Free Market Republicans?

by Brad Crone

Where are the free-market Republicans when you need them?

You would think with Republicans firmly in control of the General Assembly, that the free-market advocates would be falling all over themselves to embrace Tesla Motors and their effort to sell some really cool cars in our state.

But the Senate leadership doesn’t like the idea of free-markets and economic competition if it means the automobile dealers may be threatened.

The Senate has basically passed legislation that will prohibit any North Carolinian from purchasing zero-emission electric cars from Tesla Motor Company by limiting how such vehicles could be sold through the Internet.

Senate Bill 327 takes away the rights any North Carolinian to purchase a car by shopping on the Internet. What’s so interesting to me is the fact that you haven’t heard a peep about choice, competition and free-markets from those who would usually be poster-boys for such things at the John Locke Foundation and Civitas Institute.

The legislation is pure economic protection for the state’s new car dealers.  They don’t want the competition. They don’t want consumers to have the choice and they don’t like the idea of a changing new car sales environment that threatens how they have done business for decades.

So the new car dealers are using their political clout to shut down Tesla Motors from being able to market their highly popular and highly rated cars in our state.  Just last week Consumer Reports gave Tesla’s new luxury electric sedan a 99 score on their test drive.

It’s rather elementary -- politics should not dictate how you purchase a car.

For the past five years, Tesla has been selling their innovative, all-electric technology cars to consumers via the Internet.  Tesla turned to internet sales because traditional dealers, selling gas cars, don’t want deal with a product that has such a small percentage of today’s market.

So Tesla is going about an education process as well as trying to market their cars.  Tesla Motors is demonstrating that electric cars can meet performance expectations, can provide appealing designs and meet consumer’s long-term reliance needs.

You would think the Republicans in the General Assembly would be all over this.  You would think the Republicans would want to stop economic restrictions and would embrace choice, competition and a free-market in today’s innovative market-place.

But all indications point to a dead-battery for Tesla’s future in our state.

It’s sad the Republican leadership in the General Assembly prefers to tell North Carolina consumers they can’t buy a really cool car via the Internet.  It’s sad the Republicans in the Legislature are telling North Carolina consumers, “we know what’s best for you and you will do what we tell you to do.”

This is another case of the Republicans wanting to rule – rather than govern.

Senate Bill 327 is a big mistake.

Brad Crone is president of Campaign Connections, a Raleigh-based, Democrat political consulting and public relations firm.  He is a former daily and weekly newspaper publisher. He is a regular panelist on NC SPIN.