McHenry Supports "Enron Loophole"

Today Congressman Patrick McHenry voted against providing Western North Carolina families with relief from high gas prices. Congressman McHenry voted against H.R. 6604, the Commodity Market Transparency and Accountability Act, which would crack down on excessive energy speculation that artificially drives up the cost of a barrel of oil.

Congressman McHenry, who has received $58,000 in campaign contributions from the energy industry, blocked a bill that would close the "Enron Loophole" that allows energy futures trading to avoid oversight by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The bill that Congressman McHenry voted against, which 61 Republicans supported, would also strengthen enforcement to prevent energy markets from being manipulated and to prosecute fraud.

"Instead of voting for a bipartisan plan to give Western North Carolina families a break at the pump, Congressman McHenry supported energy speculators," said Johnson. "In Congress, I will always take the side of our working families, not Big Oil and Wall Street."

Johnson outpolls McHenry on election day

Yup. Just this month, more more 10th District voters chose Daniel Johnson than incumbent Pat.

With only 60 percent of Democrats choosing him, Johnson received 41,076 votes. With more than 67 percent of 10th District Republicans backing McHenry, he still only got 34,457 votes. That's not looking so good, come fall, Patty-boy.

According to the NC state BOE website, there are 411,425 registered voters in NC-10. 147, 701 are registered Democratics, 178,085 are registered Republican and 85,639 are unafiliated.

Now it's up to you, Daniel Johnson

Lance Sigmon got creamed by sleazy Pat McHenry 67 to 32 Tuesday. BUT did anyone notice he almost beat our little man in the most populous county in the district?

Patrick McHenry (REP) 50.94% 7,038
Lance Sigmon (REP) 49.06% 6,778

And while Lance Sigmon might not help out the Democrats come November, it doesn't look like he'll be behind lil Pat either. From GoBlueRidge net:

“I’m not going to help them [Democrats] either, I’m just not going to endorse him [Patrick McHenry].

McHenry has already started throwing mud at our guy. This is from his website:

But Nancy Pelosi's chosen recruit, a trial lawyer from Raleigh, already has his pockets stuffed with cash from Washington liberals, and we know there will be more to come.

That didn't work next door in the eleventh in 06 but who knows, Pat, a lack of imagination never stopped you before, eh?

Here's Johnson's response:

"This is an untrue personal attack, and exactly the kind of politics that we in the 10th District are sick and tired of," said Johnson, "I am proud of my record serving the state of North Carolina as a prosecutor and standing up for the victims of violent crimes. I was encouraged to run by leaders from our community, and I look forward to serving my friends and neighbors in Washington."

The politics of division and the politics of fear are exactly what are keeping Congress from finding real solutions to the serious problems facing our community and our nation. The Johnson campaign looks forward to a campaign about the issues affecting our families in the 10th District--the rising cost of gasoline and healthcare, the need for new, high-paying jobs, and the care of our military men and women.

And talking about cash, Johnson had raised $217,062 and had $166,188 unspent by the mid-April reporting date. McHenry raised $871,846 during the same period. He spent $679,844 and had $325,663 in cash.

Go throw some money at Daniel, folks!

Sigmon better than McHenry, Barely...

So Pat finally agreed to debate Sigmon. Sigmon still gets points for not violating national security, but his answers in the debate held in Lincoln County make me question if this is an "out of the frying pan, into the fire" situation. You can see the answers to the debates in this Shelby Star article. I am especially concerned with Sigmon's answers about fighting universal health care. The article did not mention if he has another solution to the problem. I guess it is clear the only real answer is to vote for Daniel Johnson in November.

Things Look Bad for Pat

Things aren't going so well these days for the 10th's Pat McHenry, aka Patty McHorny (for those of us who like to get in some image framing with our news).

This started as a quick and easy short post but as the list grew and grew, I decided to present it in three parts. Starting with:

The Little Things

Yellow Brick Redux gave Patrick McHenry the Laziest Politician Award Gold for "Feeding at the Public Trough while accomplishing nothing." They noted that in the 110th Congress, Pat proposed one "feel-good" bill, four "bills that did something" and 6 amendments to bills. The poorest record for the entire NC state delegation to Congress.

Even Republicans like news@norman like Democratic opponent Daniel Johnson better.

Old time Lincoln Republican leader Jonas Harvey Jr. endorsed his primary opponent Lance Sigmon.

And last, but certainly not least, poor Pat lost 49 - 11 to Lance Sigmon Catwaba straw poll

Next in our series "Things Look Bad for Pat"

Part II: The National Situation for Republicans

"Photo Op" McHenry avoids debate with Iraq trip

I guess it's a good excuse to avoid debating a respected conservative opponent. And I suppose for security, he wasn't "allowed" to say where he'd be. But Democrat congressional candidate Daniel Johnson hit the nail on the head about Pat McHenry's recent publicity stunt to be seen with non-district troops in Iraq. From the Statesville Record & Landmark:

Hickory attorney Daniel Johnson, a Democratic candidate for McHenry’s seat, is not sure trips like this are necessary.

