NC Democrats are terrified at the prospect of Bill Randall (or Vernon Robinson, for that matter) being elected to Congress, since seeing a black conservative Republican in office could shake up the black electorate enough to give half a look at the GOP, and if we can get just 20% of the black vote, the Democrats would be hard-pressed to win statewide ever again. NC Democrats know that a Republican will be elected in the redrawn NC-13, and I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them do their utmost to ensure that Bill Randall doesn’t win the GOP nomination (which nomination is tantamount to election).
Thanks for the ping.
I’ve been kind of out of the loop so I haven’t given all of the candidates for these re-drawn districts a look yet. (And what a masterful re-drawing it was!)
Randall needs to get on the ball if he wants to win the nomination for the 13th. It looks like he has two strong opponents there, unlike last time.
And Vernon Robinson running in the 8th... yeesh. The district has been stretched north to Salisbury but that’s still two counties away from Vernon’s home in Winston-Salem (unless he very recently moved). Looking at the Green Papers list of candidates, THREE of the five listed don’t even live in the district. Scott Keadle lives in Iredell County, ran against Mel Watt in 2000 and in the primary against Patrick McHenry last year, and Dan Barry is the mayor of Weddington which still falls within the 9th district. I have no idea about the other two names, perhaps Crichton can help us out.
In the 11th, there’s the retreads Spence Campbell (weak to say the least) and Paulite Dan Eichenbaum (he has a bunch of crazies that follow him out to all the counties and like to make a scene). Vance Patterson ran against McHenry last year, Jeff Hunt is a big name DA, and someone named Mark Meadows is already sitting on $250K.
In the 7th, it’s Ilario Pantano again, and also state Sen. David Rouzer. Rouzer seems decent but my first inclination is to still go with Pantano.
The 2nd is a lot stronger for Ellmers but I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets a primary challenger or three. Lots of negativity about her on the blogs. I could see Paulite BJ Lawson giving her a heck of a run.
Other stuff... Get this, apparently Charlotte mayor Anthony Foxx (big-eared bastard son of Harvey Gantt and Mel Watt) is refusing to commit to serving out a full term if he’s re-elected today. Apparently some people think he’ll primary Bev Perdue.
If Cain continues to pick up steam, and if this current mess turns out to be nothing, I plan on taking time out in January to help down in SC. I was almost content to let Perry be the one to take out Romney, but it seems obvious now that Perry is a godawful campaigner and has the stink of George W. Bush on him, and anyway he’s wildly wrong in dealing with the illegal alien invaders - I am continually amazed at the GOP establishment’s insistence on being this wrong on an issue that could lead to so much electoral success, not to mention one that is so critical to the future of the country.
Now that Brad Miller doesn't have his ridiculously gerrymandered district to run in, he doesn't stand a chance against whoever the Republicans put up.
No big loss. Miller was a arrogant jerk, who had very, very little to be arrogant about.