Hagan casts her campaign as contrasting with out-of-state special interests
Published April 14, 2014
by Jim Morrill, Charlotte Observer, April 12, 2014.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan on Saturday framed her re-election campaign as a contrast between out-of-state special interests and North Carolina interests.
Coming just more than three weeks before the May 6 primary, Hagan’s comments at the Mecklenburg County Democratic convention appeared to target her leading GOP opponent, House Speaker Thom Tillis.
Hagan blasted Republican legislative actions, particularly the new voting law, which, among other things, will require photo identification, as well as what she said were tax cuts for the rich.
She tied those actions to special interest money in the form of more than $8 million in anti-Hagan ads, much of it from the conservative political action committee Americans for Prosperity.
“When I look at the amount of money coming into North Carolina … and I look at the agenda passed in Raleigh, they are thanking Thom Tillis with an $8 million ad buy against me,” she said. “They are looking for someone whose strings they can pull in Washington, and they know they cannot pull mine.”
Republicans point to what they call special interest money spent for Hagan. One super PAC tied to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, has spent more than $2.4 million on ads targeting Tillis.
“It appears that Kay Hagan’s hypocrisy knows no bounds,” said Tillis spokesman Jordan Shaw. “Thom Tillis will continue to be proud of the fact that he has solved problems in Raleigh while Kay Hagan has voted with Barack Obama and Harry Reid and her far left special interests 96 percent of the time.”
Tillis is one of eight Republican Senate candidates. He has led most polls.
Hagan also defended the Affordable Care Act, which most of her GOP rivals have pledged to try to repeal and which Republicans have criticized her for supporting.
She said she supports the law but would make changes, such as allowing people to keep their current plans. She said repealing the law “would take us back to a time where if you had a pre-existing condition it would not be covered.”
Women, she added, would pay more than men, and seniors would pay more for prescription drug coverage.
Hagan, who did not attend Obama’s appearance in Raleigh in January, said she would welcome the president to North Carolina.
“This race is about who’s going to represent North Carolina in the U.S. Senate,” she said. “This is going to be a contrast between me putting North Carolinians first and the special interests.”
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/04/12/v-print/4837110/sen-kay-hagan-cast-race-as-contrast.html
April 14, 2014 at 7:40 am
Tim Wohlford says:
Kay, Kay, Kay....
1. When a constituent who is NOT a big-money Dem calls your office with an ACA issue, your staff should do a lot more than say "Call the White House" or "Call the IRS". I can't be the only one who got a worthless response when asking for constituent services.
2. As pointed out, your side uses "outside" money too. In fact, your side does a great job of keeping most of the campaign money in the control of party leadership, unlike the GOP.
Kay, I bet you were *told* to say that "outside money" thing, correct? Which is the problem -- you're a sock puppet that doesn't even provide good constituent services. Why don't you call up Deb Stabenow and see how she manages to be a party loyalist, but because of her constituent services she has survived a couple of elections.
3. BTW Kay, none of what you suggest fixes what nails me or millions of others caught in a job change.
April 14, 2014 at 10:43 am
Norm Kelly says:
Hagan is no different from Tillis, and most other politicians, when it comes to 'outside' money paying for campaigns.
If it bothers residents/voters of NC, then we'll vote for someone who doesn't get outside money. Except that person probably won't be able to wage a state-wide campaign.
'She said she supports the law but would make changes'. Yes, she has said this. But on rare occasions she has expressed her real intent. K has said that Obamacancer didn't go far enough. She was one calling for a 'single payer system' in the US. This is the same as the plans in major parts of socialist Europe. You know, the type of plan where the central planners take over control of the health care industry in its entirety. The central planners, many of whom will be unelected government employees, will make ALL health-related decisions. Or has K backed off of her plan to 'improve' Obamacancer by making it actually socialized medicine?
K continues the Demoncrat party lie by saying things about Republican and/or Obamascare alternatives, such as ANY/ALL of these plans 'would take us back to a time where if you had a pre-existing condition it would not be covered'. Really?!? What an absurd thought! This isn't even defensible. This is like the deviant-marriage proponents who claim that their major reason for wanting me to recognize their 'marriage' is so they can visit their significant other in the hospital. Neither of these requires the results the proponents push. It does NOT take legalizing gay marriage to allow hospital visitation. It does NOT take central planner take-over of the health care industry to prevent pre-existing conditions from not being covered. There are reasonable, market-based alternatives to socialized medicine to get changes in the private market insurance business. The biggest challenge is that K is a Demoncrat first and foremost. What is the philosophy of the DemocRAT party? Big government, central control, of ANY challenge is the appropriate and ONLY answer. Just like Reid, Obama, Pelosi, and other demons, K is incapable of seeing any other alternative than a 'solution' from Washington. This is called socialism. This is what I refer to as 'central planner control'. This is bad. Socialism has 'doom' built into it. But K can't see this because she is a DemocRAT first, a North Carolinian second.
As for women paying more than men, the question MUST be asked what the statistics show. Do women cost more to insure than men? Is it right for the government to interfere with market dynamics by forcing men & women to pay the same amount even though the coverage is different or the costs are different? When women objected to auto insurance premiums being different between men & women, did the insurance industry respond by lowering men's premiums? Actually a little bit, but they compensated by raising women's premiums. Just to make it fair. But was it? Is it? Do seniors cost the insurance industry more to cover when it comes to prescription drugs? If so, if that's what the actuarial tables show, then of course seniors should pay more for prescription coverage. The only way around this is for the government to artificially set the price of coverage. By government interference in the market. Something K is a major proponent of!
'This is going to be a contrast between me putting North Carolinians first' and putting the DemocRAT party first? She's had her chance to show us that she's a North Carolinian first and a DemocRAT second. Yet, at every turn she has supported the party first. Perhaps I haven't paid attention to her support for Fort Bragg, but our state is more than a military base. Her support for socialism seems to take priority over our state.
Do I believe Tillis is the right person to replace K? Not sure yet; the jury is still out on this one. What I am absolutely, positively convinced of is that K is the WRONG socialist to represent us. Socialism is wrong everywhere and we have the opportunity to kick it to the curb this time, perhaps just a little bit. But every little bit helps. Freedom is better for EVERYONE! Socialism is good only for the central planners.
April 14, 2014 at 6:40 pm
TP Wohlford says:
(reposted w/ my real name, conforming w/ the rules)
3. BTW Kay, none of what you suggest fixes what nails me or millions of others caught in a job change.