“I think a lot of politicians like to have their pictures taken with the soldiers in Iraq,” Johnson said.

Of course, Johnson, a decorated former Naval officer would know all about that . . .

“Iraq is one front on the war on terror,” he said. “And the question becomes, ‘Do we have enough troops and forces to deal with the other fronts?’ ”

Johnson said he believes the Taliban has been able to “re-establish a foothold” in Afghanistan.

“And al-Qaida, the people responsible for 9/11, are still out there,” he said.

Johnson said trips like the one made by McHenry are valuable only if “new” information can be gathered.

“But my concern is that too many politicians are going over there for the photo ops,” he said.

And why didn't McHenry go to Afghanistan? Not enough publicity boom for the risk? Those troops and those citizens have been virtually forgotten by both legislators and the press.

No word on the trip's cost to taxpayers, of course.

McHenry burns half a mil, out-monied by Johnson

According to his FEC filing, 10th District incumbent annoyance Pat McHenry has burned over a half million dollars in campaign cash before the primary season has even begun.

And if you count McHenry's outstanding $90,000 2004 debt against his cash on hand, he has less in campaign funds right now than challenger and political newcomer Daniel Johnson.

This cycle (since the 2006 election), McHenry has raised 610,000 and spent 571,000. And the money isn't coming in fast enough to keep up with his spending. He raised $140,000 in 2007's fourth quarter. According to the FEC reports, Daniel Johnson raised just under $124,000. Thing is, Johnson only spent $5,000 to raise that nice chunk of change and McHenry spent $135,000. Oops.

What's up Pat? Things not going so well? I’ve heard your staff and allies are deserting your sinking ship. So sad.


UPDATE: Oh and what's that nine grand for DC law firm, Wiley Rein LLC? I notice that other candidates don't keep a lawyer on retainer with campaign funds.

Crossposted at BlueNC and Scrutiny Hooligans.

CharO profiles DJ

Check it out:

"I wasn't really gunning for politics," the congressional candidate said in an interview during a visit here last week to meet with Democratic officials and old friends. "I had grown so disgusted with the status of politics in Washington in particular, I had ruled out in my mind any interest in pursuing elected office."

He changed his mind after being approached by folks in the community who were looking for a challenger to two-term Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican from Cherryville.

"My wife and I spent a lot of time thinking about it, praying about it," Johnson said. "We decided the country was facing some very serious challenges ahead of it, and that I could use my experience to help find some effective solutions."

I have to admit I like the coverage so far. Strange, since writer Lisa Zagaroli has a history of favoring the incumbent.

He has shown some early promise with his fundraising ability, having collected $123,000 in a few weeks.

She then appropriately mentions the overwhelming Republican majority in the district but Daniel has a good comeback:

"There's a lot of discontent in that district, just as there is nationwide," he said.

McHenry, he said, is part of the reason Washington manages to turn just about everything into a partisan issue -- health care for children, funding for the war and illegal immigration, as examples."His style of politics is an old style of politics that people are tired of, which is to be divisive, and to not come up with solutions but to bicker about the problems, to continue the inertia that has kept Washington from solving any of those problems," Johnson said."(He) is a huge part of stirring up that partisan rancor in Congress."

So far, so good, but now the article twists to the weird:

McHenry's press secretary, Wes Climer, said McHenry defends traditional family values.

Like when? When he attacked Nancy Pelosi for needing a larger plane than the previous speaker who lived much closer to DC? Or is Wes referrring to when he attacked bike-riders for being from the 19th century? Yeah, riding a bike is anti-family. Or maybe he's thinking back even earlier to when Pat he defended Representative Foley, stating quite clearly that the problem wasn't that Foley had had sex with pages but that the Democrats (out of power) somehow timed the disclosure for maximum value in election season.

Those are some family values, Pat. Good job, Wes.

"Some Washington politicians don't like the fact that Congressman McHenry won't accept the broken status quo, and it's telling that someone would criticize him for that," Climer said.

Criticize McHenry for being against the status quo? He would have to be against Bush and Rove and Tom Delay for that to be true and gee, Wes, it ain't. You're just digging a deeper hole, Wes. Maybe you should take some kind of remedial training in public relations. I hear the Wellstone Institute offers all kinds of campaign training. Oh, that's right, you'd have to actually care about people to be eligible for one of their classes.

As to Dear Lisa, if history is a predictor of the future, I bet she'll do plenty of McHenry articles without going to Johnson for a quote. Let's hope she proves us wrong. And that Daniel's spokesman has ethics and a brain.

