Meet Pat McCrory: North Carolina's Next Governor. He's a Republican & Yes I Support him. And???? If you lived in N.C. You would clearly understand why I'm NOT supporting the Democrat Candidate.
Former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory formally accepted his party’s gubernatorial nomination Saturday, promising to clean up Raleigh after 20 years of Democratic control and bring a leaner vision of government, including lower taxes, less regulation and more aggressive energy exploration.
Amid a swirl of balloons, placards and the sound of The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” a fired up McCrory said the state must regain its lost momentum with new policies.
Referring back to the North Carolina of his youth in the late ’60s, McCrory said the state had lost its reputation for good roads, good schools and low taxes, and it had become a state with some of the region’s highest income, corporate and gasoline taxes.
“This is the Perdue-Easley machine and the Perdue-Dalton machine,” McCrory told about 2,000 delegates and guests. “Right now this is not the state I grew up in. We can do so much better.’’
He was referring to former Gov. Mike Easley, current Gov. Bev Perdue and Lt Gov. Walter Dalton, the current Democratic nominee.
But the Democrats also continued to nip at McCrory’s heels, questioning his corporate connections while Charlotte mayor – with a plane flying over the convention center trailing a banner that read: “Who is Paying McCrory?”, with a figure dressed as an owl holding an anti-McCrory sign outside, and with Democratic groups running TV ads questioning his corporate ties.
The GOP convention had an upbeat mood with Republicans confident of extending control of the state Legislature and talking about the possibility of picking up four congressional seats – the biggest GOP gain in the country.
“We have an opportunity for 10 Republicans and three (Democrats), and that’s incredible,” said U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers of Dunn.
There was also plenty of presidential talk, with the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney sending in three surrogates – hotel mogul Donald Trump, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
“When you put Mitt Romney up against Barack Obama, I think North Carolinians will be wise in being able to see the difference between a failed president, a president who is still 1.4 million jobs in the red, so to speak, versus a president who understands how to get people back to work,” Perry said at a news conference.
Although he acknowledged not always saying complimentary things about Romney during the primary, Perry compared it to the Tar Heels playing the Wolfpack, and said that state pride was now kicking in. “It should be no contest as people in this country make a decision about whether: Are we better off today than we were four years ago?” Perry said.
Pawlenty revved the GOP engine Saturday in a luncheon address at the state party convention. He said Republicans are tired of Democrats “kicking the shins of our entrepreneurs and job creators in our country.”
“Barack Obama stood before the nation and gave incredibly well-read speeches off teleprompters,” Pawlenty said. “But that doesn’t put food on the table; that doesn’t make the car payment; that doesn’t make the health insurance payments, and that doesn’t save for college.’’
At a news conference outside the convention, the Democrats responded.
“Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney are selling something that North Carolina voters aren’t going to buy,” said state Sen. Don Vaughan. “They both support the same back-to-the-future economic scheme, a scheme that would explode the deficit by trillions while showering the wealthiest with new tax cuts – he was even accused of proposing “the Bush tax cuts on steroids.”
McCrory said he is facing some of the same “extreme radicalism” that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker confronts in the effort to recall him, including from national forces. McCrory said he would ask Walker to campaign in North Carolina after he wins his recall battle.
McCrory highlighted the comments made a couple of weeks ago by Dustin Ingalls, the assistant to the director of Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning polling firm in Raleigh. Ingalls made inflammatory comments about McCrory while speaking to a Fayetteville Democratic club.
He twice read Ingalls’ comments, in which he said: “We have to eviscerate McCrory. There is no way to prop up Dalton enough.”
“I didn’t know what it meant,” McCrory told the crowd. “It means they are going to open me up and take (my) guts out.”
“Bring it on!” shouted a man from the crowd.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” McCrory said. “They can try to eviscerate me. But I am tired of them trying to eviscerate jobs in North Carolina.”
McCrory said as governor he would work to lower the corporate and income taxes to make them more competitive with surrounding states. He said he would push more aggressive energy exploration – including offshore drilling for oil and gas and for inland shale drilling for natural gas.
And he said he would work to improve education, including merit pay for good teachers, making sure all high school graduates can read, and expanding vocational education.
On Monday, April 30, Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush endorsed Pat McCrory’s bid for North Carolina Governor at the historic Angus Barn restaurant in Raleigh
TRANSCRIPT:
Pat McCrory: I just want to let you know as I’ve not only got a chance to travel across this state, but I’ve also had the opportunity to meet a lot of Governors throughout the United States of America. There’s no doubt in my mind in observing Governor Christie, Governor Mitch Daniels and Governor Jindal and other Governors throughout the United States, it’s Governors who – I think – who are initiating policy which will help get our nation out of this very, very deep recession.
And North Carolina, of course, is feeling this recession with the fourth highest unemployment rate in the nation.
But, another Governor that has actually been a mentor to many of those existing Governors and a mentor of mine is Governor Jeb Bush of Florida. And I have been watching not only his leadership as a Governor but also his leadership since being Governor.
And he clearly understands many areas – especially two. And that is how to create jobs and also how to reform education.
