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Monday, March 22, 2010
North Carolina's Blue Dogs
On passage of H.R.3590 (219-212), North Carolina Democrats Mike McIntyre, Heath Shuler, and Larry Kissell all voted with the Republicans. Those no votes won't earn them any support from Republicans come November, while driving away their own base.
Kissell, particularly, can ill afford losing his base ... unless, of course, the Republicans actually nominate Machine Gun Tim D'Annunzio to run against him.
Shuler ... who knows? Haven't seen any Republican challenger among those running in the primary who looks like a winner.
McIntyre ... he's been voting with the Republicans so long he's barely indistinguishable from ... Howard Coble.
Kissell, particularly, can ill afford losing his base ... unless, of course, the Republicans actually nominate Machine Gun Tim D'Annunzio to run against him.
Shuler ... who knows? Haven't seen any Republican challenger among those running in the primary who looks like a winner.
McIntyre ... he's been voting with the Republicans so long he's barely indistinguishable from ... Howard Coble.
Labels: health care, Health Shuler, Howard Coble, Larry Kissell, Mike McIntyre, Tim D'Annunzio
Friday, February 26, 2010
Elections Filing Update
Filing to run on the ballots of 2010 ended today at noon. Billy Kennedy does not have a Democratic primary, but Virginia Foxx has one on the Republican side.
Someone else filed to run in the Republican primary against Little Patty McHenry in the NC-10 ... David Michael Boldon. Two will be vying on the Democratic side to oppose the eventual winner of the Republican contest (who will be McHenry, we've said all along). We'll be trying to find out about these Democrats: Jeff Gregory and Anne Fischer.
Heath Shuler in the NC-11 has a Democratic primary opponent -- Aixa Wilson. Whole bunch of panic-stricken extras running in the 11th Dist. in the Republican primary.
Previously noted: Larry Kissell has a primary in the NC-8.
What's going on among Republicans in the NC-6? Poor old thousand-year-old Howard Coble has five primary opponents, which, as in the 10th, means he wins.
Someone else filed to run in the Republican primary against Little Patty McHenry in the NC-10 ... David Michael Boldon. Two will be vying on the Democratic side to oppose the eventual winner of the Republican contest (who will be McHenry, we've said all along). We'll be trying to find out about these Democrats: Jeff Gregory and Anne Fischer.
Heath Shuler in the NC-11 has a Democratic primary opponent -- Aixa Wilson. Whole bunch of panic-stricken extras running in the 11th Dist. in the Republican primary.
Previously noted: Larry Kissell has a primary in the NC-8.
What's going on among Republicans in the NC-6? Poor old thousand-year-old Howard Coble has five primary opponents, which, as in the 10th, means he wins.
Labels: Aixa Wilson, Billy Kennedy, David Michael Boldon, Heath Shuler, Howard Coble, Larry Kissell, Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Clown Car
At the moment, Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell (NC-8) has only one filed Republican opponent, Tim D'Annunzio, with several others supposedly waiting in the wings to file. For the time being Mr. D'Annunzio will do nicely for the entertainment.
D'Annunzio plans a "Machine Gun Social" fundraiser at a local gun shop in Fayetteville this Thursday. For $25 (cheap!) you get to fire a machine gun until the bullets run out. No word on what the target will be.
After Jim Morrill publicized this event in the Charlotte Observer, over 70 comments came pouring in, some funny, some rude, many signed "Anonymous." D'Annunzio went ballistic over "Anonymous," posting in the same comment thread under his own name:
Interestingly, D'Annunzio has been posting anonymously since last May on his own blog, "Christ's War." Posting anonymously until today, that is. If you look at what he put up early this a.m., for the first time he uses his own name.
D'Annunzio's coming out from behind the "Anonymous" device owes a good deal, we suspect, to Laura Leslie's outing his blogging ways yesterday on Isaac Hunter's Tavern. Leslie's opening is priceless (and the whole thing, a must read):
So ... who else does the Republican Party have to offer in this race?
D'Annunzio plans a "Machine Gun Social" fundraiser at a local gun shop in Fayetteville this Thursday. For $25 (cheap!) you get to fire a machine gun until the bullets run out. No word on what the target will be.
After Jim Morrill publicized this event in the Charlotte Observer, over 70 comments came pouring in, some funny, some rude, many signed "Anonymous." D'Annunzio went ballistic over "Anonymous," posting in the same comment thread under his own name:
...Hiding behind these web sites as "anonymous" is the same as hiding under a the white hood, COWARDS. You wouldn't dare say these things to my face, but I wouldn't have any trouble telling you this same thing to yours, if you dared.
Interestingly, D'Annunzio has been posting anonymously since last May on his own blog, "Christ's War." Posting anonymously until today, that is. If you look at what he put up early this a.m., for the first time he uses his own name.
D'Annunzio's coming out from behind the "Anonymous" device owes a good deal, we suspect, to Laura Leslie's outing his blogging ways yesterday on Isaac Hunter's Tavern. Leslie's opening is priceless (and the whole thing, a must read):
"I don't know anything about that," Tim D'Annunzio's press flack Lauren Slepian told me this afternoon. Finding out from someone else that your candidate has a personal blog does not generally make for a good day. Finding out from a reporter is even worse.
So ... who else does the Republican Party have to offer in this race?
Labels: Larry Kissell, Tim D'Annunzio
Friday, February 05, 2010
Long Way Down
The dangers of losing your base: "The woman who chaired Democratic U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell's two congressional campaigns has turned against him. Dannie Montgomery, a teacher from Anson County who served as first vice chair of the N.C. Democratic Party, said in a news release that Kissell 'has turned his back on the grassroots supporters who propelled him to office.' ..."Kissell has drawn at least one Democratic primary challenger, writer Nancy Shakir of Fayetteville.
