Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Locally Speaking 2.0

So let's talk about the NC senate race. There are four democrats who are interested in taking on  the Joker Elizabeth Dole. 

The one you have probably heard the most about is Kay Hagan. A current state senator, Hagan shares her stances on the budget, education, energy/environment, health care, immigration, the military and national security on her Web site. A few highlights: budget-wise she talks of working toward balancing our national budget; on the environment she wants to push for water conservation to help with drought problems like NC has had; under health care, she would push for extending coverage for all children; on military issues, she is the aunt of two current military members and is for the recent GI bill.

The next candidate is John Ross Hendrix. A former Republican who apparently got fed up with the GOP and switched sides, he kind of comes off on his Web site as a crackpot. But don't just take my word for it, see for yourself—under his long list of issues on his home page he has one for conspiracy theory. He calls it the Troll Conspiracy. Methinks this isn't going to get him a lot of votes. While I think he is just kidding, what I read of his site sounds like the rantings of my dad, amusing, but not necessarily the sort of thing that gets one elected.

Next we have Duskin Lassiter. There doesn't seem to be any personal info on his Web site (listen I don't need to know what brand of toothpaste someone uses, but I like to know what they do, etc.). He does link from each issue page to a 12-page manifesto of sorts detailing all his stands and at the very end mentions he is a self-employed, working class individual (and no I didn't read the whole 12 pages).  Overall, the site itself looks a little home made, and what he lays out on it a bit simplistic. He may be a great guy, but I don't think he has a serious chance from the looks of this.

Finally we have Jim Neal. He's an MBA, money-type and if you are looking for an impressive Web site, his is it (he looks like a TV anchor). He seems to be the only real competition for Hagan. On his site he links to some articles that are very critical of Hagan and basically say she is a Republican in Democratic clothing. On his issues page he talks about his opponent but I was confused about whether he meant Dole or Hagan.  He doesn't seem to say much about the actual mechanics of what he would do on the issues, such as health care, economic security, Iraq and energy independence. He does go on quite a bit about entrepreneurship in the state though. Some of the stuff I read about him compared him to John Edwards in terms of his stance on things. Speaking of personal info, apparently he is openly gay.

Oh hell. Apparently there are two others as well, the News-Record.com didn't list them, but a link from a recent Channel 14 Carolina story mentions Hagan, Neal, Lassiter and then Howard Staley and Marcus W. Williams. Uncle, people, Uncle! Look them up yourselves if you care.

2 comments:

Rev Wes Isley said...

Kay Hagan all the way! She's experienced (why do some people think it's better to go to Washington with no clue as to how anything works?) and she's also polite and friendly--which means a lot to me. I met her several years ago, and she actually came up to me and a few friends on her own and introduced herself. That impressed me.

Jim Neal has a special place in my heart of hearts if only because he's a "sister." And my hippie, peacenik heart skips a beat when he talks of ending the Iraq war "immediately." But NC is NOT going to elect an out gay man to the Senate, and I think his stance on the war is naive.

So Kay's got my vote.

broad minded said...

while i would also love to elect a gay man as senator, i want someone who can actually stand a chance of winning in NC against the joker and gay, unfortunately, ain't gonna cut it yet.