And I am using his advice during this past year and I actually used it as Mayor of Charlotte also in getting his input on ideas on both economic development and education. And Jeb Bush has become very much of an expert in the area of reforming education and not accepting the incredible high dropout rates that we see in states throughout the United States of America.
Both Governor Bush and I clearly understand that we must reform and change education so we can get our kids to learn the basics and then get good quality higher education or vocational education in addition to getting a job. And right now so many of our kids who are graduating aren’t getting jobs and we have over 20% of our children who are clearly not even graduating from our high schools in North Carolina. And this is clearly unacceptable.
And that’s one of the reasons I have a great partnership and I appreciate Governor Bush’s endorsement of our candidacy because we both firmly believe in reforming education. And I’m going to take many ideas that he has initiated in Florida, both as a current Governor and a former Governor and bring them to North Carolina so we can improve the outcomes of our education and our major investments in education.
So with that, I welcome Governor Bush to say a few words and then we’ll answer a few questions. Thank you very much.
Governor Jeb Bush: Thank you, Mayor. It is a joy to be here, to endorse your candidacy, and to provide whatever support I can for that cause. Governor’s lead. It’s amazing to see what goes on in Washington these days, with the gridlock, where people kind of feel, correctly, that nothing can get done, but I can guarantee you that with your leadership here in North Carolina, you’ll hit the ground running, and develop, build on a good business climate, and make it a great one.
And build on an education an education system that should have no tolerance for failure, and sadly in our country we have way to much of it, and thank goodness there are reform minded governors across the country that are prepared to take on the status quo to improve things, and I know you’re one of those and I look forward to doing whatever I can to help you get elected, and as Governor, you count on me to provide whatever support that you need. God bless you and good luck.
The final weeks of statewide general elections in North Carolina are usually marked by perceived shadowy third-party groups spending big money to soak the airwaves with television commercials and campaigns suing or threatening to sue over an ad that strikes a nerve.
That all got a head start in 2012.
The governor's race didn't let up after the May 8 primary christened Democratic Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton and Republican Pat McCrory as nominees. National governors' groups already have been recognized for more than $1.4 million in TV ads designed to negatively portray the opposing candidate.
McCrory's campaign and political committees favoring Dalton filed competing lawsuits over one commercial last week. McCrory, the former Charlotte mayor, called the ad "garbage." Dalton, while pointing out the ad wasn't produced by his campaign, retorted the commercial "checks out by fact pretty well."
Add the millions of dollars in presidential ads already being dropped on North Carolina and loosened campaign finance restrictions nationwide, and the old political adage that Labor Day marks the beginning of the fall political season sounds old-fashioned.
Make that Memorial Day.
"In the past, there's been a little hiatus after the primaries," said Carter Wrenn, a Republican campaign consultant who worked for years with the late U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms' political organization. This year, he added, "they just put the pedal to the metal."
The early overall surge in television advertising in North Carolina is attributed to the state being considered competitive again in the presidential race. President Barack Obama narrowly won in North Carolina in 2008, ending a GOP winning streak dating to 1980. Holding the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte highlights Obama's interest in retaining North Carolina's 15 electoral votes.
Wrenn said North Carolina didn't become a battleground state until later in the 2008 election season. This time, he said, "we're kind of at a different status then we've ever been before."
North Carolina TV viewers already are hearing from the campaigns of Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, as well as from a new kind of political action committee. The so-called "super PAC," born following a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, can receive unlimited amounts of money from corporations and individuals.
In May, the Obama campaign launched a $25 million ad buy running in North Carolina and six other states. The GOP-leading super PAC Crossroads GPS, which is advertising against Obama in North Carolina and nine other states, quickly matched that amount. The Romney campaign also said it was spending $1.3 million in four states, including North Carolina, on a TV ad.
The Supreme Court's "Citizens United" ruling will make TVs even more congested with political commercials than they would have been, said Gene Nichol, a professor at the University of North Carolina law school.
"We're all going to become so sick of watching TV and the commercials that spew forth that people will just beg for the election to be over," said Nichol, a former Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Colorado.
Eight statewide or congressional primary runoffs set for July 17 will keep politics in the news. Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue's decision not to seek re-election also has intensified the campaign to succeed her.
The Republican Governors Association spent $5.6 million in 2008 working unsuccessfully for McCrory to defeat Perdue, but it didn't start spending that year until September. This year, it got on the air a week after the primary and began to label Dalton as Perdue's "right-hand man."
Two RGA ads have tried to join Dalton and Perdue at the hip and highlight their support for raising the sales tax by three-quarters of a cent. The sales tax revenue would go to public education.
As of last week, the RGA had spent $1.3 million in North Carolina, according to campaign finance reports. More than $1 million was for TV spots, RGA spokesman Mike Schrimpf said.
"North Carolina is one of our most important pickup opportunities," Schrimpf said Friday.
On the day the RGA ran its first ad, the Democratic Governors Association gave $1 million to North Carolina Citizens for Progress. The Raleigh-based independent political group spent more than $430,000 on commercials questioning McCrory's ethics. They suggest McCrory lobbied for Charlotte-based real estate and lending business Tree.com while mayor. McCrory is now on the Tree.com board and has received fees and stock options.
McCrory pounced on N.C. Citizens for Progress last week, and his lawyers sent letters asking TV stations to stop running a commercial they say is false. McCrory has never been a registered lobbyist for Tree.com, but N.C. Citizens for Progress says the ad is factual.
The DGA and N.C. Citizens sued McCrory and his campaign committee and threatened to depose McCrory before November. McCrory's campaign began litigation against DGA and N.C. Citizens.
Bob Hall, executive director of the campaign finance group Democracy North Carolina, said organizations such as the DGA, RGA and N.C. Citizens have more leeway since the Citizens United ruling to directly support or oppose candidates in television ads. They also have a greater pool of donors compared to 2008. The two candidates have no direct way to rein in the outside groups.
Hall said the early influx of ads is an early taste for voters until Election Day: "This is the harbinger of what's to come."
Pat McCrory's campaign and the political committees behind a television commercial McCrory says is false filed competing legal actions that raise the ante in North Carolina's gubernatorial race.
The Democratic Governors Association and the group North Carolina Citizens for Progress filed a complaint in Wake County court asking a judge to rule the commercial about McCrory's connections to a Charlotte-based business as true and constitutionally protected.
The complaint, which names McCrory and his campaign as defendants, was filed Thursday morning, hours before the Pat McCrory Committee initiated civil action against the two groups. It has until mid-June to file its complaint, according to the paperwork.
"I think they were bluffing. We're calling their bluff," Michael Weisel, attorney for N.C. Citizens for Progress, said Friday.
McCrory and his campaign also have been threatening lawsuits against TV stations that air the ad, which started last week, and asked the Federal Communications Commission to get involved. McCrory is most angry about an accusation that he lobbied for real estate and lending business Tree.com while mayor of Charlotte and three years before he joined the company's board.
"It's a total lie and misrepresentation of the facts. It is deceiving, it's deceptive," McCrory said. "We're going to challenge these ads that are unfactual and that are character assassinations."
Weisel suggested that he would seek to question McCrory under oath in the weeks before what's expected to be a competitive election with Democratic nominee Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton.
"The facts contained within the ad are absolutely accurate. We stand by them," he said. "There's a past history of perhaps making threats of lawsuits and then not actually doing so because it has its desired effect, which is to intimidate the press and your political opponents, their campaigns."
The competing litigation comes less than three weeks since Dalton and McCrory won their respective primaries. The DGA and the Republican Governors Association have spent more than $1.4 million combined on advertising since then.
The RGA began running another ad Friday, seeking to firm up Dalton's policy ties to Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue, who isn't seeking re-election.
Perdue is the vice chairwoman of the DGA and is listed as a likely defendant in the McCrory's campaign lawsuit.
McCrory said he's never been a registered lobbyist for Tree.com. The 2006 letter McCrory wrote as mayor and cited in the ad asked the state commerce secretary to boost state economic incentives to discourage LendingTree, a Tree.com business, from going to South Carolina.
N.C. Citizens for Progress produced the ad but the Democratic Governors Association paid for it. Campaign finance reports show N.C. Citizens have spent more than $430,000 on its ad campaign. The commercial has been airing on Triangle, Triad and Down East television stations.
The group has made some changes to the attack ad, and the latest version clarifies the timeline of events. They said it makes the ad stronger, but the lawsuit still goes on.
McCrory's campaign said Friday the legal matters would be handled by the lawyers and that McCrory is focused on the economy and who is best prepared to be governor.
"We're not going to be sidetracked with a back and forth with a third-party group," campaign spokesman Brian Nick said.
Dalton's campaign lit into McCrory, saying his public pledge Thursday to run fair campaign ads this election rang hollow as the RGA ran another ad accusing Dalton of voting repeatedly for higher taxes while in the state Senate. The RGA has spent more $1 million on running a pair of anti-Dalton ads this month, RGA spokesman Mike Schrimpf said.
"For McCrory to stand before the media and call for a clean campaign on the same day that his political hatchet men launch yet another misleading attack is a new low," Dalton spokesman Ford Dalton said.
Nick said the RGA ads are based on voting records, not attacking someone's character.
Campaign rules prevent third-party groups from coordinating activities with candidate committees.
As the McCrory and Dalton campaigns blast away at each other, Libertarian candidate Barbara Howe planned to quietly launch her gubernatorial campaign on Saturday. The Granville County homemaker has run for governor twice before.
“Inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.” John Addison
"Morning Joe" Host Joe Scarborough's analysis of Cory Booker's first Apology Video following his appearance last week on "Meet The Press" DID in fact make him appear as if he were being "held Hostage".
Cory Booker's recent Admonishment by the National Democratic Party for speaking out on "Meet The Press" proves Independent Minds are NOT welcome in 21st Century Politics. Its 100% Partisan Politics or Else!
The Democratic Party’s recent Attack on Cory Booker hurts his Political Brand & Disrupts his legacy of Helping the Poor and being able to reach across the Aisle as an Effective Bi-Partisan Leader.
As a result Independent Voters have been Turned off by how Poorly Booker was treated by Democrats following his "Meet The Press" comments.
Cory should NOT have Apologized!
I don't know WHO advised him (Male or Female) to Apologize but they offered him some very Damaging Career Advice.
Instead he should have just reiterated his Stand for Pres. Obama & also reiterated his Support for Private Equity.
However he should NOT have Apologized.
Here's Why.
During his appearance on "Meet The Press", Mayor Booker criticized Both Political Parties for Negative Ads which further Divide American Voters.
Millions of Voters & Political Leaders from all walks of life and ethnic groups agreed with Cory's Straight-From-The-Heart comments.
Voters are so tired of Politicians saying ANYTHING just to get Elected & Re-elected.
Thus when Cory Booker spoke so eloquently about Negative Campaign ads which revisit the Jeremiah Wright drama & attacks Private Equity, the Clouds opened up for American Voters.
However while Independent Voters were Lauding Booker, Leaders within the Democratic Party and many within Pres. Obama's Re-election camp obviously viewed Cory's comments as a Spotlight stealing gimmick.
It Wasn't!
Cory Booker has primarily been a Staunch Advocate of Pres. Barack Obama, even when he was just Senator Obama.
So why would he suddenly become a "Turn Coat" or a Traitor to Pres. Obama?
Cory merely stated an Opinion. An Independent Opinion.
How could an Honest Opinion in which he criticized the Negative Actions of Both Political Parties, cause Cory's Loyalty to Pres. Obama's Administration to be Questioned?
I thought all American Citizens regardless of their Ethnicity, Economic & Social Status were legally Afforded Freedom Of Speech rights as provided by the U.S. Constitution.
Hold It!
Cory Booker was an Obama Surrogate right?
Apparently Political Surrogates are NOT allowed to Express their Own, Independent Opinions.
Especially NOT BLACK, Political Surrogates within the Democratic Party.
You see its acceptable for WHITE Political Surrogates to Express their Independent Opinions once in a while, but BLACK, Political Surrogates are ALWAYS expected to do as they are told versus practicing Independent Thinking.
i.e., Slavery Group Think Mentally!
In essence Cory Booker largely known for being an Effective Bi-Partisan Leader, was Forced by the National Democratic Party and by some of his Inner Circle Socialite Friends to become a completely Partisan Political Leader or ELSE!!!
In other words pick a side or we will Black List You!
Sure sounds like "Hostage Politics" to me.
Cory Booker was Celebrated by Independent Voters for his "Meet The Press" comments because not only did he speak from the Heart but he demonstrated a Human trait so many 21st Century Politicians have lost.
How Sad such an Admirable Human Relations Trait is no longer welcome in the world of Partisan Politics. Both Parties!
Partisan Politics are to blame for a Broken Congress & a Dysfunctional Executive Branch Government.
Booker sees American Citizens NOT just as Voting Blocks or as Separate Voting Groups, but Cory Booker sees American Citizens as Individual HUMAN BEINGS Created in GOD's Image.
Cory Booker was Admonished for simply Daring to be Independent & for Daring to be Human versus a Political Machine.
For that Mayor Booker's Political Career has been Damaged, All the Good he has done to help Clean Up a Corrupt Metropolitan City Forgotten & his Once shining light as a Rising Political Star Dimmed.
In 2008 Barack Obama was Praised by Registered Independent Voters for being a seemingly Effective Bi-Partisan Political Leader, willing to Compromise for the sake of the Collective American Electorate.
Fast forward to 2012.
Cory Booker another rising star within the National Democratic Party is Whipped, Admonished & Blacklisted for attempting to be an Effective Bi-Partisan Political, also willing to Compromise for the sake of the Collective American Electorate.
Perhaps there will Always ONLY be room for just ONE rising, BLACK Political Star within the National Democratic Party at a time.
I suggest Cory Booker choose some New Inner Circle Social Friends (Male & Female) and....a New Public Relations Adviser.
I also suggest Cory Booker decide if he should remain a Staunch Democrat or consider becoming a Registered Independent like one of his Mentors Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
After all what is the use of remaining a Staunch, Loyal Democrat Surrogate if the Democratic Party will treat you like Horse Manure if you choose to "Step Out Of Line"? i.e., Political Slavery! i.e., "Held Hostage"!
But Republicans shouldn’t laugh at this latest misstep by Democrat Leaders.
The past several days of Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s life have been painfully amusing to watch.
Painful because Booker, a rising Democratic star, is such a good guy. Amusing, because rarely are Americans treated to such premier seats in the political theater of truth and consequence.
That is, tell the truth and beware the consequences.
Booker has gained much unwelcome attention from his own political party, while being nearly sanctified by Republicans, for the singular offense of telling the truth.
And then untelling the truth.
And then . . . stay tuned.
To know Booker is to like him. He’s one of those political figures whose persona telegraphs “honest broker.” Educated at Stanford, Oxford and Yale Law School, he’s also a popular mayor in one of America’s toughest, most challenged cities. Open-minded and solution-oriented, he’s what we hope for in public officials. Or say we do.
