If a leading candidate fails to get more than 40 percent of the vote in a North Carolina primary election race this May, when is the runoff?

It depends.

The runoff recently has been held seven weeks after the primary, which this year would be June 26. But a new state law designed to fulfill a federal mandate would delay all runoffs until July 17 should one be needed for a congressional primary.

Given some U.S. House primary races are expected to have several candidates running – at least nine Republicans have expressed interest in the 11th Congressional District nomination, for example – there’s a good chance at least one election will fail to be resolved at the May 8 primary. Only the top two vote-getters advance to the runoff.

— Bartlett said Thursday three additional weeks would be needed to comply with new federal requirements that North Carolina military personnel and other state residents living overseas are sent absentee ballots 45 days before the runoff. The General Assembly approved the primary runoff date change with little fanfare last year as part of broader legislation designed to streamline voting for these citizens.

—

The wait between the primary and the runoff had been four weeks through 2006. The Legislature passed a law that year to extend the difference in future years to seven weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint to enforce a previous law for military and overseas voters.

A 2009 federal law required the 45-day window to send and collect these absentee ballots.

[read full article]

What kind of turnout do you believe a JULY primary runoff would produce?  The article states that in 2008 only 1.9% of democrats turned out for a primary runoff, and we know that turnout was low for the 2010 turnout. How do you believe this will affect congressional races this year?

from John:

Friends,

With grateful appreciation, I thank all who have supported our efforts over the past few years to strengthen the state’s largest school system and the 16th largest in America. Through strong leadership we chartered a course “from good to great” as we managed Wake County’s 165 schools, 18,000 employees, 147,000 students, and $1.5 billion budget. Together we trimmed tens of millions of dollars while we protected our dedicated teachers, raised academic outcomes, launched innovative programs and developed one of the largest parental choice assignment plans in our nation.

While these results have been good for the children and taxpayers of Wake County, community leaders from the coast to the mountains recognize that the state of education throughout much of NC remains significantly more challenged. In North Carolina we have had a proud historic commitment to education, however, over the past 10 years we have struggled to keep pace as the digital age unfolds. This reduces opportunities for our children and impacts the strength of our educated workforce. Too many of our NC children still cannot read and nearly 30% are not graduating on time. We rank 4th in the nation in suspensions while we continue to exacerbate a serious school-to-prison pipeline costing our state hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Over the last decade our educational outcomes continued to fall behind international standards and, at best by various selected measures, have climbed only to the middle of the pack among the states. In 2008, our newly elected Governor claimed to be the next “Education Governor”. During her first two years in office, with a Democrat controlled General Assembly by her side, we lost more teacher jobs in this state than we had in the previous quarter century. Short of lotteries and repeated calls for tax increases where our children are used as shields for political gamesmanship, we have seen no real leadership or solutions on these critical issues. The future of our children and our state is too important for gambling and games. More than ever we need real leadership and our teachers need our support. Our children deserve better and our state depends on it.

During recent months community leaders whom I admire and respect from across this great state have asked me to consider bringing my dedication, leadership, and lifetime of passion for helping children to the office of State Superintendent. I am honored by their belief in my tenacity and track record of success. I truly believe that together we can strengthen education in NC. We can and must produce significant measurable results for our students, support parents, empower teachers, reduce bureaucracy, and increase local controls.

In respect to these urgent matters I plan to announce my decision by Thursday, January 26th. Over the coming week my wife and I will be joined by family and friends in serious and prayerful consideration of this state-wide campaign to champion a better education for the children of North Carolina. As I consider this run for State Super-intendent I ask that you keep me and my family in your prayers as well.

Humbly yours,

John Tedesco

Wake County Public School System

Board of Education Representative District 2

Connect with John:

facebook.com/JohnTedescoNC

twitter.com/JohnTedescoNC

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The Wilmington StarNews Online is reporting that Republicans are wilting on a voter ID law under pressure from Democrats and the Legislative Black Caucus who say the current bill as written would discourage blacks, students and the elderly from voting. Under the new bill—which is still in draft stage—voters will be able to present one of seven photo identification cards or their non-photo voter registration card.

The way the voter registration card would work would be by comparing the signature at the polls with the signature on the original voter registration form. These signatures would be scanned from the official document and two poll workers would have to agree that the signatures match. If one or both workers think the signatures do not match, then the person will still be allowed to vote a provisional ballot.

What are the problems here? Let me count the ways. Seeing as how the majority of poll workers are liberal Democrats, I doubt many people will be turned down for voting. Also, what will it cost the state to not only scan and store these signatures, but to train poll workers to compare signatures? Considering that handwriting analysis is widely questioned for its accuracy, how to we expect lay people to be good and fair judges?

All of these problems can be solved with a simple photo identification card. No special training is required, and no additional cost to the state is required unless we choose to help individuals obtain photo identification cards. Call your representative and senator today and tell them we want photo identification ALONE for voter ID.

U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx (NC-05)  voted to eliminate taxpayer funding for the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.  The bill, H.R. 359, passed the House 239-160.  It came up for a vote under House Republicans’ YouCut program, which allows any American to weigh in on where to cut the federal budget.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, H.R. 359 reduces federal spending by $617 million over the next ten years.

