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.
Vernon Robinson now lives in Concord (in Cabarrus County, within the NC-08). He was thinking of running in the new NC-13 as drawn in the June 2011 draft map (when it stretched to counties north of Winston-Salem) but switched to the NC-08 race soon after they drew the near-final map in July, so I suspect that he didn’t move to Concord untilmJuly. But, as you noted, two of his most prominent opponents live outside the district, so who knows if a carpetbagger label will stick to anyone.
Mark Meadows in the 11th district is the real deal. As you said, he has raised a lot of money. But, more importantly, if nominated, he will vigorously attack Shuler early and often. There will be no turning the other cheek when Shuler tries to slime him.