Johnson raises $120,000

At least, that's what his campaign manager Lauren Moore told CharO. Why he puts them ahead of us, I have no idea. Since we all know how much they love the McHorny one.

But, there's no accounting for taste. And $120,000 is about ten times more than the 2004 Democratic candidate raised in her entire campaign and five times what the last candidate raised. So mazel tov, Daniel.

We'll confirm that once we see the FEC filing . . .

Hey, Lauren, don't forget to notify all the small newspapers in the district. There's two in Newland and then there's Spruce Pine and Morganton, Hickory, Lincoln, Shelby, Gastonia, Lenoir. (I've got links for LTEs along the left column) Most of them never ran his announcement so I wonder if anyone told them. But those are the places you need to contact if you want to reach your potential swing voters.

Not that many people read the Charlotte Observer compared to the local papers. And McHenry always gets his stuff in those little ones. They'll print pretty much anything you send them. If you send it and call them to confirm.

Don't expect the CharO to do you any favors. Lisa Z drinks McHenry's kool-aid. Just look her up. Every time he has a scandal, she writes a puff piece. When things get rough, she's going to screw you. Don't say you weren't warned.

Pat's popularity plummeting

From Public Policy Polling: An eight-point drop since August, head-to-head Patrick McHenry vs Daniel Johnson went from McHenry up 47-32 in August to 39-32 now.

McHenry's approval rating went from 53 to 43 against Johnson's steady 32.

McHenry's reelect numbers against Johnson went from 55/34 to 45/36.

Bottom line: McHenry's popularity is falling. Daniel Johnson's in good position to take the seat even before people know anything about him.

Support Daniel Johnson for Congress here.

Donate through ActBlue.

PPP's press release:

New Poll Shows McHenry’s Popularity Sliding

Raleigh, N.C. – A new survey by Public Policy Polling shows Democratic challenger Daniel Johnson within striking district of incumbent Patrick McHenry in North Carolina’s 10th District.

When respondents were given a description of Johnson, McHenry led him by a margin of only 39-32%. It is highly unusual for an incumbent to poll below 40%, particularly for a Republican congressman in a district as historically GOP leaning as the North Carolina 10th.

The poll also showed McHenry’s approval rating plummeting from a Public Policy Polling survey performed on behalf of the North Carolina Democratic Party in August. His approval is down to 43% in this week’s poll after registering at 53% in the August poll.

Additionally, while 55% of respondents to the August poll said they would vote to reelect McHenry only 45% of those surveyed this week said they would. “It’s clear that voters in the 10th Congressional District are having their doubts about Patrick McHenry,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “Daniel Johnson could be an extremely strong challenger next fall if he can effectively capitalize on the ambivalence that many folks in his district are having about Patrick McHenry,” said Debnam.

PPP surveyed 779 likely 10th District general election voters on December 11th. The survey has a margin of error of ± 3.5%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify.

Complete poll can be found at publicpolicypolling.com.

Mooresville visit pics; Daniel Johnson tours the district

Daniel Johnson poses with Fletcher McCrady on his 4th birthday.

Daniel Johnson's wife, Creecy, looks on with pride.

Photos by September McCrady.

Winning the 10th, how and why

How? We'll work on turnout in every single county. Why? Because we love our children.

Over 200 people showed up in Hickory yesterday to support Daniel Johnson's candidacy. Wooo hooo!! In his 10-county tour he was greeted by hundreds of residents of all political backgrounds, clamoring for chance.

But to achieve this change, we need everyone to work hard in every county. Burke, Cleveland and Catawba and Caldwell are obviously important. But even in small Republican counties every vote will help.

If you doubt what you can do to make a difference just watch this video from NCDP chair Jerry Meek. Substitute the name of your county for Richmond County and be inspired to do what you can to help:



Thanks for the vid to Bullydoc at BlueNC.

Friday: Daniel Johnson on 10-county tour

Hey folks, this will be fun. It's your first chance to press the flesh, ask questions, take photos, videos, etc. Well, if you're really quick about it!

From the campaign's press release:

Daniel Johnson Holds 10-County Announcement Tour

Johnson Will Travel to Every County in District to KickOff Campaign

Hickory, NC – Daniel Johnson announced today that he will travel to every county is North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District this Friday, November 9, 2007 to kickoff his campaign for U.S. Congress.

“This Friday, I will travel across the district to talk with voters about my campaign to represent the values of North Carolina with character and integrity,” said Johnson. “My decision to run for Congress is a continuation of my service to America and the people of North Carolina. As Veteran’s Day approaches, I am going to every county in the district to show the kind of bold leadership and bipartisan solutions I hope to bring to Congress.”

