Bev Perdue BlueNC Debate Thread

Thank you again for joining us. The debate officially begins at 7:45. In the next few minutes, please take your time and think through our first question:

Many progressive voters are unhappy with North Carolina's tradition of back-room deals. What actions will you take to challenge the good-old-boy system that permits powerful politicians to put special interests ahead of citizen interests?

Specifically, how will you use technology to create more advantages for North Carolina citizens?

Approximately 600 nc residents were denied admission to Unc-CH so that approximately 18% of the enrollees could be from out of state. Is this sound policy and if not, what would you do to change it?

The debate is officially on!

Hi, it’s really exciting to be on the first online debate in North Carolina history. Welcome to the 21st century. Thanks for inviting us and I am ready to take your questions.

Look at Cost Of Gas alone today,,then Look back at just How Little State Employees have got in last 5 years

I'm going to stick with the questions that James will be posting. I look forward to reading your responses.

One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Just in case you missed it:

Many progressive voters are unhappy with North Carolina's tradition of back-room deals. What actions will you take to challenge the good-old-boy system that permits powerful politicians to put special interests ahead of citizen interests?

Specifically, how will you use technology to create more advantages for North Carolina citizens?

I live in Wilson County and the school system here is in bad shape. Why is there no accountability from the State on the Local Board of Education? What would you do Perdue and Moore to fix this?

I would like to know if you are going to seriously consider repealing the Death Penalty in North Carolina by personally reviewing every Death Row case ?

One state will become THE leader in the Green Economy, known worldwide for its forward-looking policies for alternative energy. Are you prepared to make North Carolina that state? How?

I was wondering if you had any thoughts you would like to share on the Workers Compensation system here in North Carolina. Many small business owners are feeling the pinch. Employers rarely, if ever, win favorable decisions at the Industrial Commission, and its getting harder to get people back to work. Couple that with medical inflation and we may have a serious problem.

Good, better, best

There is almost a turn-off to the Democratic gubernatorial campaign by negativism on candidate web sites and advertising. Ms. Perdue, I am not partisan to Mr. Moore, but your campaign strikes me as too quick to launch negative attacks. Can the two candidates reach an accord to take a more positive approach?

My question from the pre-event thread since we're discussing the budget...

For both candidates:

Currently the State of North Carolina receives over $200 million dollars a year in federal grants (from DOT, DHS, DHHS, etc.). Many North Carolina jobs are tied to the federal funding as either contractors or state classified "time limited" positions. Since the federal government is cutting back on monies to the states in the form of grants, as Governor, what will you to to protect the jobs of thousands of North Carolinians?

Two questions:

Do you believe the US Navy has made a compelling case that an Outlying Landing Field should be sited in North Carolina? Under what conditions would you support efforts to locate an OLF in our state?

In the state of Illinois, legislation is being considered regarding military contractors. It sets three important limitations on their function and use:

1. No state funds may be used to contract with or purchase services from private military contractors for training of law enforcement or security Guards.
2. No military weapons or explosives may be used by private military contractors in Illinois except on secured U.S. military bases or regulated facilities.
3. No personnel trained by private military contractors may be used to patrol, guard, control, contain or arrest any Illinois resident.

Would you support and sign this kind of legislation if it were introduced and passed in the North Carolina General Assembly?

bradford
To either or both candidates: Is there anything you propose to stop or at least slow down the decline of the commercial fishing industry, which is hurting the culture of the coast at least as much as it is hurting the economy?

Last school year there were 2400 students who failed the States EOG. Some of these students made A's and B's all year but had to go to summer school or repeat their grade. Is this a problem with other counties as well and what can you do to fix the testing in this state. FYI, Wilson only has around 11,700 students!

scharrison has posed this on another thread. I thought I would bring it here:

What is your position on having a huge mercenary army headquartered in our state?

Do you think it's fair to our tens of thousands of military families, some of whom are on food stamps, that the Federal government pays these mercenaries so much more than active duty soldiers?

Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.

Our state employees work incredibly hard, yet they are denied a basic right that all other private employees are afforded; the right to collectively bargain with their employer.

Do you support allowing public employees in North Carolina to collectively bargain with state and local governments (this does not preclude no-strike clauses from being a part of any contract)?

Issues of importance to LGBT North Carolinians
Submitted by Pam Spaulding on Mon, 03/31/2008 - 7:32pm.

To both candidates:

* Do you support a state amendment barring gay and lesbian couples from civil marriage or any other legal arrangements that approximate rights granted to opposite-sex couples in a civil marriage?

* Do you support passage of anti-discrimination measures that would protect state workers from being fired on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity?

* Do you believe that health and pension benefits should be extended to same-sex partners of state workers?

Thank you for your consideration.

