The head of the state's Republican Party said Friday that he has been told the competition to host the 2020 Republican National Convention is down to about three cities, with Charlotte one of the strongest bids.
N.C. GOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse, who is attending the Republican National Committee meeting in Miami, said he has been told by numerous national Republicans that they were impressed by the city's Democratic leadership teaming up with statewide Republicans.
Woodhouse said he believed Las Vegas is a strong competitor.
CNN reported that Nevada GOP chairman Michael McDonald made a presentation this week to a site selection committee.
Woodhouse said Las Vegas appears to have placed a late bid to host the RNC.
Earlier this week, a spokesperson for the city of Las Vegas said they weren't aware of a bid.
A spokesperson for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said Thursday that Republicans asked the city to bid, but it had to decline because it "doesn't have the facilities to accommodate the event."
On Friday, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said it was surprised by the story that Las Vegas was bidding.
It said it turned down the GOP with a letter earlier this year.
Las Vegas considered bidding for the 2016 RNC, but dropped out.
But the state Republican party appears to be moving forward with a bid, even if tourism officials aren't on board yet.
On Thursday, the San Antonio City Council decided in a closed session meeting not to bid.
"There's a reason that San Antonio has not pursued a political convention for the past 20 years and why so few cities seem interested in this convention," San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said, citing disruptions to traffic and neighborhoods.
As San Antonio council members prepared to consider a late bid, some Democratic activists said the city shouldn't seek the RNC.
They said the Trump administration's push for a border wall would damage the city's close ties with Mexico.
The bids for the RNC were originally due Feb. 28, but that deadline was pushed back.
In past years, cities have been vocal about wanting to land a political convention, which are said to be worth tens of millions in dollars in economic impact.
But this year only Charlotte and Las Vegas have said publicly they want it.
Charlotte hosted the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
Woodhouse said he was told that as many as seven cities had expressed interested to the RNC, but some dropped out.
He doesn't know what the other city is, though he said he has heard Texas.
A tourism official in Dallas said the RNC approached the city about bidding, but the city declined.
A spokesperson for the Houston mayor's office declined to comment, but a City Council member said it had not been discussed.
"They were really impressed that a Democratic city and Democratic leaders have come together with Republicans to host the RNC," Woodhouse said.
He said the RNC will meet again in August. A decision could be made then, he said.
Main Event: Bill Clinton, former two-term president and husband of Hillary Clinton, addresses the convention.
Big Idea: Showing a softer side of Hillary Clinton
Convention Business: A roll-call vote of the states will formally anoint Mrs. Clinton as the party nominee.
The second day of the Democratic convention will test whether Bernie Sanders’s delegates have gotten the message that it’s not a good idea to disrupt the proceedings and boo every mention of Hillary Clinton’s name.
But it’s the candidate’s husband who will provide most of the day-two theater. Former President Bill Clinton is an accomplished speaker whom President Barack Obama once affectionately dubbed the “Secretary of Explaining Stuff.” His speech is a chance to prove anew he’s a legitimate campaign asset.
That point has seemed in doubt. While heading to his plane at the Phoenix airport last month, Mr. Clinton stopped and paid an impromptu visit to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, whose plane had just landed. Though ostensibly a social call, critics said it was wrong for the pair to meet when the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server.
Voters haven’t seen or heard much from Mr. Clinton since that fateful tarmac encounter. Today they’ll get a close-up of the former president – and he needs to deliver. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll earlier this month showed that only 37% viewed him favorably, while 42% had a negative view of him. The Clinton campaign would like to see those numbers improve as the race barrels toward election day.
With the state-by-state roll-call vote, Mrs. Clinton will officially become her party’s nominee. That’s a milestone, but she still has plenty of work to do. Polls consistently show voters like her experience but haven’t particularly warmed to her as a person.
Various speakers today will try to address that vulnerability. They will talk about her work on behalf of children. Families of black shooting victims will likely mention the outreach they’ve gotten from Mrs. Clinton as they’ve coped with personal loss.
Can a four-day convention help persuade voters that Mrs. Clinton is a more empathetic figure than they might have guessed?
It’s no small feat. Aides to Mrs. Clinton have spent decades trying to make her a more likeable figure. They’ve put her on comedy shows and sat her down with late-night TV talk-show hosts. And yet, she is the most disliked Democratic nominee in recent history, polls show.
The convention is perhaps Mrs. Clinton’s last, best chance to make the case she’s worthy not just of respect, but of affection.
2016 GOP CIVIL WAR MAY COST THEM THE WHITE HOUSE - HATING TRUMP:
GOP CIVIL WAR MEANS HILLARY CLINTON WINS BY DEFAULT.
As the Nov 2016 Presidential election approaches, it's quite obvious to the naked voter eye that a Civil War is brewing among GOP Establishment leaders.
Voters want DONALD TRUMP but GOP Establishment leaders want JEB BUSH or MARCO RUBIO.
There are rumors floating of a possible Coup at the RNC Convention in CLEVELAND if TRUMP is the party Nominee.
This divisive Civil War may indeed cost the GOP to lose the White House again.
Due to this brewing GOP Civil War HILLARY CLINTON Won't have to campaign as hard and she just might capture the White House by default.
Without UNITY no organization will stand successfully.
Without UNITY no Family or Marriage will survive.
Without UNITY no Political party will Win general Elections.
Will GOP Establishment leaders wake up before it's too late??
A free-for-all between Christie, Rubio, Cruz and others, while Trump hovers above it all.
What everyone’s waiting for is the winnowing. New Hampshire and Iowa will force some Republican candidates out. When we know who’s still in we’ll have a surer sense of the contours of the race.
It is still true that the party has never had a year like this, with the ground shifting beneath its feet. It’s hard to see this clearly because on the surface the things you expect to see happening are happening.
