Thom Tillis, in shirt sleeves, the speaker of the House, is one of eight Republican candidates seeking to oust Senator Kay Hagan.
By ASHLEY PARKERAPRIL 12, 2014
DURHAM, N.C. — There is a Tea Party candidate who talks about the Constitution and has the backing of Senator Rand Paul. There is a Baptist pastor, endorsed by Mike Huckabee, who wears a “Jesus First” lapel pin and has led the fight against same-sex marriage. And there is a Republican state lawmaker — supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and $1 million from Karl Rove’s American Crossroads group — standing up for the party establishment.
In the high-profile Republican primary for Senate here, the divisions that are gripping the party nationally are playing out powerfully, expensively and often very messily. And, after haunting losses in 2012 in which far-right Senate candidates prevailed in primaries only to collapse in the general election, the Republican establishment is determined to stifle the more radical challengers.
The stakes are not low. Republicans view the Democratic incumbent, Kay Hagan, as especially imperiled, and North Carolina as a genuine opportunity to gain a seat in their quest to win control of the Senate. Outside groups on both sides have already poured more than $13 million into the state, in a sign of how seriously party strategists and donors view the race.
“What I really see is the national Republican civil war playing out here in North Carolina,” said Thomas Mills, a political blogger in Carrboro, a town near Chapel Hill. “You’ve got all the factions of the party.”
The Senate race comes at a time when the state’s political identity is in flux. North Carolina is an increasingly purple state — Barack Obama narrowly won it in 2008, and Mitt Romney carried it in 2012. The combination of Research Triangle Park, with its investments in biotechnology and medical research; a strong university system; and Charlotte’s banking and financial centers has attracted an influx of new residents. Yet at the same time, the Statehouse is trending conservative, with Republicans controlling the governor’s office and both houses of the legislature for the first time in more than a century.
Ms. Hagan, who won her seat in the Obama wave of 2008, is considered vulnerable in part because of her low profile, and because of her support for the health care law, which is broadly unpopular here. She has been battered by $10 million in negative ads against her, most of it underwritten by the Koch brothers-backed group Americans for Prosperity.
“Health care costs are soaring and families are losing access to the doctors they trust, but Kay Hagan thinks Obamacare’s time has come,” says the narrator in one of the ads. “Call Senator Kay Hagan. Tell her Obamacare is not the answer.”
Still, it is the battle for the Republican nomination, leading to the primary on May 6, that has been generating the most activity.
At a barbecue in Durham last Sunday, a crowd of residents tucked into plates of fried chicken and coleslaw as the Republican candidates stepped up to a microphone, one by one, to make a pitch.
Mark Harris, who hails from the party’s evangelical wing, stressed his antiabortion activism and said he and Mr. Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, had something in common: They are guided by their hearts rather than the polls.
“You never have to wonder where I’m going to stand on the issue of life,” said Mr. Harris, the former head of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
Advertisement
Greg Brannon, the Tea Party firebrand dressed in jeans and brown work boots, spoke, as he often does, about the virtues of the Constitution. An obstetrician, he has the backing not only of Mr. Paul, the Kentucky senator, but also of Senator Mike Lee of Utah and the conservative radio host Glenn Beck.
“The Constitution has three crimes: treason, piracy and counterfeiting,” he told the crowd. “The Fed does all three.”
But the loudest ovation erupted for Thom Tillis, the speaker of the North Carolina House, who has attracted the most money from the Republican donor and business class. After magnanimously saying any of his opponents would be a “wonderful alternative” to Ms. Hagan, he moved on to his bottom line: that only he has the money, the name recognition and the network to defeat her in November.
“The reason I believe that I represent the best opportunity for the U.S. Senate to be under Republican control is because I know the Democrats believe it,” Mr. Tillis said, adding, “They know that when we win the primary, we’re going to take back the Senate and we are going to take this country in a different direction.”
While American Crossroads, the group founded by Mr. Rove, has already run more than $1 million in ads in support of Mr. Tillis, Democrats are taking note of him, too: Outside Democratic groups have already poured roughly $4 million into the race against him.
Most Republican leaders expect Mr. Tillis to finish first in the primary, but state law requires the top finisher to attract at least 40 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. And while eight candidates are running, Mr. Brannon and Mr. Harris have emerged as those most likely to push Mr. Tillis into a runoff.
Some party leaders privately worry that Mr. Brannon, if he prevails in the primary, could doom their chances in the fall. He was recently found guilty of misleading two investors in a failed start-up company and has been ordered to pay them back more than $450,000, a verdict he is appealing.
He also has a history of remarks that even some in his own party consider provocative: He has praised Jesse Helms, the longtime Republican senator from North Carolina who never renounced racial segregation, as a “modern hero,” and during the 2012 election said a vote for Mr. Romney would “advance tyranny.” Some of the leaders liken him to Todd Akin, the Republican congressman who won the 2012 primary to face Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, only to alienate voters with comments suggesting that women who are victims of “legitimate rape” rarely become pregnant.
He waved off the whispers that he is too radical as grumbling from entrenched party leaders. “I think the establishment wasn’t ready for this,” he said. It is not clear how active Mr. Paul will be in Mr. Brannon’s campaign; so far, he has helped him raise money but has not campaigned in the state.
While Mr. Tillis is viewed as the favorite of mainstream Republicans, he is far from moderate: Under his leadership, the legislature passed broad restrictions on voting, rejected the Medicaid expansion provided under President Obama’s health care law and passed an amendment to ban same-sex marriage, among other measures.
Ms. Hagan has already telegraphed the strategy she would use against Mr. Tillis. She plans to attack him on ethical grounds — Mr. Tillis paid two staff members more than $19,000 in severance pay after they resigned amid a sex scandal involving lobbyists — and to highlight his most conservative positions. Mr. Tillis, for instance, has called raising the minimum wage “a dangerous idea.”
Ms. Hagan’s record, said Sadie Weiner, a campaign spokeswoman, “is a strong contrast with Thom Tillis, who leaves North Carolina’s middle-class families hanging out to dry as he pushes his special-interest Tillis-Koch agenda that cut public education by almost $500 million, froze teacher pay, gutted unemployment insurance and opposes raising the minimum wage.”
Ms. Hagan’s campaign rebuts the idea she is not visible in the state, saying she has held town meetings in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties.
She is raising money aggressively, and had $8.3 million on hand at the end of March. The race is likely to cost tens of millions of dollars.
And it is not clear she can rely on Republicans remaining divided come November.
Catherine Stern, 54, of Durham, who showed up at the barbecue last Sunday, described herself as a fiscal conservative and said she would support Mr. Tillis in the primary. But in the general election, Ms. Stern said, she will back whoever the Republican nominee may be.
“I will not be voting for Kay Hagan, come hell or high water,” she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment