Takeaways from Tillis' predictable but unconvincing win
Published May 8, 2014
by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, May 7, 2014.
The horse race watchers in the national media couldn’t be more excited about the results of the North Carolina Republican senate primary Tuesday where state House Speaker Thom Tillis won the nomination by capturing 45 percent of the vote, handily defeating Tea Partier Greg Brannon and Charlotte minister Mark Harris—both making their first run for public office.
The Washington talking heads are declaring it a huge win and vindication for the GOP establishment, a sign that the Republican Party is coming to its senses after nominating extremist and unelectable Senate candidates in key states in the last two election cycles.
It sets up the knock-down drag-out battle between Tillis and Democratic Senator Kay Hagan in the fall, a race that may determine which party controls the Senate for the next two years.
But Tillis’ primary victory looks a little different from inside the state where it doesn’t fit so neatly into the formula the national pundits are applying to the race.
Tillis received less than half the Republican primary vote in a race where he had almost all the money, all the outside big-spending independent groups on his side and a main contender in Brannon who ran no television commercials and who lost an embarrassing civil court case just three months ago.
Brannon, who says openly that he doesn’t believe in public schools and that North Carolina shouldn’t have to abide by decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, still received 27 percent of the primary vote against Tillis.
Mark Harris, the evangelical minister and leader of the forces that passed a marriage discrimination amendment to the state constitution two years, ago, was the choice of more than 17 percent of Republican primary voters.
Brannon and Harris combined received roughly the same number of votes as Tillis, despite Tillis’ massive financial advantages and endorsements from virtually every major Republican interest group from the NRA to the U.S Chamber of Commerce.
But Tillis was never going to lose this race, despite all the handwringing from punditland. Their celebration of his victory is like applauding the Harlem Globetrotters for beating the Washington Generals in the 1970s. It was hardly a surprise.
The story of the primary win isn’t that Tillis won a resounding victory that validates him as a candidate and gives him strong momentum as he turns his attention towards Kay Hagan.
The story of the primary is that there was a race at all, that more than half the Republican primary voters cast their ballots for someone else for the U.S Senate and that Tillis felt obligated to move further right to ensure a victory that should have been a cakewalk.
Voters now know that Tillis, already weighed down by a long list of unpopular and regressive legislation passed by the General Assembly he has led for the last four years, supports an extreme “personhood” amendment that threatens women’s health care choices and birth control options and that he not only opposes an increase in the minimum wage, but questions the need for a minimum wage at all.
Those are positions that put Tillis far outside the mainstream in North Carolina. Then there are his comments in 2011 about the need to “divide and conquer” people on public assistance, first reported by NC Policy Watch and captured on video for the world to see that are now the talk of the national blogosphere.
The pundits are right that the battle between Tillis and Hagan in the fall will be fierce. The Koch brothers and their allies have already spent $8 million attacking Hagan for her support of the Affordable Care Act, though that vote now looks like less of a liability as lies about the health care law are fading from voters’ minds and after North Carolina ranked 5th in the number of people signing up for health care coverage earlier this year.
But Hagan is clearly vulnerable in this midterm election and Tillis is the strongest candidate to run against her. But we knew that before Tuesday’s election results.
It was a foregone conclusion that Tillis would divide and conquer the Republican primary field, whether the pundits want to admit it or not.
Now is when things get really interesting.
http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2014/05/07/takeaways-from-tillis-predictable-but-unconvincing-win/
May 8, 2014 at 10:34 am
Norm Kellly says:
Oh, goodie! Another lib commenting on the results of the Republican primary. Why do we want to view the results of our primary from the opposition? Does it matter what libs think about it? After all, their candidate is K! But I'll read this just for the potential humor that is usually in Chris's posts.
Contrary to lib opinion, money is not the determining factor in political races. Not to the extent that libs think so. If it were a major factor, libs would usually win races handily, with all their support from billionaires like Steyer and union buy-off money. Why didn't Tillis get 50% or more? Because there were multiple people running on the Republican ticket. Some of us voted for Brannon BECAUSE he was a viable TEA candidate. Brannon wasn't the only one to take votes away from Tillis. But the results show that even with fairly stiff competition for conservative votes, Tillis was able to win. Which means unless the libs in the media and outside groups can stir up the lib base with lies, distortions, and misinformation, K is EXTREMELY vulnerable. Hopefully enough Republicans and conservatives will come out to take over the Senate with veto-proof majorities.