The candidates are starting to throw hard punches. They’re all trying to show they can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee—a necessary talent if you make it to the general election. No point in hand-wringing or telling them to stop on the grounds that what they’re doing will produce, for the Democrats, a badly bloodied GOP nominee.
Best and worst have come from Chris Christie, who has a way of keeping things lively.
Earlier he counseled his fellow contenders not to savage each other—don’t waste your ammo, keep your eyes on the prize. Good advice. This week Marco Rubio’s PAC unloaded a spot slamming Mr. Christie on the old charge he embraced President Obama during Hurricane Sandy.
The governor answered Wednesday on Laura Ingraham’s radio show. He called Mr. Rubio “a first-term United States senator who has never had a tough race.” He continued: “This guy’s been spoon-fed every victory he’s ever had in his life. That’s the kind of person that we want to put on stage against Hillary Clinton?
I don’t think so. She’ll pat him on the head and then cut his heart out.” It was wonderfully colorful and malicious and reminded me of Sen. Bob Kerrey, who said of Bill Clinton in 1992 that he wouldn’t win in November because he hadn’t served in Vietnam: “He’s going to get opened up like a soft peanut.”
Democratic presidential primaries in those days were fierce. They’re not anymore, because the new Democratic Party, the one of the progressive left, has only a single unifying principle: winning. Hillary Clinton’s opponents haven’t laid a glove on her, and won’t.
Mr. Rubio has turned stern and indignant, as if he’s decided the base is angry so he’ll enact anger too. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, he darkly alleges, are “isolationist candidates” whose intent is “weakening our military and intelligence capabilities.” Mr. Paul responded by comparing Mr. Rubio to Rahm Emanuel.
More touchingly, Jeb Bush again warned the base about Donald Trump. “It’s very fun to talk about the theatrics,” he said on “Morning Joe.” Mr. Trump has tapped into “angst and anger,” but “his views are not the views of a conservative.”
Mr. Trump’s supporters don’t care if he’s classically conservative. Doctrinal purity is not the story this year. The GOP base is a big jumble.
Democrats are likely less unified than they think. On the rightward and leftward edges of both parties they hate political correctness, illegal immigration, Wall Street.
A new playbook is emerging while some contenders seem to be reading from the old playbook and wondering why the plays they’re calling aren’t working.
And the GOP is struggling. In Virginia the state Republican Party wants a so-called loyalty oath in the March 1 presidential primary.
Virginia is an open-primary state—any registered voter can vote in either primary—but the GOP apparently wants to discourage independents and Democrats from voting for Mr. Trump. So they’ve decided voters should sign a statement of affiliation with the GOP before they get to cast a ballot.
This is so idiotic it’s almost unbelievable.
When Democrats and independents want to vote in your primary you should be happy.
Politics is a game of addition! You want headlines that say “Massive GOP Turnout.” You don’t greet first-time voters with an oath but with cookies, ginger ale and balloons. Ronald Reagan reached out to Democrats in 1984: “Come too, come walk with me.” We still speak of Reagan Democrats.
I do not understand the inability or refusal of Republican leaders to take Mr. Trump seriously.
They take his numbers seriously—they can read a poll—but they think, as Mr. Bush said, that his support is all about anger, angst and theatrics. That’s part of the story, but the other, more consequential part has to do with real policy issues.
The establishment refuses to see that, because to admit it is to implicate themselves and their leadership. Political consultants can’t see it because they don’t think issues matter—not to them and certainly not to the dumb voters.
But issues do matter, and Mr. Trump has functioned this year not as a great communicator or great compromiser but as the great disrupter. He brags that he has brought up great questions and forced other candidates to face them and sometimes change their stands—and he has.
He changed the debate on illegal immigration. He said he’d build a wall and close the border and as the months passed and his competitors saw his surge, they too were suddenly, clearly, aggressively for ending illegal immigration.
Mr. Trump touched an important nerve in opposing the political correctness that has angered the American people for a quarter century. He changed the debate when he asked for a pause in Muslim immigration until America “can figure out what’s going on.” In the age of terror, that looked suspiciously like common sense.
Americans do not want America to become what Europe is becoming.
You only have to look at what is reported to have happened in Cologne, Germany, on New Year’s Eve to get a sense that Europe’s establishment, with its politically correct thinking, is losing control.
Angela Merkel is a great lady and most of her leadership has been sound as a drum, but she will probably lose her job eventually because of her epic miscalculation in accepting more than a million Middle Eastern refugees.
Her decision was no doubt driven by heart and sympathy, but it reminds me of the fall of Margaret Thatcher. In 1989 Thatcher moved to impose a change in the British tax system. This caused resentment and then unrest. She wouldn’t back down, and the next year she fell. Years later she told me what she’d learned.
People are afraid, she said; they live closer to the margins than we understand. When you propose a big change you can leave people feeling as if the rug is being pulled from under them. That’s a big thing to learn, and she spoke of it with humility.
She lost her job by being too tough. Ms. Merkel has imperiled hers by being too soft. But the lesson is the same: know how close to the edge people feel, how powerless, and respect their anxiety. Don’t look down on it, and them.
Back to the Republicans. It reflects badly on the party that Donald Trump—whom one journalist this week characterized as a guy running around with his hair on fire—had to become the party’s 2016 thought leader.
Bernie Sanders has, in a way, had the wit to see this, which is why he said he is reaching out to Trump supporters.
Reaching out. What a concept.
Sources: Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Youtube
The head of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, denied a report that the GOP is making contingency plans for a brokered convention, and downplayed the notion that the long, protracted nominating process will leave the party without a nominee before it meets in Tampa.
"We're not making plans for a brokered convention," Priebus told host Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation."
Priebus was responding to a question about a report in today's New York Times that says strategists are working behind the scenes to prepare for a nomination process that fails to result in a candidate with the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
"We're only at half time," Priebus told Schieffer, noting that just over half the states have voted. "I think that this process is going to play itself out."