But honesty is not always a rewarding trait in politics, especially during high-stakes election years, as Booker promptly learned when he recently spoke from the heart on “Meet the Press.” He said that attacks on Bain Capital, where Mitt Romney made a fortune, were “nauseating” to him, as were similar attacks from the right to resurrect the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
“I have to just say from a very personal level, I’m not about to sit here and indict private equity,” Booker said. “To me, it’s just this — we’re getting to a ridiculous point in America, especially that I know. I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, it ain’t — they’ve done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses.”
Hearts leapt.
While regular folks shielded their eyes from the blinding light of Truth, political operatives left and right shifted into warp speed. Republicans produced an insta-ad capitalizing on Booker’s remarks — See? Even Democrats dislike President Obama’s attack on Bain — while their counterparts on the left began launching correctives.
David Axelrod promptly made the rounds and explained to talk show hosts what Booker really meant. (As though Americans can’t understand what they plainly hear.) Others pointed out Booker’s own cozy relationship with equity capital political donors. And Booker, obviously scrambling to recapture favor with the Obama campaign, posted a YouTube video before another sun had set.
What he “really” meant: “Let me be clear. Mitt Romney has made his business record a centerpiece of his campaign,” Booker says in the video. “He’s talked about himself as a job creator. And therefore it is reasonable — and in fact I encourage it — for the Obama campaign to examine that record and to discuss it. I have no problem with that.”
Commentators have all cast their ballots as to whether Booker should have corrected himself. Almost unanimously, the answer was no.
Obviously, if you’re a surrogate for the president, as Booker described himself on “Meet the Press,” your job is to regurgitate talking points. No wandering around the reservation, no independent thinking, certainly no personal confessions. You absolutely do not declare the centerpiece of the president’s attack on his opponent to be “nauseating.”
Unless it is. And unless it’s true. For you, you know when you’re alone with your conscience. Or having lunch with your private-equity donors, as the case may be. But definitely not while on TV!
On Rachel Maddow’s show, Booker dug a little deeper: “Obviously, I did things in the ‘Meet the Press’ interview, as I told you, that did not land the points that I was trying to make. And in some ways, you know, frustratingly, I think I conflated the attacks that the Republicans were making with Jeremiah Wright with some of the attacks on the left. And those can’t even be equated.”
Worse, from the party’s perspective, Booker described himself as an “independent Democrat.” Oops.
We may like independents in theory, but surrogates don’t get to be independent. You gotta pick one or the other. This has been the immediate lesson for Cory Booker. But the broader lesson for the public is that there’s no space in our body politic for an independent mind, even though more Americans describe themselves as independent than either Democrat or Republican.
Thinking outside the box may solve problems in the real world. But in the political realm, creative noodling will get you cast into the outer darkness. No matter which way you lean, The Machinery requires cogs, not cognizance.
It only took 15 seconds on “Meet the Press” to turn Cory Booker’s gold-plated political brand into an imperiled commodity. Booker has cemented a reputation as a rising Democratic star with crossover appeal, whose open secret is his desire to become either senator or governor.
But the Newark mayor may have done himself serious damage before he gets the chance to act on his long-held ambitions, thanks to his pointed criticism of the Obama campaign’s assault on Mitt Romney’s private-equity tenure, which he equated with the GOP using the Rev. Jeremiah Wright against Obama.
Booker’s words, combined with his painful, videotaped walk-back hours later, may have done the Democrat more harm than good.
“Mayor Booker forgets there’s Democratic primaries you have to [go] through before you get the nomination and statements like that don’t help you with the Democratic primary base,” said Julie Roginsky, a New Jersey-based Democratic political strategist.
Some Democrats, and Republicans, believe that the telegenic, African-American mayor emerged from the week — in which he called the attacks on Romney’s record at Bain Capital “nauseating” on “Meet the Press” — as a pragmatist, one who could work with the Republicans in the Democratic-leaning Garden State.
But while the mayor’s “No Labels” centrist appeal may work with donors and center-right voters, it will do little for him in a Democratic primary against, say, Sen. Frank Lautenberg in 2014 — especially if Obama is reelected, and holding onto a grudge. “It is absolutely crazy to go and blast the president,” said one Democratic operative who knows Booker well, and asked not to be identified. “And he could have gotten away with it. He could have bemoaned negative campaigning. That would have been fine and that would have been great. (But) he compared the Bain attack to Jeremiah Wright. That’s crazy.”
Booker, who has fundraised heavily from the financial-services sector and is a player in the private-equity-financed, education reform movement, has been eyeing statewide office for years.
He is believed to most covet the governor’s office, although he would never challenge Gov. Chris Christie, who’s been a political friend and has deftly moved to co-opt the Newark mayor, unless the Republican was truly vulnerable.
A potential Lautenberg challenge is seen as likelier — and it’s a fact of which that the senator is keenly aware. Following Booker’s comments, the 88-year-old senator went on a media tour to rub salt in the wounds after the mayor’s walk-back, which was made after national Democrats contacted him.
“Now we have a different record,” Lautenberg cheerily told Roll Call of the difference between himself and Booker, accusing Booker of “sabotage” against the president.
Not everyone thinks Booker did himself damage.