Mark Harris garnered 17% of the vote. A reasonable number of people chose Mark instead of Tillis because they preferred him, but still Tillis won a majority. Harris was one of the leaders of the marriage protection amendment to the state Constitution. Something that at least 17% of the Republican voters rewarded him for. Certainly NOT a slap in the face to Harris. Either for his conservative political stance, nor for his marriage protection stand. It seems that libs are really pis__d off that Harris wasn't soundly defeated for protecting marriage. Having people in our great state who believe in defending marriage, even when libs continue to tell us how bad this is, how it makes supporters of marriage defense look like red-necks, there are still people who are willing to stand for the right things and against the tide of destruction brought to us by the libs amongst us.
The primary should have been a cakewalk? Only in the mind of libs. Cuz libs give no credibility to TEA people. Cuz libs think TEA people, and supporters, are neanderthals. Libs despise TEA people because we believe in the Constitutions of both the nation and the state. Libs despise and disparage TEA people because we believe people who break our laws by coming to the country illegally should NOT be rewarded. The primary was NOT a cakewalk because, obviously, about half of those who cast a ballot were more interested in principle than party. Yes, the goal is to return K to home and not Washington. Yes, the goal is to make sure K can no longer do what's best for the party. What's best for the country is that K is removed from Washington, sent back to her home in NC. But since a majority of Republicans who cast a ballot in the primary expected Tillis to win, they felt comfortable casting a ballot for the best person to represent NC and take the country in the proper direction. Which just happens to be the RIGHT direction also. Pitting an establishment candidate against a strong conservative candidate makes it difficult for Republicans to vote properly. When libs run 2 candidates, it's usually a choice between someone who MIGHT be a socialist and one who DEFINITELY is a socialist. So the choice is mostly meaningless. When Republicans run 2 candidates, one establishment and the other right, it's difficult for the simple reason that it's more important to remove socialists from Washington than it is to vote for the right person. Is the establishment candidate the proper one to defeat the socialist lib candidate or is the establishment candidate also the conservative/small government/Constitutional candidate? At this point in time, the most important thing is to remove enough socialists from the Senate that we can get the country back on the right track as well as the proper track. Next time out, when it's Tillis against a TEA person, perhaps it will be the right time to remove the establishment candidate and put in the right candidate. But the major goal is to send K and her fellow socialists packing. Tillis is probably the candidate who can actually do this for K.
Libs continue to denigrate, berate, and slander the Koch brothers. Chris is another person who CHOOSES to ignore facts, but we can't blame him. This is a biological deficiency for libs. They are genetically incapable of recognizing facts/truth. Though I expect an argument from at least 1 lib, but truth sometimes hurts. How about Steyer? How much money has he already spent and committed in the future for support of the socialist candidates around the country? How much money did he commit to the demon party for every candidate who will oppose the XL pipeline? If you are going to blame people who choose to spend their money on politics, how about doing it against Steyer as well. Then again, how about mentioning the unions. You know, Chirs, that protected group of demon donors. The unions are exempted by the demon party every time there's legislation proposed that will restrict political donations. Why is it, Chris, that unions are treated special? Why is it that TEA party groups were illegally targeted by the IRS for wanting to support conservative candidates, actually encouraged by demon politicians in Washington, but unions are exempt from all aspects of political donations? Why is it that all libs, even Chris, ignore Steyer? Because truth hurts the central planner party.
It's nice for Chris to admit that K is vulnerable. This is due to her voting record. Not only did she vote FOR socialized medicine, which is bad for NC citizens, but she complained that Obamacancer didn't go far enough! K pushed for a single payer system, which is lib speak/code for a complete take-over of the health care industry in our country! By the time the election happens, will we have a vote from K on her support for furthering the economic slowdown by having supported/voted for a minimum wage increase? Since it's bad for NC residents and 'good' for the demon party, it's clear K will vote FOR more central planner interference in the free market. There are plenty of votes on K's record that Tillis (and the Kock brothers!) will be able to use to show that K is more interested in supporting the DemocRAT party than she is in the welfare of North Carolinians.
Does Chris conclude his post with his real concern? Does it take the entire post to get to the root of his problem? He admits that Tillis is the most likely candidate to make it hard for K to be returned to Washington. So, like most other libs, Chris is concerned that Tillis (and the Kock brothers) will be able to show K is the wrong candidate for NC. And Tillis (and the Kock brothers) will be able to show that even with support from Steyer and unions, K can be defeated. Will Chris document for us how much Steyer and unions spend on K's campaign? Or will he do the typical lib thing and only report on the Koch brothers and other 'outside' conservative groups? Somehow, in the mixed up lib mind, spending money on lib/socialist candidates is good no matter where the money comes from but any spending to promote a conservative candidate is bad! What a warped sense of reality exists in the lib mind!
(i figure if libs can constantly tell conservatives how we think/feel/respond then it's time we start telling libs how they respond to certain stimuli. however, it's obvious that all stimuli generates the same socialist response from libs. it's like they have a collective mind. hmmmmm!)