Priebus added: "The up side is we have rules to handle any possibility" of a contested convention. "Obviously we're going to follow those rules. But right now what we're talking about is who is going to be our nominee."
Priebus also said the long fight is going to benefit the eventual Republican nominee. The RNC Chair said Senator John McCain's quick nomination in 2008 hurt him in the general election against a battle-tested candidate, Barack Obama, who won after a long nomination fight against Hillary Clinton.
"Guess what: A tough primary, a little bit of drama actually helped Barack Obama," Priebus said. "We put America to sleep with our primary four years ago. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton nearly gouged each other's eyes out.
"What happened? He won."
Priebus predicted a nominee would be decided by the time the last primary results in June.
"When we get to June, July, August, September, we're going to have an eternity to debate who is going to be the next president."
And he said voters will have a distinct choice between President Obama and whomever the Republican nominee is.
"It will be a referendum on whether people are better off today than they were three or four years ago, which they're not," Priebus said. "And it will be a referendum on whether Barack Obama is a man of his word and fulfills the promises that he makes to the American people, which he has not."
A Union representing hotel workers has asked the Democratic National Committee to rule out two of its four convention-site finalists, Cleveland and Charlotte, N.C., because they lack sufficient unionized hotel facilities.
"Among the DNC's four finalist cities, only St. Louis and Minneapolis" have the capacity to "house a large portion of the delegates and other guests ... in unionized hotels," John Wilhelm, president of the international UNITE HERE union of hotel and textile workers, wrote in a letter to DNC Chairman Tim Kaine.
"Therefore, one of those two cities should be the DNC's choice for 2012. Unfortunately, Charlotte and Cleveland do not fit the bill, and they should be removed from the list."
Though the letter was dated Oct. 6, it wasn't publicized until this week, when the union's Minneapolis local, eager to enhance its city's chances, issued a press release on the subject.
"We're just very interested in having the convention here on a number of levels, and for the international it's a priority that it be in a union city," said Wade Luneberg, secretary-treasurer and political director of UNITE HERE Local 17 in Minneapolis. "We think it's important to differentiate between the four [finalist] cities and see that Minneapolis and St. Louis rise to the top."
Charlotte, N.C., has no unionized hotels, and its convention center's employees are not union members, according to Wilhelm's letter. Cleveland has some union hotels, but only a handful in the downtown area and about 10 in the larger region; they belong to a competing union, Workers United.
UNITE HERE under Wilhelm split with former President Bruce Raynor in a bitter and protracted battle that ended last year with Raynor leaving and founding Workers United.
Workers United, which has affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, says it has 150,000 members, while UNITE HERE, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, claims 265,000.
A subcommittee of the DNC visited potential convention sites over the summer to evaluate their logistical suitability and advise the committee on their findings. A decision is expected in late 2010 or early 2011.
Democratic sources familiar with the decision-making process say Charlotte and St. Louis are the current front-runners, with Charlotte at a slight disadvantage because of its small overall hotel room stock.
Political considerations — including last week's election results — are expected to play a major role in the decision-making process. The defeat of a Democratic governor in Ohio may have hurt Cleveland's chances, while Minneapolis could be helped if Minnesota's Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Mark Dayton, hangs on to win. He currently leads in the count in a race that is likely to go to a recount.
The Minneapolis area has at least 20 union hotels totaling 5,300 rooms, with more than 2,000 workers, Wilhelm's letter notes. St. Louis, the letter says, has 10 union hotels with more than 3,000 rooms. Both cities' sports arenas and convention centers are unionized as well.
"Employees at union hotels are far more likely than employees in non-union hotels to get the sort of basic fair treatment for which the Democratic Party stands — good wages, affordable health benefits, stable long-term positions, and respect and a voice on the job," Wilhelm wrote. "For these reasons, those employees are more likely to provide delegates and guests with better service as well."
UNITE HERE official Pilar Weiss said the DNC was receptive to the union's concerns. "It's early on," she said. "We're having a dialogue with them."
A spokesman for the DNC, Hari Sevugan, said, "As always, we are looking at a number of factors and will have an announcement in the coming months."
Charlotte’s bid to host the Democratic National Convention has gotten a “no” vote from the union that represents hotel workers, according to a report in Politico.com.
“Among the DNC's four finalist cities, only St. Louis and Minneapolis” have the capacity to “house a large portion of the delegates and other guests ... in unionized hotels,” John Wilhelm, president of the international UNITE HERE union of hotel and textile workers, wrote in a letter to Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine.
The letter, dated Oct. 6, wasn't publicized until last week, when the union's Minneapolis local, issued a press release on the subject.
Politico cites Democratic sources saying that Charlotte and St. Louis are now considered front-runners but that Charlotte had a slight disadvantage cause it didn’t have as many hotel rooms, period. But politics – including the mid-term election results – will play a role in the decision which is expected later this year or early in 2011.
Figure in 30 days or so we’ll know if the Democrats are coming to Uptown in 2012. And on balance I think the Midterm election has helped Charlotte’s chances.
Cleveland is right out if it was ever in it. After both a lack-luster Obama rally in Cleveland the other day and John Kasich taking the governor’s race, forget it. The DNC is scared of Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, don’t think there will be much if any interest in trying to boost Obama to a second-term in Pawlenty’s backyard.
However.
There is already a meme in the wild that Tuesday was the result of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine bending the DNC machine too closely to the “blue dogs” — ie, the South — instead of riding even further to the Left with organized labor. To the extent the Dems pursue this line of thinking that clearly sets up a Charlotte vs. St. Louis line of battle. If Kaine loses his job and is otherwise scape-goated for the midterm, that elevates labor-heavy St. Louis, which I’ve long thought is the only real competition for CLT.