--
Pam Spaulding
Durham, NC USA

Pam's House Blend

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
Pointing at Naked Emperors

Some Wilson County Schools are grading children on their Physical Abilities, they receive a letter grade based on the Presidential Physical Fitness Challenge. The problem is that each child is built different, and ex. of the test, if you do not run a mile in 10 minutes you will not receive an A, and it goes down depending on the time. The Local Boards do not see this as discrimination, the State does not see it as discrimination, but Federal does. Do you see this as a problem to our children and what would you say to fix this?

A parent wrote in asking about the high cost of attending UNC. What do you say to working people in North Carolina about the dramatic increases in UNC tuition?

And this from a reader:

Do you think the lottery has fulfilled its promise to the citizens of North Carolina? If not, what changes would you support?

Public transit and efficient land use go hand in hand in accomodating our exploding populations without impairing our quality of life.

What do you think is best for transit? What funding mechanisms?

What can you help to do to bring and keep teachers teaching in NC. Wilson County has one of the highest turnovers and we need your help in keeping teachers. There are classes today March 31 with substitutes teaching because the teachers are droping like flies.

I am a high school student in North Carolina. NC currently has a state policy that schools must use a seven point grading scale. This means that a 92 is a B, 84 a C, and 76 a D. Most other state have a 10 point grading scale. Under this system each of those grades would a letter higher. This means North Carolina students are not as competitive nation wide as students from other state. Would you change this policy?

As of April 2006, over 39,000 Guardsmen were serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom (over 150,000 to date), 14,000 in Operation Enduring Freedom (over 50,000 to date), and 652 in Operation Noble Eagle. Since 9-11, over 250,000 Soldiers have been mobilized under USC Title 10 authority (federal orders) and over 350,000 under Title 10 or Title 32 (federal and state orders).
I am currently and have been a member of the North Carolina Army National Guard since 1996. I have personally deployed to Iraq once. I was stationed in Iraq for over 12 months and was on active duty for almost 15 months. With an ongoing battle in Iraq what is going to be your stance about deploying YOUR National Guard soldiers to Iraq? I am aware of the paragraph in my oath "to defend against all enemies both foreign and domestic." However, what concerns do you have regarding the depletion of our resources and its effect on our ability to respond in the event of a natural disaster such as another Hurricane Floyd?

I'm at Bev's house tonight helping out. Here's Bev trying to log in around 7:30.

Lieutenant Governor Perdue, you're welcome to stick around for as long as you like. We'll be here all night.

Thank you again for your willingness to join us. You have a lot of supporters here and you are kind to indulge us in this messy experiment in democracy.

To both Democratic candidates:

This question is in three parts dealing with state insurance programs.

Background Information:
Currenlty the state covers the cost of an employee's (only employee) health care premiums. If a spouse or anyone else is to be added to the insurance, then the costs totally skyrocket in which the employee has to cover. Most of the time, this is too costly for the employee to pay.

Part 1: If I can get all health insurance for my wife and I better and cheaper ($650/mo) than what it would cost the state and I combined ($1,078/mo), would you support the state providing me my normal employee insurance premium (or percentage thereof) to be refunded back to me and applied to the cheaper insurance to save us all money?

Part 2: Why does the current state health insurances penalize those of us who are married and who cannot have children by charging us as much or more than those that are married and with children or dependents?

Part 3: As Governor, would you work with legislature to abolish the existing lobbying by insurance companies AND change how legislature "chooses" our (state employee's) health benefit packages?

Lt. Gov. Perdue, I can certainly understand if you can't stay past the alloted time, but would you be willing to answer the questions we were unable to get to later and email them to James for publication here?

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
Pointing at Naked Emperors

We enjoyed it and hope you'll think about attending the blogger barbeque bash on April 27. I'll be sending you an invitation.

Non profit organizations across our state receive enormous amounts of state funds with little surpervision of the use or abuse of these funds and the treatment of their employees. What changes would you make to insure that these agencies are "in compliance" for more issues than just the grant requirements ie. sufficient and proper services to their clients, proper treatment of employees, a state wide policy to provide anonymous protection for employees who report abuse and/or hostile workplace environments and who report misuse of state funding to the state funding agencies, and a contact person at the state level where the employees can report any type of abuse with anonymity for any type of abuse? Presently the employees are subject to little or no assistance at the state level and certainly no protection in reporting these abuses and these very agencies are operating "at will" with huge amounts of our state tax monies.

I can honestly say I got very little if anything from this. I only saw about 3 or 4 answers from Richard Moore, and maybe 9 from Ms. Purdue and no followup.

How are they going to pay for free community college tuition? How is Bev Purdue going to fund UNCCH and other state schools free or reduced tuition?

No answers.

What about helping out the taxpayers of this great state? We are taxed higher than any neighboring states. And what about our deteriorating roads?