CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis has been monitoring the NC senate race and says candidates Thom Tillis and Kay Hagan are looking to attract minority voters. She looks at one of the largest minority voting blocks in the state.
Rep. James Clyburn: ‘The country has topped out to the right’
If anyone can take the long view of history, it’s U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.). The assistant minority leader of the House has lived it, from his childhood in segregated Sumter, S.C., through the civil rights movement that benefited him, sometimes in unexpected ways — he met wife-to-be Emily in jail after both were arrested for protesting for civil rights — to his election to Congress in 1992.
Clyburn, 74, tells his story in “Blessed Experiences: Genuinely Southern, Proudly Black.” He and Emily recently spent an evening at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in Charlotte, greeting admirers, posing for photos and adding signatures to personal copies of the book.
At the Gantt Center, he shared his thoughts on the pace of change in America: “The country from its inception is like the pendulum on a clock. It goes back and forward. It tops out to the right and starts back to the left — it tops out to the left and starts back to the right. I can tell you the country has topped out to the right, and the country is moving back to the left.” And remember, he said, it “spends twice as much time in the center.”
Sep052014
From voting battles to coal ash spills, what’s up with North Carolina?
Heading into the 21st century, North Carolina was that model Southern state — tradition meets moderation, in everything from its manners to its politics. So what happened? Depending on whom you ask, the state has either lost its way or is finding it. It’s difficult to get anyone to agree about anything these days.
Jul102014
North Carolina Republicans try — despite themselves — to win minority voters
In North Carolina, Republicans see a prime opportunity for a U.S. Senate win in November. So national and state party leaders, anxious to broaden the base, are again turning to African American voters. The latest effort is a North Carolina Black Advisory Board “to strengthen the party’s ties with diverse communities and expand engagement efforts across the state,” the Republican National Committee said in a statement Thursday.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said of the 11 board members, “Their knowledge and roots in black communities across the state will be invaluable as we share our message of empowerment and expanding access to the American Dream.”
They have their work cut out for them.
Jun232014
For women of LatinaCon, growth in numbers and influence
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – With many Republicans running away from even a whisper of immigration reform after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s shocking primary loss in Virginia, it’s been pointed out that such a short-term strategy for winning in 2014 might translate into problems with attracting the Hispanic vote in 2016. But that’s not the GOP’s only obstacle as it struggles to win the support of a growing U.S. demographic.
All you had to do was listen to the gasps that greeted an anecdote shared by keynote speaker Deborah Aguiar-Vélez at LatinaCon, a gathering in Charlotte last weekend of more than 300 committed, engaged Hispanic women — professors, entrepreneurs and community activists. Aguiar-Vélez described how she sent out an exuberant Tweet during a recent meeting in Washington of Latino alumni of Project Interchange, the American Jewish Committee-sponsored program that brings leaders and policy makers to Israel.
Sharing experiences with a group that included fellow Interchange alumna Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor led to Aguiar-Vélez’s optimistic tweet, quoting speaker David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Council. It read: “Latinos & Jews become stronger with each other presence.”
Political provocateur Ann Coulter saw the tweet and retweeted with a message of her own: “Yes, but one’s always the maid.”
Jun172014
VA problems a political issue in military-rich North Carolina
Very few issues can bring contentious Democrats and Republicans in the North Carolina general assembly together. But this week, marking national military appreciation month, a joint resolution expressing gratitude and appreciation for “the men and women of the United States armed forces” won unanimous support.
Those men and women and their families are important constituents and the military ranks as a major economic driver in a state with, as the resolution mentioned, six major military bases, nearly 800,000 veterans, and the third largest military force in the country, with close to 120,000 active duty personnel and another 12,000 members of the North Carolina National Guard.
So the current investigation of allegations of slow wait times and false record-keeping at the VA that is being closely watched all over is of special interest in North Carolina. In the midst of a tight U.S. Senate race, it’s inevitable politics as well as concern would be part of the reaction.
May232014
Insight in the Race Between Hagan and Tillis
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — WCCB’s political contributor, Mary C. Curtis, has been watching the race develop between Senator Kay Hagan and State House Speaker Thom Tills.
The Republican effort to unseat Senator Hagan will kick into overdrive leading up to the November election.
Tillis is the man the party hopes can make it happen. Curtis gives us some insight on the race.
May072014
Breaking Down Tuesday’s U.S. Senate Seat Competition
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Political Contributor, Mary C. Curtis, sets the stage for Tuesday’s U.S. Senate Seat competition.
Republicans across the country are keeping a close eye on North Carolina’s Republican Primary for the U.S. Senate.
Eight candidates in the race could make it tough for Kay Hagan to get the 40 percent plus one amount of the vote needed to win the race and avoid a runoff.
Curtis helps us understand and breaks down the race.
May062014
Will more ‘Moral Monday’ protests affect the North Carolina Senate race?
an anything upset the script of the 2014 U.S. Senate election in North Carolina, as it’s now being written? It may depend on whether a 2014 renewal of the “Moral Monday” coalition and an accompanying voter registration effort will increase dissatisfaction with the state’s rightward legislative shift and motivate enthusiasm for the Democratic incumbent.
Because of diverse opposition to issues that range from a refusal of the Medicaid expansion to education cuts to limits on unemployment benefits to new voting rules now being fought in the courts, the nationalized partisan voting trends hardening in a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll may not be as firm in North Carolina.
May022014
Olympia Snowe, on compromise, Citizens United and former colleague Kay Hagan
CHARLOTTE – Olympia Snowe made her case for a return to governing from the “sensible center,” and she did it with conviction. But while the audience was both loud and supportive at a women’s summit in Charlotte, no one – and that includes the former Republican U.S. senator from Maine — thought it would be easy.
Snowe was considered moderate in her approach and her politics when she decided not to run for a fourth term in the Senate in 2012. How bad had it gotten? Republicans and Democrats honored her at separate celebrations, a departure from the past. “It’s not even bipartisan today to say goodbye,” she said. Snowe lamented as a “tragedy” elected officials “surrounded by all this history but not inspired by it.”
Apr142014