Charlotte’s convention boosters have already had to try to prove that the city is organized labor-friendly enough to host the party of organized labor. Expect more surprises and twists there in the weeks ahead even if this get-Kaine movement dies out. (And frankly who knows what will go on while the White House is in India. Seriously.)
But the big picture remains that North Carolina has a female Dem governor, a female Dem senator, and only lost one incumbent congressman on Tuesday. Charlotte still has two Democratic congressmen — Larry Kissell’s win being something of a bright spot — a young, black Democratic mayor and a raft of long-serving and powerful state legislators. This reality along with Duke Energy and Bank of America, argues very well for Charlotte.
What is really interesting, however, is the chance that the GOP tide has made potential corporate donors to Charlotte’s DNC push a little gun shy. We’ve been told all along that $40m. in private money would be needed to put on Obamafest 2012 in Uptown.
After Tuesday, is there still a rush to write that check?
An election that turned the N.C. General Assembly upside down will flip the fortunes of Mecklenburg County lawmakers, dropping some from key positions and maybe lifting one to the top spot in the House.
Lawmakers on both sides Wednesday were still trying to figure out their roles on a playing field that changed dramatically. Constituents also were scrambling to find their places.
In a GOP wave that swept the country, Republicans took over the state Senate for the first time in 112 years, winning 31 of 50 seats. They'll retake control of the House after claiming at least 68 of 120 seats.
"Everybody in North Carolina is going to be trying to figure out how to relate to the new leadership," said Charlotte Chamber President Bob Morgan.
The results will change everything from the leaders who assign committees to the lawmakers who lead them and, in some cases, the staff that counsels them.
GOP Sen. Phil Berger of Rockingham County is poised to become the leader of the Senate. Rep. Thom Tillis of Cornelius, who chaired the party's election effort in the House, is on the short list of candidates for House speaker.
Veteran Sen. Bob Rucho of Matthews, one of the leaders of the GOP Senate campaign effort, is expected to get a top committee assignment.
On the flip side, lawmakers such as Charlotte Democrat Dan Clodfelter, who co-chairs the influential Senate Finance Committee, and deputy Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Dannelly almost surely will lose their leadership roles as well as their clout.
But what it means for Mecklenburg is less clear.
"I actually think it bodes pretty well for us," Tillis said Wednesday. "We shouldn't automatically assume Republicans will do what Democrats have done, and that is not have people in the minority party in prominent roles. We're not going to turn a blind eye to people who've established a pretty solid resume."
Tillis as House speaker?
Tillis, the minority whip, could end up competing with Minority Leader Paul Stam of Raleigh for the speakership. He says he expects the GOP caucus to decide its new leaders by Thanksgiving.
No one approached the election with quite the single-minded focus of Tillis.
It was in April 2009 that the Cornelius businessman quit his job as an IBM management consultant to devote himself full time to the effort. He put 45,000 miles and wore out a set of tires on his blue Toyota pickup traveling the state recruiting candidates and helping them hone issues and raise money.
The man who named his three dogs Reagan, Abe and Ike was on a mission: to elect Republicans.
Raleigh businessman Art Pope, a former legislator whose affiliated groups spent at least $2.1 million to elect Republicans, declined to say whom he favors for speaker. "The Republican House caucus has an excellent group of leaders, and they have a lot to choose from," he said.
But Rep. Ruth Samuelson, a Charlotte Republican also expected to rise in the new order, said Tillis has a good shot to replace Democratic Speaker Joe Hackney of Chapel Hill.
"I think right now it leans a little towards Thom," she said "That's what I'm hearing other people say."
Tillis and others say they don't believe Republicans would be wary about another speaker from Mecklenburg. He would be the first since Jim Black left in 2007, the year he was sentenced to federal prison on corruption charges. Black was just released to a halfway house.
"I don't think Thom Tillis deserves any blame for the corrupt criminal Jim Black," Pope said.
Mecklenburg influence
Mecklenburg's 15-member legislative delegation includes six Republicans. Returning are Rucho in the Senate and Tillis, Samuelson and Ric Killian in the House. The newcomers: Bill Brawley in the House and Tommy Tucker of Union County in the Senate, in a district that includes part of Mecklenburg.
While House Democrats such as Reps. Beverly Earle, Martha Alexander and Becky Carney have been around for years, the three returning GOP lawmakers were all elected in 2006. Even so, they could all move up in a Republican-controlled House.
"There is a good potential that Mecklenburg County will have a little more influence over what happens in Raleigh," said Samuelson.
Carney said the change could "bode well for Mecklenburg."
"It depends on the issues," she said. "It might have shifted everything upside down but, for Mecklenburg County, potentially you're still going to have those leadership positions. So hopefully it will not have any damaging effect."
Morgan, of the Chamber, said who's in charge may be less important than the challenges they'll face. Among other things, the state is staring at a budget shortfall of more than $3 billion.
"Regardless of which party won last night, that is the biggest issue that looms over any of us who care about the legislature or are dependent on the legislature," he said. "We're all going to be playing defense."
N.C. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, has been one of the most powerful individuals in state government since the early 1990s, but his long reign as the Senate's top leader appears to be at an end.
With an Anti-Incumbent mood running among voters in legislative elections, Democrats in North Carolina who dominated the General Assembly in the 20th and so far the 21st centuries will surely find Raleigh a far different place when the General Assembly reconvenes in 2011.
Democrat Bev Perdue will still be Governor for at least another two years, of course, but many things are likely to change
Republicans who have been thwarted in their legislative efforts will find a different atmosphere. The electoral change would open up new leadership opportunities for Republicans such as Sen. Bob Rucho of Charlotte and Rep. Thom Tillis of Mecklenburg.
The Senate changes include the biennial drafting of the state budget, for which Republicans have been laying plans for months to trim more than $3 billion from the state's roughly $20 billion operating budget. Some plans envision cutting up to 20 percent to make ends meet.
