Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) is taking the extra step against state House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-NC), the frontrunner and expected GOP nominee in the North Carolina Senate race, and sending mailers to Republican voters quoting Tillis calling Obamacare a “great idea.”
The mailers, reported by The Washington Post, were sent out to Republican voters over the last week ahead of Tuesday’s North Carolina Republican primary. The attack strategy is a clear attempt to turn voters off to Tillis by painting him as less than staunchly opposed to Obamacare (a grave sin in Republican primaries).
Tillis is considered by observers to be the stronger general election candidate again Hagan, and the mailers suggest the Hagan camp thinks so, too. Or at least the Hagan camp would prefer to see Tillis endure a runoff rather than win the nomination outright. Tillis needs to get 40 percent support to avoid a runoff and clinch the GOP nomination. The most recent polls of the race have shown Tillis with a comfortable lead above 40 percent in the primary.
Hagan deflected questions by the Post about whether she’s trying to spoil the primary.
“Every [Republican] candidate has a fringe agenda —I’ll let the primary voters Tuesday decide who my actual opponent will be,” Hagan told the Post.
The only information the Hagan campaign offered is that the mailers were sent out statewide.
The Hagan campaign has repeatedly hit Tillis on the remark. Back in February, in an interview on the Bill Lumaye Show, Tillis said that Obamacare is a “great idea that can’t be paid for.” Since then Democrats have repeatedly argued that despite Tillis saying otherwise, he still thinks Obamacare is a “great idea.”
See a copy of the mailer, obtained by TPM, below:
This post was updated.
By any legal means necessary.
The NY Times and PPP (D) found Hagen leading by 2 points 43 to 41. That’s certainly strength in polling.
This is the full quote from Tom Tillis, “The majority of the stuff that is in Obamacare is bad, because it’s not fiscally sustainable. It’s a great idea that can’t be paid for.”
I have been informed (by some Dominicans, no less) that there is excellent work being done in North Carolina in pushing back against the ALEC governor (McCrory) and his Bag Of Goons (NC State Legislature). William Barber and the NAACP come to mind. “Moral Mondays” come to mind. Seems that some Tar Heels are getting up to speed on the fight against fracking. And other GOP initiatives. Aasif Mandvi of the Daily Show did a number on the doofus (who had to subsequently resign) who could not seem to fathom that one cannot say on national television what can be uttered in the confines of Teabagg meetings.
In the post Civil Rights era, North Carolina has escaped much of the derision reserved for the Deep South–although NC has had its Heavy Hitters of Racism throughout its history.
But prior to the McCrory and Bag Of Goons ascension to Power, North Carolina, for the past 40 years or so, has basked in the glow of its scenic beauty, its world class univeristies (Duke, etc.), its hoops prowess (the ACC), the world famous Research Triangle and Charlotte’s fame as a banking hub. Not to mention Cary, North Carolina (C.oncentrated A.rea of R.eplanted Y.ankees)
The one NC political denizen we are all familiar with as bad news (Jesse Helms) has, through the years, been overshadowed by such personages as Terry Sanford, Jim Hunt, David Price and others. Even ANDY OF MAYBERRY put NC in a favourable, friendly light.
But the McCrory batch of ALECS has, in the space of a couple of years, engendered more scorn thrown North Carolina’s way than has come in the previous 50 years.
From what people who live in NC tell me, the 2012 ALEC success (a Gubernatorial and State Legislative knockout such as not seen in about 100 years) may have been the result of “low turnout”.
“Low turnout”…did all of that.
If that is the case, North Carolinians with I.Q.'s above room temperature had better step it up…because 2014 and 2016 are the last election cycles that the Right has a chance to stamp its permanent mark on the state.
This is what I like to see - a dem on offense.
Kicking butt and taking names. Democrats who have spines in 2014.