WHO WILL TED BUDD REALLY BE WORKING FOR IN THE U.S. SENATE? When Republican Ted Budd takes his seat in the United States Senate next month who will he be representing? If you say North Carolina, don’t bet on it. The people who will really get his attention will be the handful of billionaires who, through dark money campaign operations and super political action committees (super PACs) , accounted for 85% of the $83.2 million raised and spent to get him elected. The folks behind these organizations have little connection to North Carolina or the needs of the state. Top donors to Club for Growth, that spent $11.7 million to get Budd elected, are billionaires Richard Uihlein, an Illinois packaging magnate and billionaire investment trading executive Jeff Yass of Pennsylvania. Other PACs are financed by Las Vegas hotel fortune heiresses and investment tycoons from New York and Miami. In politics, it’s a truism that: “You got to dance with them what brung you.” That means, as the great commentator Molly Ivins says: “When you get to public office, you vote with the folks who put you there. And that used to mean your constituents, the people who voted for you. But more and more what it means is you vote with the special interests who put up the money to get you to public office.” In the Senate, don’t look for Budd to be tripping the light fantastic with many partners who have tar on their heels -- $70 million is a very exclusive dance ticket. Bought and paid for. And the sad part is, NC voters were told who was buying these ads. At the end of every radio and TV ad, and at the bottom of every mailer. Maybe not the people, but the organizations. And a quick Google search would have answered the people question. But that is apparently expecting too much.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-who-will-ted-budd-really-be-working-for-in-the-u-s-senate/20609060/

THANKS NC POLL WORKERS! YOU REALLY ARE DEMOCRACY HEROES: It is – or was – a quiet and often unnoticed task. But in the last few years -- amid the bombastic, sometimes violence-threatening, election-denying rhetoric led by former President Donald Trump – it has become an increasing challenge as an aggressive few are determined to disrupt, deny and cast doubt on the election process. For most of the 3.8 million people who voted – both during the early in-person voting period and on Election Day – ballots were cast without incident. In one county a one-stop polling place worker was followed from the election site, to the elections office and then to their home – described by state Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell as “the most egregious situation we had” on Election Day. In Rutherford County, there was a report of a voter being told they must have a photo ID to enter a polling place – which is not required in North Carolina – and wrongly contending law enforcement officers were arresting people at a voting site. The state received 21 reports of conduct violations at polling places involving campaign workers or election observers with a dozen concerning allegations of voter intimidation. It says something of the unfortunate times we’re in when the spokesman says why he can’t compare the number of incidents this year to past years. “We have not tracked these incidents in the past as we have this year, primarily because there has never been such a focus on observer conduct, nor have we had many reported incidents in the past,” said Patrick Gannon, the state board’s public information director. I have a feeling there would have been many more conduct violations if the (US) Justice Department had not monitored a handful of counties (my own included), but they will probably need to send more come 2024, if tRump makes it through the Primary again.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-thanks-nc-poll-workers-you-really-are-democracy-heroes/20580870/

VOTER ENTHUSIASM IN KEY GROUPS CRITICAL TO ELECTION OUTCOME: “Young voters (in North Carolina) are not as much in the numbers as they could be. There’s potential for growth there,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. In those young voters is “potential for an upset,” he said. Younger voters, those with the most at stake in this election when it comes to issues of personal health like abortion, jobs and the economy and education, have not appeared to be as energized to vote as other groups, according to the Marist College poll of North Carolina that came out last week. For candidates in close elections -- like Democrat Cheri Beasley and Republican Ted Budd who are running for the U.S. Senate -- that kind of engagement matters. Voters 44 and younger favor Beasley by a 7-point spread. But if they don’t become more motivated to head to the polls, that margin may not mean as much. “When you look at younger voters, Democrats carry Gen-Z and Millennials by 12 points – it’s their best group,” Miringoff said. “But it’s also a group that, although 40% of the adult population, it’s 38% of the registered voters and it falls off to 31% among those who are definitely going to vote.” As the close campaigns around North Carolina reach a conclusion, motivating voters – particularly young voters – may make the margin. I actually voted on a college campus this year (Elon University), and there were no young people in sight at the polling place when I went. No young voters, no young poll workers, no young poll greeters. I hope that was not a sign, but I fear it is.
https://www.wral.com/seth-effron-voter-enthusiasm-in-key-groups-critical-to-election-outcome/20552487/

THANKS TO GERRYMANDERING, POLICY STAKES IN NC ARE BIGGER THAN THEY OUGHT TO BE: Because of partisan gerrymandering, the question this fall is not whether the ebbs and flows of politics, voter turnout, and the news cycle will cause the state legislature to swing slightly Republican or slightly Democratic; it is whether those factors will lead to massive Republican supermajorities or merely ones akin to those they currently enjoy. If the GOP somehow manages to acquire three-fifths supermajorities in both houses by adding just two seats in the Senate and three in the House, its members will be able to override any vetoes issued by Gov. Roy Cooper and thereby completely control state lawmaking. This means that North Carolina could quickly shift from being a state in which abortion care remains safe, legal, and pretty widely available – both to pregnant North Carolinians and those from nearby states like Georgia and Tennessee where such care is completely banned – to one in which it is punishable as a crime. It means that modest remaining state controls over firearms will likely be repealed. It means that efforts to further micromanage public school teachers over issues like race and U.S. history, and to further expand school privatization, will likely become law. It means that local sheriffs will likely be required – even where they object – to become more actively involved in the immigration enforcement business. It means that new efforts to limit the rights of transgender people will likely find their way into state law. It means that efforts to limit carbon pollution likely be stymied. And if the state Supreme Court shifts from the current narrow 4-3 Democratic majority to GOP control, it means that all manner of new and dramatic changes subject to constitutional review will soon be wending their way through the judiciary in search of approval from a new and conservative high court majority. And this will almost certainly include a new round of even more gerrymandered legislative and congressional maps. This is not hyperbole, and it's not the entire list of dangerous policies that would be put in place. These are just the ones we can reasonably predict, and that should scare the hell out of you.
https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/opinion/109338/rob-schofield-thanks-to-gerrymandering-policy-stakes...

Thomas Mills is taking Republicans to task:

This past weekend, Senator Tommy Tuberville said African Americans are responsible for crime in the United States. A few weeks ago in Wilmington, Donald Trump goaded his audience into shouting the N-word. While a few Republicans might quietly say they disagree, neither Tuberville nor Trump will get much of a rebuke from the Republican Party because everyone, whether they like it or not, knows that race will drive White voters to the polls in November.

Williamson and company are also mistaken in believing all this behavior is just performative. As the AP wrote yesterday, Q-anon conspiracist Marjorie Taylor Greene is becoming a power player in the Republican Caucus. Liz Cheney lost her primary. At CPAC, participants openly supported Putin and Russia. The party has an armed wing made up of militias and violent right-wing organizations. The leadership of the GOP is quickly becoming reactionary and authoritarian, not conservative.

There are also 299 Republican candidates for Congress who at least pay lip service to Donald Trump's claims the election was stolen from him. Think about that for a minute. Numerous Republican election officials have adamantly denied the claim, and provided reams of evidence to back up that denial. And have been ostracized for it. In other words, if you deny the conspiracy, then you must be part of it. I don't know if it's the tail wagging the dog, or what, but our democracy is at a crossroads. Confidence in elections is at an all-time low amongst NC's Republican voters: