matheny will have to—we, his potential constituents, will want him to—act on health care, marriage equality, reproductive issues, climate change, economic inequality and more, including budgetary, foreign affairs, defense, and entitlement issues such as Social Security. Yet, the News & Record is asking us to dumb down our examination of Matheny by suggesting that we ignore how he might act on these important issues and, instead, be swayed by rhetoric on "jobs." Voters will be wise not to oblige.

Despite what the News & Record may wish us to ignore, Matheny has staked out some positions that give a better picture than the News & Record's wishful thinking of how he'll operate if elected. No matter one's political inclinations, it will interest voters to know what Matheny has to say on the issues (and on what he has remained silent).

Health Care:
In January, Matheny's website called for an unequivocal repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: "Congress must repeal Obamacare," he wrote. Now, along with some good news about Obamacare, Matheny's website no longer calls for repeal. While he still remains critical of what he calls "government intrusion" in health care and maintains that Obamacare "hurts far more people than it helps," he seems confused about the role of government in health care as he cites as a good example of the delivery of health services the medical testing company LabCorp, which happens to be North Carolina's single largest recipient of Medicare payments (i.e. "government")  — some $157 million in 2012. (As it turns out, LabCorp made a $5,000 campaign contribution to Matheny days before he came to use them as an example on his website.)

I wrote to Matheny, in whose congressional and city council districts I live, to ask if he still opposes Obamacare and why. I also, separately, asked if he supported Republican changes to expand Obamacare signed into law by President Obama. Matheny replied that he was out of town and would get back to me when "time permits." That was two weeks ago. Matheny's views on health care have been inconsistent, confused and self-contradictory. Had the News & Record been serious, it would have explored the implications of Matheny's muddled thoughts on this issue. Voters will.

The Budget:
Matheny promotes a Constitutional amendment "requiring the federal government to balance its budget every year." As with the Affordable Care Act, it's not clear to what extent Matheny has thought this through or his level of commitment as he qualifies his support by saying we should "consider" it.

Taxes:
We'll let Matheny speak for himself here and leave it to the reader to decide if this is something the News & Record would have ignored in a serious endorsement.

"As your Congressman, I will fight for legislation to sunset our current tax code and create a simple, fair, and honest tax system. Our current code is too complex, 70,000 pages and growing every year. No one knows what’s in it, or understands the current system. If we sunset our tax code after 3 years, that gives Congress 1000 days to take out a clean sheet of paper headed 'Fair, Simple, Honest.' "

Education:
Again, Matheny's words themselves are the most illustrative and, again, the reader will evaluate the seriousness of a News & Record endorsement that, in a city with six colleges and universities, ignores Matheny's idea for education:

"We must TEACH FOR THE JOB." [Emphasis in original]  

Guns:
Yet again, another topic on which the News & Record would have had something to say, were they serious. Here's Matheny:

"As your Congressman, I will continue to support gun owners and protect their right to bear arms. Protecting Second Amendment rights is not only a Constitutional issue. Our region has an economic interest to protect these rights as well. Remington Arms has been headquartered in North Carolina’s 6th District for nearly 20 years and Ruger Firearms opened a manufacturing facility in Rockingham County just last year. Guns equal jobs in North Carolina’s 6th District."

Foreign Policy, National Defense, Social Security, Agriculture, Domestic Surveillance, Climate Change, Poverty, Marriage Equality, Reproductive Rights/Abortion, Income Inequality, Civil Liberties, Energy, Trade, etc:
On these issues, Matheny offers no comments on either of his two websites. Yet, silence on these issues is a plus in the minds of the News & Record editors. That should tell you all you need to know about the quality of their endorsement: A superficial endorsement for a superficial candidate.

Matheny's rationale for Obamacre objection subverted

GREENSBORO, NC -- I recently noted that my district city council representative Zack Matheny, who is also running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, is no longer saying on his campaign website that Obamacare should be repealed, as he had in January.

He continues to call it "bad policy" and claims that it "hurts far more people than it helps," but gone is the call for its repeal. Here is how he explains his view now, emphasis added:

"'Obamacare' is a bad policy that hurts far more people than it helps and represents the much bigger problem of overregulation and government intrusion into the lives of US citizens. Companies right here in the 6th district like LabCorp have shown that we can deliver health care services in a cost-efficient manner without getting in-between (sic) you and your doctor."

Aside from the fact that Obamacare is primarily just a means to enroll more people in private health insurance—hardly the "gov'ment" getting between you and your doctor— the News & Record revealed today that LabCorp is the largest single recipient of Medicare payments in the state of North Carolina.

That's right, Zack's example of an alternative to Obamacre thrives because it receives more Medicare payments from the government than any other doctor, practice, hospital or health care provider in the state.

I guess Zack didn't look into that.

Where does Zack Matheny stand on Obamacare?

GREENSBORO, NC -- Greensboro city council representative and sixth district congressional candidate Zack Matheny appears to have shifted his position on Obamacare. In January of this year, he wanted to repeal it. He said on his website then, in no uncertain terms:

"Congress must repeal Obamacare."

Matheny's campaign website, January 9, 2014

Yesterday, the Rand Corporation announced these results of their study of the effects of Obamacare:

"At least 9.3 million more Americans have health insurance now than in September 2013, virtually all of them as a result of the law."

That prompted me, an unaffiliated voter in Matheny's council district and the sixth congressional district, to email Matheny a link to the Rand study and ask why he opposes the law and if his opposition isn't just pandering. (His campaign rhetoric is a departure from from the moderate he appeared to be while serving on city council, so it's hard to know if we are seeing the real Matheny now or if he's just trying to push the right buttons to improve his chances in the Republican primary.)

I also revisited his website and found he has changed his language on Obamacre. He now says this:

"'Obamacare' is a bad policy that hurts far more people than it helps and represents the much bigger problem of overregulation and government intrusion into the lives of US citizens. Companies right here in the 6th district like LabCorp have shown that we can deliver health care services in a cost-efficient manner without getting in-between (sic) you and your doctor. Let’s go back to the adage that government works best when it governs least." 

Aside from the question of just how LabCorp, a medical testing lab, is an example of whatever it is Matheny has in mind for health care, gone is the previous specific language about repealing Obamacare. There is no longer any mention of repeal on his website.

I haven't heard back from Matheny yet, and will post his reply if I do.

Grand advice for the GOP

Tom Ridge, Republican, former Governor of Pennsylvania and the first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, offers some sage advice to the Republican party, including this:

"In order to govern, we must win national elections. To do so the narcissists and ideologues within our party need to understand that Americans are, more conservative than liberal, but are more practical than ideological and more tolerant and open minded than judgmental. They are also looking for real not rhetorical solutions.

"They are not attracted to a party that imposes an even more severe litmus tests on its own members, projects an unacceptable rigidity and self-righteousness on social issues, and spends more time and energy objecting to bad law rather than proposing alternatives."

Read the rest.

Failure of leadership

GREENSBORO, NC -- The negative fallout for Greensboro continues on the heels of WGHP's and WFMY's fabrications regarding downtown fights and Mayor Robbie Perkins' and his colleagues on council unwillingness to stand up for the truth on behalf of the city they claim to serve.

Local blogger Kristen Jeffers and News & Record reporter Joe Killian discuss the issue on Huff Post Live. Killian, especially, does a superb job of explaining the facts and context. Would that the TV's talking heads or any of our city council people were as informed and articulate.



(Hat tip: Billy Jones)

The mind of the pragmatic moderate

The occasional portrayal of pragmatic moderates as wish-washy is a gross misunderstanding by people who are usually themselves rigid ideologues.

I read this last night in a book given to me by my sister in-law. I think it goes a long way towards explaining the thinking of the pragmatic moderate, at least this one:

"Fear of harm ought to be proportional not merely to the gravity of the harm, but also to the probability of the event."

Indeed, I think that's a wise way to think about public policy. As the author adds:

"Any decision relating to risk involves two distinct and yet inseparable elements: the objective facts and the subjective view about the desirability of what is to be gained, or lost, by the decision. [O]nly the pathologically risk-averse make choices based on the consequences without regard to the probability involved. [O]nly the foolhardy make choices based on the probability of an outcome without regard to its consequences.

Bernstein, Peter L. Against the Gods, the Remarkable Story of Risk

Off the deep end II: Greensboro needs a good conservative blogger

Blogger Joe Guarino used to be a legitimate representative of Guilford County's conservatives. However strident or extreme, he used to be taken seriously most of the time  (when he wasn't attacking Presbyterians or repeating rumors of rumors of rumors).

That's gone. Now his years of blogging effort have culminated in a perpetual vomiting of rash flights of fantasy. I suppose that's what happens when one insists on supplanting thought with unyielding dedication to preconceptions. Some recent examples.

• Guarino blows off a suggestion that the ACLU might help a Guilford County conservative who is being unfairly treated by the County Commissioners as his commenters mock the ACLU as "communists" and "socialists."
  Verily: The ACLU, shortly thereafter, sides with the conservative and sends a letter on her behalf to the County Commissioners.
• Guarino writes that the reason the local press did not report on the marital tribulations of a Greensboro Republican mayoral candidate but the national press did report on marital history of a Republican presidential candidate is because the presidential candidate is more conservative, his conservatism attracting the scrutiny—according to Guarino.
  Verily: The local media did not report on the marital histories of any of the local candidates, even those more conservative than the mayoral candidate.
• Guarino goes off on Greensboro's mayor for not attending a Republican gubernatorial candidate's campaign announcement, writing:
  

  When the Republican mayor skips the announcement of the presumptive Republican gubernatorial nominee in his own city, it cannot be interpreted as anything but disrespect.

  Verily: The mayor had a longstanding commitment to a prior engagement with the Greensboro's largest organization of young professionals. 
  

Again, today, Guarino concocts some sinister motives to explain why a group that previously defended Guilford County citizens against a re-opening of a landfill in their neighborhoods is taking legal action to stop the disenfranchisement of other Guilford County voters caused by a defective redistricting plan. Guarino's suspicions are aroused because the group's efforts would help "predominantly white, middle class" people. (see above re: preconceptions)

With Guarino gone off the deep end, Greensboro could use a blogger who can articulate the positions of the right in a reasoned manner. Will anybody step up?

Newt Gingrich

I will be surprised if Newt Gingrich does not become more of a contender for the Republican presidential nomination than he has thus far. Unlike Romeny, his conservatism is in his bones, not an adornment; and unlike Santorum, he has the intellectual chops to make the case for conservative principles.

Yes, already Gingrich has said some things that assure he will be unacceptable to large segments of the population in the general elections, but he stands out—to me at least—as the guy most capable of making the race about a different direction for the country. If America is truly facing an existential threat from within, as the right frequently insists, Gingrich is most prepared to explain to and convince voters of the need for an alternative.

Guilford County commission proposed redistricting maps

Hat tip, Keith Brown: Guilford County Commission redistricting proposals, maps and spreadsheets. Thanks to the county GOP for putting these online, I could not find them on the County website.

Cyndy Hayworth, candidate at-large, adds profile to GreensboroCouncilCandidates.com

Cyndy Hayworth

GREENSBORO, NC -- Cyndy Hayworth, candidate for Greensboro city council at-large, has added her profile to GreensboroCouncilCandidates.com

GreensboroCouncilCandidates.com features:

• Candidate profiles;
  
• Recent campaign and candidate related posts and articles from local news and blogs and;
  
• Trending words in local election-related blogs and news linked to their sources.

Robbie Perkins, candidate for mayor, adds profile to GreensboroCouncilCandidates.com

Robbie Perkins

GREENSBORO, NC -- Robbie Perkins, candidate for mayor of Greensboro, has added his profile to GreensboroCouncilCandidates.com

GreensboroCouncilCandidates.com features:

• Candidate profiles;
  
• Recent campaign and candidate related posts and articles from local news and blogs and;
  
• Trending words in local election-related blogs and news linked to their sources.

Keynes vs Hayek Round II with a cameo appearance by Mike Munger

Do you recognize former North Carolina gubernatorial candidate and Duke University economics professor Mike Munger in this economics rap video?

Former judicial candidate cleared

GREENSBORO, NC -- Joe Floyd II withdrew from the race for a Superior Court judgeship last fall after his arrest for breaking and entering and harassment. It made the papers. Now a judge has cleared Floyd of wrong-doing. Good for the News & Record for following up with the same vigor as with which it reported the original charges.

UPDATE: SamH points out that the News & Record incorrectly states in their follow-up that Floyd was charged with domestic violence. He was not.