Perhaps just as important is the redrawing of congressional and legislative districts for the upcoming decade. Those districts must be revised every 10 years following the Census, and Republicans will have the chance to guide redistricting committees through the process for the first time in modern state history.
Also important to Republicans is Court of Appeals Judge Barbara Jackson's lead over Democratic Court of Appeals Judge Bob Hunter for the N.C. Supreme Court seat held by outgoing justice Ed Brady. Although these seats are nonpartisan, it's no secret that Jackson is a Republican, as is Brady. And her election would not only preserve a 4-3 Republican-Democrat split on the court, it will also give the N.C. court a majority of female justices. It's foolish to predict how justices will vote based on their political party, but it will comfort Republicans in redistricting lawsuits that the numbers at least appear to be on their side.
Democrats no doubt will now have second thoughts about their refusal to go along with Republican proposals in past years to create a nonpartisan commission to study demographic changes and draft new districts for the state's 13 congressional districts and 170 legislative districts. It will be another decade before districts could be redrawn, and Democrats will have time to ponder their lost opportunities - apparently from the back bench.
Figure in 30 days or so we’ll know if the Democrats are coming to Uptown in 2012. And on balance I think the Midterm election has helped Charlotte’s chances.
Cleveland is right out if it was ever in it. After both a lack-luster Obama rally in Cleveland the other day and John Kasich taking the governor’s race, forget it. The DNC is scared of Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, don’t think there will be much if any interest in trying to boost Obama to a second-term in Pawlenty’s backyard.
However.
There is already a meme in the wild that Tuesday was the result of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine bending the DNC machine too closely to the “blue dogs” — ie, the South — instead of riding even further to the Left with organized labor. To the extent the Dems pursue this line of thinking that clearly sets up a Charlotte vs. St. Louis line of battle. If Kaine loses his job and is otherwise scape-goated for the midterm, that elevates labor-heavy St. Louis, which I’ve long thought is the only real competition for CLT.
Charlotte’s convention boosters have already had to try to prove that the city is organized labor-friendly enough to host the party of organized labor. Expect more surprises and twists there in the weeks ahead even if this get-Kaine movement dies out. (And frankly who knows what will go on while the White House is in India. Seriously.)
But the big picture remains that North Carolina has a female Dem governor, a female Dem senator, and only lost one incumbent congressman on Tuesday. Charlotte still has two Democratic congressmen — Larry Kissell’s win being something of a bright spot — a young, black Democratic mayor and a raft of long-serving and powerful state legislators. This reality along with Duke Energy and Bank of America, argues very well for Charlotte.
What is really interesting, however, is the chance that the GOP tide has made potential corporate donors to Charlotte’s DNC push a little gun shy. We’ve been told all along that $40m. in private money would be needed to put on Obamafest 2012 in Uptown.
After Tuesday, is there still a rush to write that check?
An election that turned the N.C. General Assembly upside down will flip the fortunes of Mecklenburg County lawmakers, dropping some from key positions and maybe lifting one to the top spot in the House.
Lawmakers on both sides Wednesday were still trying to figure out their roles on a playing field that changed dramatically. Constituents also were scrambling to find their places.
In a GOP wave that swept the country, Republicans took over the state Senate for the first time in 112 years, winning 31 of 50 seats. They'll retake control of the House after claiming at least 68 of 120 seats.
"Everybody in North Carolina is going to be trying to figure out how to relate to the new leadership," said Charlotte Chamber President Bob Morgan.
The results will change everything from the leaders who assign committees to the lawmakers who lead them and, in some cases, the staff that counsels them.
GOP Sen. Phil Berger of Rockingham County is poised to become the leader of the Senate. Rep. Thom Tillis of Cornelius, who chaired the party's election effort in the House, is on the short list of candidates for House speaker.
Veteran Sen. Bob Rucho of Matthews, one of the leaders of the GOP Senate campaign effort, is expected to get a top committee assignment.
On the flip side, lawmakers such as Charlotte Democrat Dan Clodfelter, who co-chairs the influential Senate Finance Committee, and deputy Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Dannelly almost surely will lose their leadership roles as well as their clout.
But what it means for Mecklenburg is less clear.
"I actually think it bodes pretty well for us," Tillis said Wednesday. "We shouldn't automatically assume Republicans will do what Democrats have done, and that is not have people in the minority party in prominent roles. We're not going to turn a blind eye to people who've established a pretty solid resume."
Tillis as House speaker?
Tillis, the minority whip, could end up competing with Minority Leader Paul Stam of Raleigh for the speakership. He says he expects the GOP caucus to decide its new leaders by Thanksgiving.
No one approached the election with quite the single-minded focus of Tillis.
It was in April 2009 that the Cornelius businessman quit his job as an IBM management consultant to devote himself full time to the effort. He put 45,000 miles and wore out a set of tires on his blue Toyota pickup traveling the state recruiting candidates and helping them hone issues and raise money.
The man who named his three dogs Reagan, Abe and Ike was on a mission: to elect Republicans.
Raleigh businessman Art Pope, a former legislator whose affiliated groups spent at least $2.1 million to elect Republicans, declined to say whom he favors for speaker. "The Republican House caucus has an excellent group of leaders, and they have a lot to choose from," he said.
But Rep. Ruth Samuelson, a Charlotte Republican also expected to rise in the new order, said Tillis has a good shot to replace Democratic Speaker Joe Hackney of Chapel Hill.
"I think right now it leans a little towards Thom," she said "That's what I'm hearing other people say."
Tillis and others say they don't believe Republicans would be wary about another speaker from Mecklenburg. He would be the first since Jim Black left in 2007, the year he was sentenced to federal prison on corruption charges. Black was just released to a halfway house.
"I don't think Thom Tillis deserves any blame for the corrupt criminal Jim Black," Pope said.