“I just don’t see any situation where this really hurts him politically in New Jersey,” said Bradley Tusk, who managed New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s 2009 reelection campaign and who has worked with Booker on education initiatives. “I don’t think voters will remember this if he runs for office. I don’t think they’d care even if they did remember.
Nor do I think anyone would challenge him from the left.”
“I don’t think that will” damage him, agreed former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean. “He’s a very attractive candidate — there aren’t that many of them around.
He is one of them. … I think what people like about candidates these days is when they’re honest — so what he said about ‘a plague on both your houses,’ I think it was very well received.
I don’t think it helped him or hurt him in the end.”
The counter-argument to why Booker has hurt himself, according to a number of Democratic operatives, is simple: he’s black and will pick up nearly every African-American vote, he can raise infinite sums of money, and he’s a terrific and tireless campaigner who has made good use of social media to grow his base of support. It’s the Obama playbook on a statewide stage.
Yet Kean pointed to what may have been the biggest problem for Booker out of last week — that his tortured-looking YouTube reversal of his “nauseating” remark, a nearly four-minute mea culpa in which he tried to stick with his original words while saying Romney’s Bain tenure is fair game — didn’t help someone trying to maintain a brand as a straight talker.
“The problem is he backtracked, so that makes him look like one of them, not one of us,” Kean said. “But I think the initial comments were on target. (I) don’t think they were critical of the president, they were critical of an ad strategy.” Booker’s aides did not return calls for comment.
Booker’s words on last Sunday’s “Meet the Press” provoked a week of national scrutiny never before faced by the mayor criticizing the first black president.
He became the first Democrat to question whether the president should be launching attacks on private equity — which invests in New Jersey pension funds, and the Democratic Party — and was soon followed by other Democrats, such as ex-Rep. Harold Ford, and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Ed Rendell.
Although Democrats quickly piled on Booker — including Obama himself, stating clearly the Bain attacks would continue — Republicans embraced Booker as an ally. The GOP launched an “I Stand with Cory” campaign, and Romneyland has repeatedly emailed out his money quote, that the Bain attacks are part of a “nauseating” pattern of negativity in national politics.
It’s just a matter of time before Booker stars in a future Romney campaign ad, containing some version of this sentence: “Even Obama ally Cory Booker believes the Bain attacks are wrong…”
The two-term mayor, who’s in his early 40s, is at a crossroads in terms of his political future. A rising star for a decade, his chances for statewide office may start to dim if he doesn’t make a move soon.
Andrew Tisch, whose family runs the Loews Corp. and who is a major Booker donor himself, insisted that the mayor leaves this week in good shape, and is not running out of time.
“He’s 42 years old!” Tisch said. “When you say, name the great mayors in the United States, you start with Bloomberg, you go to (Rahm) Emanuel, you get to (Antonio) Villaraigosa, and then you get to Booker. He’s on the top of everybody’s tongue, and he’s made a hell of a name for himself at a very young age — and he’s one of the few people I’ve ever met in politics who has patience.”
But the “young gun/rising star” brand tends to have a shelf life.
“The challenge for Cory is, how many years can he keep his brand fresh and still be a viable statewide candidate,” said one Democratic operative.
One option is to run for a third term as Newark mayor, a city where he’s become famous for engaging with his citizens on Twitter, showing up to shovel people’s yards during a blizzard in 2010 and recently performing heroics during a building fire.
But Booker’s national presence and his social media prowess belies the fact that his own numbers in his city have not improved in recent years, and neither have some of the key indicators of urban success, most notably the perennial Newark crime scourge.
Crime statistics went down for his first years in office, but some rose again after the fiscal crisis. He only got about 59 percent of the vote in 2010 against a central rival who was soon after sentenced to prison.
He is not generally part of what one source called “the fabric of the Democratic party in New Jersey that wins elections.”
The $100 million investment that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg pledged to the Newark school system, during a famous Oprah Winfrey chat with Booker and Christie, is actually a matching grant. And while Booker has made major progress toward matching it, he hasn’t yet completed his end.
Booker’s close connections to donors across the river in New York City have given him an air of distance from his state, and while his ties to Christie have helped him nationally, they inspire some distrust among Democrats statewide.
Lautenberg, meanwhile, is, as one Democrat said, “no shrinking violet,” and he has the personal wealth to help fuel a bloody intraparty challenge.
Booker also has an insular circle, and tends to heed his own counsel — which is fine on a local level, but difficult to pull off more broadly.
What the mayor may have demonstrated in his Sunday show outing, said one Democrat, is this: “He may not be ready for prime time.”
Where Booker has been successful is as a communicator — he gives strong speeches, and was frequently deployed as a surrogate for Obama during the 2008 campaign.
“He’s a solid Democrat, but he’s built this (reputation) where he speaks his mind and is unafraid to speak is his mind,” said Republican operative Mike DuHaime, a top Christie adviser.
Kean raised the prospect of Booker becoming a Cabinet member in a second Obama administration if he doesn’t run for office again.
“There could be a number of Cabinet positions open, one of them might be attractive to him,” Kean said. “He could do what certain candidates have done in the past, these cable shows would love to have you. (A) number of ex-candidates who have done pretty well there.
There are a number of doors open to him if he wants to take them. He’s still an attractive, compelling candidate.”
