Karl Rove coming to Western North Carolina!

Mark your calendars. In a move of obvious and excessive desperation, the Republicans of the 11th District are scraping the bottom of the political barrel and dragging disgraced (and disgusting) political hack extraordinaire Karl Rove to their convention April 28. West Henderson High School.

And, for some bizarre reason, they tapped WNCNN's Mad Miss Mattie to make the announcement. I'm shocked. Check it out. She's disgusting.

Church campaign manager joins Hackney's staff

Our own Thomas Doyle, who worked so tirelessly down in the Morganton HQ for Walt Church's successful reelection to the house, has joined the staff of new House Speaker Joe Hackney.

Thomas' job title is assistant for special projects. We'll be sure to interview him soon about his experiences.

He's originally from the coast so his time in Morganton was a somewhat of a culture-shock. (You know, white slaw instead of red.) Last I heard he was "meeting all kinds of amazing people." Congratulations, Thomas!

NC air quality second worst in country

Thanks to the AsheVillein for this write-up:

The North Carolina Public Interest Research Group released a study this week which places North Carolina second, behind Ohio, for the highest level of power plant pollutants released into the air in 2004. Come on, Progress. Come on Duke. We can do better. Number 2 is the first loser, right guys?



The 65-page report is long on detail and begins,

Every day in America, industrial facilities release millions of pounds of toxic substances into the nation’s air and water. Many Americans – especially those who live in close proximity to industrial facilities –harbor deep concern about how those toxic releases may affect their health.

Harbor deep concern about those toxic releases affecting their health. Go figure. I mean, it's not like we have County Commissioners and power companies making secret deals to build just such industrial facilities upwind from cities... oh, wait, here in Buncombe County we do. And it is not like industry would lie about their ambitions and facts about their pollution... oh wait, they do that too.

I guess then we should harbor deep concern then.

Of course, it could be worse, it can always be worse. We could be in Texas, where G. W. Bush had more time to mess things up than he has in the rest of the USA.

Okay, you say, we also are not as bad as Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama, but is that a goal to which we wish to aspire?

The report also breaks out the North Carolina data by itself. I have just begun going over it and will be back later with an update.

This is gonna hurt some people's careers.

What is Going On?

I want to know what is going on in the counties of the 10th District. The early movement into the Presidential Campaign has a lot of political activity going on many levels. Are there any counties recruiting for seats they know will be open in 2008? Do you have any ideas about finding new, exciting candidates? Please, help bring me up to speed so I can know which races to watch for '08!!

County Conventions next month (updated twice)

Below is the information provided by the North Carolina Democratic Party on upcoming county conventions in the 10th Congressional district. Click on any name to email.

Note: the new time for Catawba County is 2 p.m. Cleveland County's is at noon.

Avery County: TBA

Burke County: April 21, 1 p.m. (eat at noon) at the Cooperative Extension Building off of Enola Road, (above the Sheriff's department) Morganton. Contact: Jess Crowder, 828-397-6388

Caldwell County: April 21, 11 a.m., City/County office Building, Lenoir. (BBQ lunch to follow.) Contact: Steve Potter, 828-758-9806

Catawba County: April 21, NEW TIME: 2 p.m., 1924 Courthouse, Newton. Contact: Dan Green, 828-324-4943

Cleveland County: April 21, 12 noon, at the Cleveland County Office Building Auditorium, 130 S. Post Rd., Shelby. Contact: Betsy Wells, 704-739-1545.

Gaston County: April 14, 10 a.m. at the Department of Social Services Building (across from the courthouse), Gastonia. Contact Mel Black,: 704-435-0753.

Iredell County: April 14, 1 p.m. at the Hall of Justice, 201 E. Water St., Statesville. Contact: Gene Mahaffey, 704-592-5521. Speaker: Dan Besse, candidate for Lt. Governor

Lincoln County: April 14, 10 a.m., Lincoln County Democratic Headquarters in Lincolnton, Contact: Patsy Black, 704-483-3908.

Mitchell County: April 14, 9:30 a.m. Mitchell County Board of Education, School Road, Ledger, Contact: Doug Sudduth, 828-688-2399.

Rutherford County: April 21, 10 a.m. at Party Headquarters, 142 W. Main, Forest City. Contact: Keith Price, 828-248-1638.

Tune in, turn on, strategize

If you were the Democratic Party, eager to win back the White House, where would you aim your expenditures of time and money? Does it make sense to write off an entire region of the country – OUR region?

That’s the topic of a debate that will air Sunday at 7 p.m. on Winston-Salem’s NPR affiliate, WFDD 88.5 FM. Tune in or jump online and get the live streaming audio of the 90-minute debate at WFDD.org.

Crux of the arguments:

Tom Schaller, author of the book Whistling Past Dixie, argues that in the past several cycles, expenditures in the South have not paid off – notably Kerry in VA and TN and Gore in WV and TN. Focusing entirely on other regions, especially the West, is a winning strategy.

Bob Moser, writer for The Nation magazine and author of its article “The Way Down South,” argues that the Democratic Party is being transformed and reconfigured in the South and we are making progress; Howard Dean’s organizational model is paying off, as proven by our U.S. Senate win in Virginia.

Delmas Parker, NCDP Second Vice-Chair, (pictured with NCDP Chair Jerry Meek) argues that we are seriously cracking the nut right here in NC. We’ve reorganized and energized the Party and our victories in Republican Western NC in ’06 are a harbinger of success.

Read how events conspired through BlueNC to set up the debate

A class act

Hearing Thursday’s news about Elizabeth Edwards immediately took me back to November 2003 when I learned firsthand what a wonderful person she is.

With two vanloads of volunteers, mostly from Western NC, we were enroute to New Hampshire to spend a week knocking doors and phoning voters in advance of the nation’s first primary. We stopped overnight in Arlington, VA and got up early to hand out Edwards literature to Virginians before continuing on our way. It was snowing hard.

We knew it was a longshot, but we had requested that Elizabeth Edwards meet us bright and early outside a subway stop to join us for two hours greeting commuters (and potential voters in the February Virginia primary). We got an aide’s call that the Senator’s wife was stuck in their snowy driveway and might or might not make it.

But sure enough, a half hour later there she was, having apparently shoveled her car out herself. “I wasn’t going to miss a group of North Carolinians up here for a visit,” she said, “especially on their way to New Hampshire.” She spent the next hour and a half as cold as we were, greeting with a smile the often-surly subway riders.

When we ran low on literature, I distinctly remember her digging into a nearby trashcan, where lots of people had immediately ditched the fliers. “I don’t normally rummage through trashcans,” she said, “but these are still perfectly good.” Then she handed the same fliers out again, to more surly commuters.

Elizabeth Edwards is a class act, with a huge heart, tremendous intelligence, and lots of moxie. In my current role with the Party I can’t favor candidates in primaries. But I’ve seen nothing about favoring their spouses. I vote for Elizabeth Edwards and always will.

Photos by Pat Crawford.