Mecklenburg influence
Mecklenburg's 15-member legislative delegation includes six Republicans. Returning are Rucho in the Senate and Tillis, Samuelson and Ric Killian in the House. The newcomers: Bill Brawley in the House and Tommy Tucker of Union County in the Senate, in a district that includes part of Mecklenburg.
While House Democrats such as Reps. Beverly Earle, Martha Alexander and Becky Carney have been around for years, the three returning GOP lawmakers were all elected in 2006. Even so, they could all move up in a Republican-controlled House.
"There is a good potential that Mecklenburg County will have a little more influence over what happens in Raleigh," said Samuelson.
Carney said the change could "bode well for Mecklenburg."
"It depends on the issues," she said. "It might have shifted everything upside down but, for Mecklenburg County, potentially you're still going to have those leadership positions. So hopefully it will not have any damaging effect."
Morgan, of the Chamber, said who's in charge may be less important than the challenges they'll face. Among other things, the state is staring at a budget shortfall of more than $3 billion.
"Regardless of which party won last night, that is the biggest issue that looms over any of us who care about the legislature or are dependent on the legislature," he said. "We're all going to be playing defense."
N.C. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, has been one of the most powerful individuals in state government since the early 1990s, but his long reign as the Senate's top leader appears to be at an end.
With an Anti-Incumbent mood running among voters in legislative elections, Democrats in North Carolina who dominated the General Assembly in the 20th and so far the 21st centuries will surely find Raleigh a far different place when the General Assembly reconvenes in 2011.
Democrat Bev Perdue will still be Governor for at least another two years, of course, but many things are likely to change
Republicans who have been thwarted in their legislative efforts will find a different atmosphere. The electoral change would open up new leadership opportunities for Republicans such as Sen. Bob Rucho of Charlotte and Rep. Thom Tillis of Mecklenburg.
The Senate changes include the biennial drafting of the state budget, for which Republicans have been laying plans for months to trim more than $3 billion from the state's roughly $20 billion operating budget. Some plans envision cutting up to 20 percent to make ends meet.
Perhaps just as important is the redrawing of congressional and legislative districts for the upcoming decade. Those districts must be revised every 10 years following the Census, and Republicans will have the chance to guide redistricting committees through the process for the first time in modern state history.
Also important to Republicans is Court of Appeals Judge Barbara Jackson's lead over Democratic Court of Appeals Judge Bob Hunter for the N.C. Supreme Court seat held by outgoing justice Ed Brady. Although these seats are nonpartisan, it's no secret that Jackson is a Republican, as is Brady. And her election would not only preserve a 4-3 Republican-Democrat split on the court, it will also give the N.C. court a majority of female justices. It's foolish to predict how justices will vote based on their political party, but it will comfort Republicans in redistricting lawsuits that the numbers at least appear to be on their side.
Democrats no doubt will now have second thoughts about their refusal to go along with Republican proposals in past years to create a nonpartisan commission to study demographic changes and draft new districts for the state's 13 congressional districts and 170 legislative districts. It will be another decade before districts could be redrawn, and Democrats will have time to ponder their lost opportunities - apparently from the back bench.
Pajamas Media roots into FEC filings to discover that Bank of America loaned the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee $32m. last month while asking for nothing more than future contributions as collateral. Such de facto mailing list valuations are an extremely flimsy basis for securing a loan. PJM asks:
Were the Bank of America deals legitimate, arms-length transactions, or were they cozy sweetheart deals in which nothing was really put up to secure a $32 million loan?
But one question not asked is the connection between the loan and Charlotte’s ongoing pursuit of the DNC’s 2012 convention. We already know that BAC CEO Brian Moynihan has been called President Obama’s favorite banker and that the bank’s exec team — like the rest of the Uptown crowd — is full-on behind landing the convention for Banktown USA. Plus we have ample local precedent for BAC throwing millions in sweetheart loans at favored endeavors — the US National Log Flume Ride and France Family Convention Center Annex being two glittering, irrefutable examples.
BAC has yet to respond to PJM inquires with details about the loans — but you know what is coming. BAC will say there is a legit business purpose to the loans and any suggestion to the contrary is counter-factual.
Shortly after Labor Day, as polls continued to sink, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) realized it needed a cash infusion for the upcoming midterm elections.
Its chairman, former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, turned to the Bank of America to secure a $15 million revolving credit line. Then, in the middle of this month, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) got another loan from BofA for an additional $17 million.
What was their collateral? It turns out, not much.
The DNC claims their collateral was an intangible piece of property — its donor mailing list. The DCCC only cites unnamed “assets.” Neither party organization possesses real estate even close to cover the $32 million. The DNC’s headquarters is owned by another entity. Even it was put up as collateral, its market value was last estimated at only $13.7 million.
Were the Bank of America deals legitimate, arms-length transactions, or were they cozy sweetheart deals in which nothing was really put up to secure a $32 million loan?
And if it was the latter, could it be considered an illegal campaign contribution from the largest bank holding company in America?
There also is troubling evidence that two days before closing on the loan transaction, the DNC changed its own privacy provisions to allow the selling or sharing of private donor data.
BofA has been a longtime friend of Democrats. In the 2008 election cycle, BofA gave its largest single campaign contribution to then-Senator Barack Obama. According to Bloomberg News, BofA’s new CEO, Brian Moynihan, is considered Obama’s top political ally on Wall Street.
On the eve of the midterm elections, the appearance of preferential loans from cozy Wall Street bankers could play badly with the electorate. What message does a largely unsecured $32 million credit line for the Democratic Party send to thousands of cash-starved small businesses across the nation who can’t secure any credit even with tangible assets?
The findings are part of an exclusive Pajamas Media investigation.
The DNC Loan Agreement as posted online by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and signed by former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine (D) on September 16, 2010, says the loan collateral included: “All electronic mail (‘E-mail’) addresses and other contact lists, records and other Information (electronic or otherwise) relating to contributors, supporters and subscribers owned by any of the Borrowers.” The borrowers in this case were the DNC and the DNC Services Corporation.