But despite insisting that they welcomed the focus on the Bain debate, Obama aides were displeased with Booker. Several Democrats suggested he was more loyal to the donors who fund his campaigns and his education reform efforts than he was to the president, and that he simply showed where his sympathies really lie.
And Booker’s remarks helped muddy the message that Chicago was trying to deliver.
A second-term Obama administration may not inspire much more fear than the first-term one did. But there are ways that an incumbent president can make things difficult for an aspiring candidate.
Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf, who has handled New Jersey races, said that only time will tell whether Booker suffered damage this week — but that he can’t exist without the donors who would fund a statewide campaign.
“He did help himself with Wall Street,” Sheinkopf said. “You can’t buy TV ads with great compliments — you gotta pay cash.”
Despite a growing backlash from his fellow Democrats, President Obama has doubled down on his attacks on Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital. But the strategy could backfire in ways Obama did not anticipate. After all, if Romney’s record in private equity is fair game, then so is Obama’s record in public equity — and that record is not pretty.
Since taking office, Obama has invested billions of taxpayer dollars in private businesses, including as part of his stimulus spending bill. Many of those investments have turned out to be unmitigated disasters — leaving in their wake bankruptcies, layoffs, criminal investigations and taxpayers on the hook for billions. Consider just a few examples of Obama’s public equity failures:
● Raser Technologies. In 2010, the Obama administration gave Raser a $33 million taxpayer-funded grant to build a power plant in Beaver Creek, Utah. According to the Wall Street Journal, after burning through our tax dollars, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012. The plant now has fewer than 10 employees, and Raser owes $1.5 million in back taxes.
● ECOtality. The Obama administration gave ECOtality $126.2 million in taxpayer money in 2009 for, among other things, the installation of 14,000 electric car chargers in five states. Obama even hosted the company’s president, Don Karner, in the first lady’s box during the 2010 State of the Union address as an example of a stimulus success story. According to ECOtality’s own SEC filings, the company has since incurred more than $45 million in losses and has told the federal government, “We may not achieve or sustain profitability on a quarterly or annual basis in the future.”
Worse, according to CBS News the company is “under investigation for insider trading,” and Karner has been subpoenaed “for any and all documentation surrounding the public announcement of the first Department of Energy grant to the company.”
● Nevada Geothermal Power (NGP). The Obama administration gave NGP a $98.5 million taxpayer loan guarantee in 2010. The New York Times reported last October that the company is in “financial turmoil” and that “[a]fter a series of technical missteps that are draining Nevada Geothermal’s cash reserves, its own auditor concluded in a filing released last week that there was ‘significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.’ ”
● First Solar. The Obama administration provided First Solar with more than $3 billion in loan guarantees for power plants in Arizona and California. According to a Bloomberg Businessweek report last week, the company “fell to a record low in Nasdaq Stock Market trading May 4 after reporting $401 million in restructuring costs tied to firing 30 percent of its workforce.”
● Abound Solar, Inc. The Obama administration gave Abound Solar a $400 million loan guarantee to build photovoltaic panel factories. According to Forbes, in February the company halted production and laid off 180 employees.
● Beacon Power. The Obama administration gave Beacon — a green-energy storage company — a $43 million loan guarantee. According to CBS News, at the time of the loan, “Standard and Poor’s had confidentially given the project a dismal outlook of ‘CCC-plus.’ ” In the fall of 2011, Beacon received a delisting notice from Nasdaq and filed for bankruptcy.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. A company called SunPower got a $1.2 billion loan guarantee from the Obama administration, and as of January, the company owed more than it was worth. Brightsource got a $1.6 billion loan guarantee and posted a string of net losses totaling $177 million. And, of course, let’s not forget Solyndra — the solar panel manufacturer that received $535 million in taxpayer-funded loan guarantees and went bankrupt, leaving taxpayers on the hook.
Amazingly, Obama has declared that all the projects received funding “based solely on their merits.” But as Hoover Institution scholar Peter Schweizer reported in his book, “Throw Them All Out,” fully 71 percent of the Obama Energy Department’s grants and loans went to “individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party.” Collectively, these Obama cronies raised $457,834 for his campaign, and they were in turn approved for grants or loans of nearly $11.35 billion. Obama said this week it’s not the president’s job “to make a lot of money for investors.” Well, he sure seems to have made a lot of (taxpayer) money for investors in his political machine.
All that cronyism and corruption is catching up with the administration. According to Politico, “The Energy Department’s inspector general has launched more than 100 criminal investigations” related to the department’s green-energy programs.
Now the man who made Solyndra a household name says Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital “is what this campaign is going to be about.” Good luck with that, Mr. President. If Obama wants to attack Romney’s alleged private equity failures as chief executive of Bain, he’d better be ready to defend his own massive public equity failures as chief executive of the United States.
PRESIDENT OBAMA isn’t backing down from his campaign ad attacking Mitt Romney’s private equity firm, Bain Capital. Actually, “attack” may be too weak a description for a video that likens Bain to “a vampire” and depicts Mr. Romney as a plutocrat who callously destroyed hundreds of steel jobs for his own enrichment. Several prominent members of Mr. Obama’s own party thought the commercial was a bit over the top. (Not to mention highly derivative of previous ones financed by backers of Mr. Romney’s Republican primary rivals.)