Labels: Larry Kissell, Nancy Shakir
Monday, January 18, 2010
Kissell's Vote Against Health Care
Myron Pitts writes in the Fayetteville Observer under the headline "Kissell's no on health care reform hasn't hurt him." Pitts is basing that take on Public Policy Polling results that show Kissell ahead by double digits of all his potential Republican opponents.
The most interesting factoid from that poll, however, is that some 44 percent of those polled, a plurality, "believe Kissell did indeed vote for the [House] bill."
Now that's a wrinkle! What does it mean that Kissell is winning among people who think he voted for insurance reform? What happens when they find out he didn't vote for the only bill that actually offers some reform?
Dunno.
The most interesting factoid from that poll, however, is that some 44 percent of those polled, a plurality, "believe Kissell did indeed vote for the [House] bill."
Now that's a wrinkle! What does it mean that Kissell is winning among people who think he voted for insurance reform? What happens when they find out he didn't vote for the only bill that actually offers some reform?
Dunno.
Labels: health care, Larry Kissell
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Never a Good Idea
It's Politics 101: Never appear to waffle.So we experienced one of those head-slapping moments just now, brought on by too much waffle ingestion. NC-8 Congressman Larry Kissell, he who voted against the House health-insurance reform bill in November (one of 39 Democrats who did so), is quoted today in the Charlotte Observer as liking the House reform bill much better than the Senate "reform" bill, which is especially galling now that the Obama White House has signaled very clearly that it wants the Senate bill and not the House bill, so what difference does Kissell's inconsistent druthers and his voting record make anyway?
"I happen to think the House bill is better," sez Kissell.
Whattya gonna do with hind-sight like that?
Labels: health care, Larry Kissell
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Larry Kissell's Possible Primary Opponent
Larry Kissell, the first-term Democrat representing the NC-8, voted against the health insurance bill which the U.S. House passed and which is several light years better than the hardened turd favored by Joe Lieberman and Barack Obama in the Senate.Kissell has been in trouble with his Democratic base in the NC-8 ever since.
There's a movement to recruit lawyer Chris Koury to run against Kissell in the 2010 primary, and no less than the chair of the Mecklenburg Democrats is cheering Koury on.
There's going to be a lot more of this sort of primary activity if the Democrats in the U.S. Senate get their way with what they are currently proposing as "reform" of health insurance.
Labels: Barack Obama, Chris Koury, health care, Joe Lieberman, Larry Kissell
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Republicans Have Them a Celeb To Run Against Kissell
Well known and now retired Charlotte sportscaster Harold Johnson sez he's just the empty suit to take on Larry Kissell in the NC-8.Johnson's got the time. Johnson's got the hair. Johnson's got the smile. He's THE PERFECT Republican, all hat and no cattle.
Now, Kissell's got his own problems these days with his base, but he's also got time to make some repairs to those bridges.
And Johnson, a teleprompter-reading celebrity in the rah-rah sports arena, might be our choice for an opponent, if we were running the Kissell reelection campaign. Anyone remember famous race-car driver Richard Petty's run against Elaine Marshall in 1996? It actually takes a little more than (totally unqualified) TV notoriety to get into office.
Oops
Inadvertently lost the link to the Jim Morrill story in today's Charlotte Observer.
Labels: Harold Johnson, Larry Kissell
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Kissell Has Some 'Splainin' To Do
Rep. Larry Kissell is North Carolina's newest representative in Congress, elected in 2008 from the NC-8 (which includes all the counties on the South Carolina border, from the eastern suburbs of Charlotte to Cumberland County and Fayetteville). Most analysts agree that Kissell won his seat against the wealthy Republican Robin Hayes partly on Barack Obama's coattails, since Obama carried the district.Which makes Kissell's vote against the House's "Affordable Health Care for America Act" last Saturday very puzzling. Make that "very maddening," since Kissell was elected on the strength of progressive activism and was thought to be an actual Democrat, as opposed to NC representatives Mike McIntyre (NC-7) and Heath Shuler (NC-11), the Blue Dogs who owe some secret, shadowy allegiance to the political power cult known as "The Family."
For his part, Kissell has been ducking comment since Saturday, while his constituents are pouring on some heat. A group of protestors organized by the Cumberland County Progressives stood in the rain outside Kissell's Fayetteville office yesterday, holding up wet signs that said "Blow the Whistle on Larry Kissell" and "Give Kissell a Big Dismissal." (Rhymes are apparently still the preferred genre for political protests.)
"In the 8th District, we only have one voice in Congress, and that one voice voted against us," said a spokesman for the group. "We're upset that Kissell has been elected -- and really by the coattails of President Obama -- to represent a district where a lot of people need health care," said the president of the local NAACP. "And he didn't vote for it. That bothers me."
Labels: Barack Obama, health care, Larry Kissell
Friday, March 06, 2009
Disappointment Over Larry Kissell
The U.S. House voted yesterday 239-191 to pass H.R.1106, Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, written "To prevent mortgage foreclosures and enhance mortgage credit availability."Some 24 Democrats voted against the bill. Based on his developing track record, we fully expected that one of those 24 Democrats would have been Heath Shuler, The Blue Meanie. But, no. Shuler voted for it. So did Republican Walter Jones.
Voting against it were all the rest of the N.C. Republican delegation and ... Democrat Larry Kissell, newly elected last fall.
We've been searching for much of the day for any on-the-record explanation from Kissell of why he voted against the bill. Haven't seen anything. We have seen, however, angry reactions from some of the folks over at BlueNC. Kissell often posted at BlueNC while he was running against Robin Hayes, and at least one poster is calling for him to come on back and 'splain his vote.
He needs to do that.
Labels: BlueNC, Heath Shuler, Larry Kissell, mortgage crisis