The loan agreement further stipulates that if the Democrats defaulted, Bank of America would be entitled to “proceeds from any fundraising activity, refunds, reimbursements, or proceeds from the rental or sale of mailing, contact or subscription lists or Information (electronic or otherwise).”
One key to understanding the problems behind the $15 million loan is determining what the donor list is actually worth. The DNC filings with the FEC do not attach any independent appraisal documents or list broker evaluations to establish the list’s fair market value.
Senator John McCain once tried to use his presidential donor list as collateral for a loan. He valued his Republican donor list as worth $3 million. The bank rejected the loan.
Trying to fix a value on an intangible mailing list is very difficult.
“Donor lists do have value, but very fleeting value,” Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, told Pajamas Media. “Lists do deteriorate and $15 million is an awful lot of money. So if the bank ends up with the list because the party is broke, where are they going to get their money?”
A senior executive who is part of a national U.S. bank told Pajamas Media that a data list would be a weak basis for a $15 million loan. He gave his comments on the grounds that he would not be publicly identified. He said he was “somewhat skeptical of a donor list as adequate collateral for a $15 million credit line.”
But if the value is not $15 million, it could be considered a substantial campaign contribution to the Democratic National Committee. And that could be illegal.
“The DNC would have to demonstrate it’s an arms-length, commercially reasonable, properly collateralized loan,” says Cleta Mitchell, a Washington-based attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP and an expert on campaign finance law. She says there needed to be some outside way to assess or appraise the list before the line of credit could be approved. “Otherwise, it’s an illegal contribution from a national bank,” she says.
Hans von Spakovsky, a former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission, agrees. Unless the DNC or BofA conducted an independent appraisal, the loan could be considered an illegal campaign contribution. “The FEC would require an independent appraisal of the fair market value of the list that supports the amount of the loan. Otherwise as a commissioner I would consider this an illegal contribution,” he told Pajamas Media.
In 2005, ATA attorneys for direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie told the Federal Election Commission that ATA could not get credit using its mailing lists as collateral. Concerning its own client’s many mailing lists, ATA told the FEC that as a standard business practice, “the collateral is the mailing lists. Banks have informed ATA that this is not the type of collateral that banks use to extend credit.”
Without independent documentation, Mitchell told Pajamas Media, “you would never be able to say that their mailing list was worth $15 million. A bank would have to discount the value. So a bank would have to say it was worth at least twice that to get to $15 million.” That, she emphasizes, does require an arms-length appraisal and documentation.
Pajamas Media contacted both the Democratic National Committee and Bank of America for comment and details surrounding the transaction. As of this posting, the DNC has not replied to our inquiries. A communications person from BofA did return our phone call but could not respond to our query. [Update: They did after the piece ran; see addendum below.] She promised she would get someone to respond.
Boehm and Mitchell point out that many campaigns frequently take out short-term, temporary loans as bridge loans until new contributions come in. Most promise to pay it off before the election. The BofA terms are different.
The bank states that the first payment of principal will not be required until February 28, 2011, well after the November elections. Final payment for the debt will not be required until December 2011. What if the party found itself in deep debt after losing one or both houses of Congress?
As of October 13, the DNC reported $13.5 million of cash on hand with debts of $7.7 million. Their total worth was $5.8 million with three more weeks of campaigning ahead. (The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took out an additional $17 million credit line on October 21.)
There is also the issue of whether on the eve of the loan, the Democrats altered their own privacy policy about sharing private donor data. On September 14, two days before executing the loan, the DNC changed its privacy policy web page. The site initially states that their privacy policy is not to share private data: “It is our policy not to share the personal information we collect from you.”
However, the site adds in its last line that indeed it might share private information if it is the result of an “asset sale or in any other situation where personal information may be disclosed or transferred as one of the assets of the DNC.”
Is it simply a coincidence that the last item of this section acknowledges the DNC might share private information as a result of an asset sale to a third party? Or was it added to accommodate the new collateralized loan?
Other Democratic Party web sites strictly forbid the sharing of their mailing lists unless authorized by the individual. For example, one local Democratic website directly state to its supporters: “We will not give, sell or rent your email address to any other organization unless you specifically authorize us.”
The Democrats’ long-time sweetheart relationship with the banking world and with the Bank of America in particular creates the appearance of an insider deal.
BofA was very generous to Barack Obama when he ran for President. Campaign finance records show that in the 2008 election cycle, Senator Barack Obama was the top recipient of Bank of America campaign donations, reaping $421,000.
BofA’s new CEO, who took over from embattled Kenneth Lewis, is considered one of the Obama administration’s top Wall Street allies on a whole host of issues, from the creation of a consumer regulatory agency to the defense of the administration’s home mortgage fiascoes.
Here’s what Bloomberg News reported about the Moynihan-White House axis last May when he was the number two at BofA:
“He has been willing to speak out bravely in his industry on the need for reform measures,” says Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s liaison to corporate America who has met with Moynihan at the White House several times. “And he has been willing to come to Washington and roll up his sleeves and work on the issue.”
The history between BofA and Democrats goes back years. One highly publicized political scandal linked the bank and Democrats to the subprime mortgage giant Countrywide Financial, which BofA acquired more than two years ago. Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo gave preferential below market mortgages to leading Democrats like Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. After the disclosure of the mortgage favors, both Dodd and Senator Kent Conrad (D-SD) decided not to run for re-election.
Dodd and other Washington Democrats belonged to a group of VIP loan recipients known in company documents and emails as “FOAs” — Friends of Angelo, a reference to Angelo Mozilo.
“This (type of loan) isn’t something that’s generally offered to the general public, but it looks like it is something of a sweetheart deal,” observes Boehm about the new BofA credit line to the DNC. “Usually when you see this it is banks with a relationship with candidates and we see that all over the place. We saw that with Countrywide,” he told Pajamas Media.