Still, politics ain’t beanbag, and, if he’s going to tout it as a qualification for the White House, Mr. Romney’s business record is indeed fair game. The more pertinent question is what to make of Mr. Obama’s defense of the ad, which he offered at a news conference Monday.
Mr. Obama suggested that he never meant to condemn the private equity business as a whole. “I think there are folks who do good work in that area and there are times where they identify the capacity for the economy to create new jobs or new industries,” he noted. Instead, he added, he meant simply to point out that a career in private equity is not appropriate preparation for the White House. There’s a big difference between what it takes to “maximize profits,” a perfectly legitimate goal in the business world, and what it takes to “figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot,” which is the job of a president, he said.
On one level, it’s reassuring to learn that the president has a nuanced view of private equity, a business that has been rightly praised for revitalizing many a struggling enterprise — and rightly criticized for loading up many rescued firms with debt to pay off investors. Of course, those investors include public employee unions’ pension funds, which had entrusted $220 billion to private equity as of fall 2011, according to Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service.
The president accepted $3.5 million in campaign donations from private equity executives in 2008, and additional dollars this time around, so it would have been awkward for him not to concede that private equity does “good work.” As for the ad’s depiction of job destruction, economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research found that firms restructured by private equity suffered net job losses over five years only 1 percent greater than other comparable companies.
Yet the minute Mr. Obama conceded those complications — admitted, in effect, that the private equity business, like most endeavors, involves tradeoffs, and that its benefits might be shared among more than a handful of fat cats — he undercut his distinction between “maximizing profit” and the common good. He also undercut his case against Mr. Romney, since Bain had its share of success stories on the former Massachusetts governor’s watch.
What we’re left with is a president who seems content to present an even-handed view of private equity at his news conferences while propounding a much more tendentious one in his campaign advertising. Pointing out that a business career hasn’t fully prepared Mr. Romney to be president, in other words, is a long way from suggesting that he’s a vampire.
The Obama campaign ad attacking Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital was a shameless exaggeration but a brilliant political pivot. Instead of running on his record—where he is vulnerable to Mr. Romney—the president is making character the issue.
President Obama promised a lot when he ran for president—to fix the trade deficits with China and on oil, which together steal some five million jobs, curb the excesses at Wall Street banks, and curb escalating health care costs.
In perfectly choreographed fashion, the Bain ad characterized Mr. Romney as someone who bought up healthy businesses, loaded them with debt and then drove into bankruptcy—destroying jobs to enrich his private equity partners.
Cory Booker, the Democratic mayor of Newark, made headlines calling the ad “nauseating to the American public,” and that gave Mr. Obama the perfect opportunity to attack Mr. Romney, oh so effectively.
The president strongly defended the ad, stating Mitt Romney is running on his experience at Bain, not his record as governor of Massachusetts.
Then Mr. Obama took the opportunity to say a president can’t just worry about making a profit but rather a president must also worry about whether the country is investing in jobs today and in the future, cutting edge technology, and fairer tax system.
The president's surrogates may have backpedaled on their criticism of private equity, however, Mr. Obama brilliantly drew the contrast between his public career and Mr. Romney’s private pursuit of profit—that’s where he wants voters’ attention.
Most voters didn’t see, and certainly won’t remember the details of the Bain ad, but they will remember Mr. Obama’s goals—creating jobs, reorienting the economy and economic justice—and how Mr. Romney allegedly made his fortune—buying, borrowing, and burying jobs to get rich.
The facts are in the three years since Mr. Obama became president the trade deficit is up 40 percent, J.P. Morgan and other big banks are still running their Manhattan casinos, and health care costs keep rocketing.
It’s a lousy economy full of injustice, and Mr. Obama can’t easily claim to have made things better.
For several days the press coverage will be focused on the Bain ad and private equity, Mr. Obama’s goals and Mr. Romney’s character, and not on the incumbent’s record and the challenger’s solutions.
This is quite similar to the tactic employed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Each time bi-partisan consensus is reached to find money for a policy priority, like extending low interest student loans, he offers a bill to raise taxes on high-income Americans.
He knows Republicans will block such class warfare, and the president can then crow that he stands up for ordinary folk while Republicans stand up for the wealthy.
Yet, Mr. Romney is to blame for not turning the debate to the economy and his solutions. He has criticized the president’s record but not with the showmanship and skill of the Obama to Booker to Obama triple play.
Despite what pundits say about Mr. Booker's performance on "Meet the Press," Mayor Booker played the shill so well—he deserves an academy award for Best Supporting Actor.
More importantly, Mr. Romney by focusing on his private sector experience is not effectively explaining how his solutions on China, energy, banking, and health care will work, make a difference and create jobs.
Sadly, with each passing day, Mr. Romney looks like another hopeful from Massachusetts—John Kerry. Both dress up well, but under the intense lights of a national campaign, easily outwitted by a wily incumbent.
Sources: CBS News, Christian Science Monitor, Fox News, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps
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