Mitchell County

9:30 am

Old County Courthouse

Main Street, Bakersville

Avery County :

10:30 am

Best Cellar Restaurant

3612 Mitchell Avenue, Linville

Caldwell County

11:30 am

Lenoir Library

120 Hospital Avenue, Lenoir

Catawba County :

12:20

Town Square, Hickory

Iredell County :

1:45 pm

Mooresville Town Hall
413 North Main Street, Mooresville

Lincoln County

2:30 pm

East Lincoln Community Center

8160 Optimist Club Rd. , Denver

Gaston County :

3:30 pm

VFW Post 5200

125 Fish Camp Rd. , Cherryville

Cleveland County :

4:15 pm

Old Courthouse

Court Square, Shelby

Rutherford County :

5:00 pm

County Courthouse

229 N Main Street , Rutherfordton

Burke County :

6:00 pm

Old Courthouse

Downtown Morganton

Johnson announcement coverage roundup

The headline for the Hickory Daily Record:

Hickory Navy hero enters congressional race

And you've gotta like their lead:

A Hickory military hero officially embarked on a congressional campaign Wednesday.

The Raleigh N&O stepped back into Republican framing:

Former sailor, assistant DA announces run for McHenry's seat

A sailor? Since when does a military hero get downgraded to sailor? Oh, right, when the "mainstream" media is talking about a Democrat, of course.

CharO did one step better than their Raleigh cousin:

Ex-Wake prosecutor, a Hickory native, known for saving fellow sailor

Carolina Politics Online's lead:

Pledging to represent the values of North Carolina with character and integrity, Daniel Johnson announced today that he is running to represent North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District in the United States Congress.

And from the North Carolina Democratic Party:

Daniel Johnson served in the United States Navy from 1998-2000, receiving the Navy Marine Corps Medal, the Navy's highest peacetime award for heroism. For the past three years, Daniel Johnson served as an assistant district attorney in North Carolina. As a prosecutor, he began by prosecuting charges of DWI and other misdemeanors and rose to prosecute a wide range of felony cases that included drug trafficking, robbery, and murder.

“I will be a leader who is part of the solution in Washington, not part of the problem. I promise to rise above the divisive politics that have plagued our government for too long, and focus on representing the values and priorities of North Carolina,” Johnson continued. “This means making sure our kids have the heath care they deserve, our families and small businesses get the tax breaks they need, and our veterans are taken care of when they return home.”

Daniel Johnson earned an undergraduate and law degree from the University of North Carolina, where he met his wife, Creecy. He currently resides in his hometown of Hickory.

This is just a sample. Google Daniel Johnson and comment (where possible) on the article to let people know how excited we are about our candidate!!!!

The fun is just beginning folks.

It's official: Johnson announces!!!!

Jerimee has it at BlueNC.

“Running for Congress is a continuation of my service to America and the people of North Carolina,” said Johnson. “I look around the area I grew up in, and see people struggling with keeping their jobs, affording their health care and just making ends meet. It is time for a new brand of leadership – one that the people of this district can be proud of. I have the character and the experience needed to be an effective representative for my state.”

Dan Johnson, the 10th's next representative

From BlueNC by DharmaPup:

Daniel Johnson ... the next representative from the 10th district? God/Allah/YHWH/Shiva willing. Some interesting info from the Denver Post from some time back tells a little bit of his story:

Johnson joined the Navy to see the world, and this certainly was a good start. The USS Blue Ridge was being pulled from port by tugboat at Pusan, South Korea, last August when Daniel spotted one of his men in trouble. Seaman Steven Wright, 21, of Pine Bluff, Ark., was working the large cables connecting the tugboat with the ship and had become entangled. The tugboat began pulling Wright toward a small hole in the ship's side. That could have ripped him apart.

An official "summary of action" report noted that seven other personnel were on the scene but only Ensign Johnson rushed to the seaman's aid. When Johnson tried to loosen the cable from Wright's leg, his own legs got caught.

Each survived. However, Wright lost a foot and four fingers. Johnson lost his lower legs below the knee for his actions.

On September 24th, 1999, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Johnson received the Navy/Marine Corp Medal (photo) for his actions.

"It says a lot about him that he didn't hesitate. He just wanted to save the guy's life even if it meant risking his," Will Johnson said. "That was one of his men. That's what he was thinking about."

Here's another interesting article from All Hands, the magazine of the US Navy.

I'm just wondering how that great warrior and military hero Patrick McHenry (the hyperinflated little fart) will try to swiftboat Johnson if/when he runs. It'll happen ... shades of an AWOL Texas National Guard pilot calling a decorated Vietnam veteran unpatriotic. If he does step in (and I'm hopeful), he'll need all the help NC Dems can give.

Still, Johnson's own comment about his experience of recovering from his injuries seems to fit what he'll face if/when he runs against Patty:

"I now have more determination to focus on things that I didn't have before the accident," Johnson said. "Everyone has challenges you don't think you can overcome, but if you maintain a positive attitude and work toward it, life will turn out normal."