Allowing third parties access to donor mailing lists as part of financial transactions can be tricky business. For years Democratic activists hounded Republican Sen. John Ashcroft about the third party use of his mailing list. The Federal Election Commission fined his campaign $37,000.
The issue may not play well with voters either. Getting an easy line of credit may not sit well with cash-starved small businesses that have sought loans during the bad economy — even when they tried to collateralize it with real, not abstract assets.
The question is, will the DNC come clean and open their books on the transaction?
Update:
Jefferson George, a Bank of America spokesman, responds:
First, the answer to the question raised in the headline – “Did the DNC Get an Illegal Campaign Loan from Bank of America?” – is no. We follow all Federal Election Commission guidelines in our financial transactions with political parties and apply the same underwriting standards to these organizations as we do to any other institutional borrower. We also work closely with outside campaign finance legal experts to structure and document these transactions. These agreements are required to be arms-length transactions, and we are very careful with how we underwrite these loans.
As I mentioned, we have always had relationships with committees that represent political parties on both sides of the aisle. Our banking relationship with the Democratic Party dates back more than 30 years, well before the current administration. We also have provided loans for Republican candidates and committees. For instance, we provided financing for Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Regarding the loans to the DNC and DCCC, due to client confidentiality obligations, we can’t discuss specific loans publicly beyond what is disclosed by the FEC, and we would refer you to those individual organizations. We can say, however, that collateral for these types of loans may include many things, and donor lists usually are insignificant compared such security measures as blanket liens against all assets, including accounts receivable. This also assumes a client doesn’t have adequate cash flow from the collection of contributions. Other factors in considering a loan include a client’s history with repaying loans on time or ahead of schedule.
Update (5:10 PM PDT):
More from Jefferson:
Thanks for this. Saw the updated story. One clarification, and it was my error: We didn’t provide financing for Romney. Rather, we had — and have — a banking relationship, handling deposits and providing other cash management services. And that relationship is still active.
Update (8:00 PM PDT):
Richard Pollack adds:
The nub of the story is that Bank of America refuses to confirm that an independent appraisal was done for the issuance of two huge loans to the Democrats totaling $32 million. While the bank might wish to invoke confidentiality, in the post-partisan era promised by President Obama, transparency around this particular loan is vital. This is especially true if there are allegations of violations of law.
The scope of the BofA small business loan to the Democrats is breathtaking. According to CNN/Money, in 2009, the bank issued 308 loans to small businesses totaling $17.6 million and in 2010 it issued 185 loans totaling $22.8 million. So the size of the Democrats’ two loans dwarfs all loans to small businesses in each calendar year. I wonder how credit-starved small business owners would feel about these Democrat loans tonight.
In that CNN/Money article, Mr. George was interviewed, saying, “Among those seeking loans, the creditworthiness of many businesses has changed. Cash flow — the most important factor — often is down. The value of collateral, such as real estate or equipment, has decreased.”
Mr. George had it right. Collateral is everything. The public has a right to know what is the collateral behind the $32 million in loans. Otherwise, it can be regarded as a gift, and patently illegal under federal campaign finance laws.
(Update: 7:54 AM PDT, 10/28):
More from Jefferson:
Your last update at 8:00 pm ET is incorrect. The numbers you cite from the CNN/Money story are for SBA loans. That was clearly stated in the story, and SBA lending is a very small percentage of Bank of America’s total lending to small businesses. In 2009, Bank of America loaned $16.5 billion to small businesses. Through the third quarter of 2010, Bank of America loaned $13.9 billion to small businesses.
Beyond direct lending, Bank of America works with Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to provide financing and technical assistance to businesses that don’t qualify for traditional financing. As the leading financial institution supporting CDFIs, the bank provides $1 billion of capital – including more than $200 million to CDFIs that finance small businesses in lower-income communities. Bank of America also recently launched a grant program for CDFIs and other nonprofit lenders, aimed at unlocking $100 million in low-cost, long-term capital for small and rural businesses. To date, the bank has awarded grants that allowed CDFIs to access nearly $27.5 million in lending capital.
In addition, Bank of America has made a commitment to increase spending with small, medium-sized and diverse businesses. The bank’s pledge to purchase $10 billion in products and services from those suppliers over the next five years will provide much-needed income for those businesses. Finally, Bank of America recently announced it will hire more than 1,000 Small Business Bankers by early 2012. Based in communities across the U.S., these bankers will consult with small business owners, spend time at their offices and assess their companies’ deposit, credit and cash management needs.
(Update:7:56 AM PDT, 10/28): Richard Pollock responds:
Thank you for your additional comments on behalf of Bank of America. We will post them in full.
As for the substance of your comments:
Actually, I understated the case in your favor by citing the CNN/Money figures. These loans are not to your smallest business customers, which are really hurting in the credit crunch. It’s your biggest SBA (7) loan portfolio, which is the government backed loan program for small businesses through the Small Business Administration.
Your $32 million dwarfs those loans, many of which have been in trouble because of deterioration in collateralized assets. Your former CEO, Ken Lewis, has admitted this repeatedly. That’s why more conservative rules need to be applied in this economic downturn, not more relaxed standards. The Democratic National Committee and the DCCC will continue. No doubt. But its indebtedness after its most expensive and probably losing mid-term election cycle may put it in a precarious state until the presidential campaign. If may twist on an old financial cautionary warning: past performance is not a guarantee of future results. In 2010, the DNC and the DCCC may face substantial indebtedness and will have to repay the loan through 2012 as well as re-build their donor base.
I strongly recommend that your urge your clients, the DNC and DCCC, to be transparent and back up the collateral for their $32 million lines of credit. Failure to do so will only give the public the impression that there was a sweetheart deal here, and perhaps even the appearance of unlawful activity as well.
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