“Bankrolling presidential campaigns during an era of record budget deficits is not a good use of taxpayer dollars,” Foxx said. “Today the Congressional Budget Office projected a massive $1.5 trillion federal budget deficit.  In light of this, we’ve got to look everywhere we can in the budget for savings and the elimination of subsidized presidential electioneering is a common sense step.”

Foxx is an original cosponsor of H.R. 359, which completely eliminates taxpayer funding for the “Presidential Election Campaign Fund.”  This fund is used to finance presidential election campaigns and party conventions.  Any money remaining in the account would be transferred to the general fund of the Treasury Department.

House Republicans highlighted this bill in their YouCut program this week.  The web-based YouCut initiative allows concerned Americans to cast their vote for various budget-cutting options and this week H.R. 359 was the top vote getter.  For more information on the YouCut program and this week’s proposed budget cuts please visithttp://www.majorityleader.gov/YouCut/.

Visit Representative Foxx’s Website

Other North Carolina Representatives who voted on this bill was:

NC1- Rep. Butterfield (nay)
NC2- Rep. Ellmers (yea)
NC3- Rep. Jones (nay)
NC4- Rep. Price (nay)
NC5- Rep. Foxx (yea)
NC6- Rep. Coble (yea)
NC7- Rep. McIntyre (nay)
NC8- Rep. Kissell (nay)
NC9- Rep. Myrick (yea)
NC10- Rep. McHenry (yea)
NC11- Rep. Shuler (yea)
NC12- Rep. Watt (nay)
NC13- Rep. Miller (nay)

RALEIGH — Newly elected Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis of Cornelius sat down with Carolina Journal reporters on Tuesday for a wide-ranging interview on the 2011-2012 legislative session. Excerpts from the interview are below:

On cooperation between the House and Senate on budgeting:

On when the session will wrap up:

On how the first week will pan out legislatively:

On legalizing video poker and having the government run it:

On eliminating the charter school cap:

On reducing the number of government-run boards and commissions:

On addressing underfunding of the state pension system:

On abortion-related bills:

On a marriage amendment:

• On cooperation between the House and Senate on budgeting: “We are inviting the Senate to be actively engaged in all of our deliberations. We think that by doing that we can minimize the amount of time that will be required once the Senate ultimately gets [the budget], and virtually eliminate the need for conference.”

• On when the session will wrap up:
“I was told as a speaker you need to be careful and not stake yourself out. There are a lot of things I’m going to stake myself out on, and one of them is that we need to get out of here sooner. We’re starting a month earlier than we normally have, so as far as I’m concerned we’ve gained a month just by organizing as quickly and starting … We want to get done and get out of here.”

• On how the first week will pan out legislatively: “We have a 100-day agenda. We intend to fulfill the promises that were made in that 100-day agenda. Now, whether that is legislation that is filed and moved over the next two weeks, or begins to move in the 90th day of that agenda, with the goal of getting it introduced and moved, we’ll work that out as our legislative agenda takes shape, as we get a real understanding for what we need to do with the budget, what we need to do with redistricting, the capacity that we have to move the other bills and in what sequence. We’ve had people come out there and say, ‘You ran on jobs and the economy and redistricting, and now you’re going and talking about another agenda item.’ Although I want to be lean, the expectation that we would only pass two bills this cycle is probably not right. We will pass several hundred bills, and there will be far fewer introduced than in past sessions.”

• On legalizing video poker and having the government run it: “We’ve got to take a look at it. We have a number of members in our caucus that are uncomfortable with it. We have a fair number of members who think that this is at least on the fringe of the whole idea of limited government and free market principles. So we’re going to have to have those very valid arguments weighed in the caucus and then in the committee process.”

• On eliminating the charter school cap: “We will send a very clear message that we believe public charter schools are an important part of the options we provide families to get our kids educated, and to be in combination with continuing to make progress on our traditional public schools.”

• On reducing the number of government-run boards and commissions: “I think that it is wise to reduce the number of boards and commissions, and it is intuitively obvious that we have too many of them. We’ve just grown. Some of them have a difficult time getting members, I understand … I haven’t seen the governor’s proposal. We applaud her for the thought process. But if we see boards and commissions that are more likely to promote free enterprise, business-friendly policy, we’ll have to take a look at that, because we may see that there are suggested for elimination that may have a real value.”

• On addressing underfunding of the state pension system: “It’s part of our overall fiscal strategy. It is just bad management to leave that out there and to not fund it. The other question is, long term, how do we manage those decisions? To what extent do we have to look at alternatives to the current pension system? We’ll have people look at that.”

• On abortion-related bills: “We have members in our caucus who have very strong feelings about those bills. We’re going to look at them and give them serious consideration. Again, it all has to be in balance … Those sorts of bills that we believe, first, will be of value to the expectant mother, and may also save a few lives, I don’t think that’s limiting abortion. We can’t, by law, limit abortions. What we can do is provide expectant mothers additional information that may cause them to exercise a choice that is beyond the only choice some people want or expect a mother to have.”

• On a marriage amendment: “The marriage amendment is something else we’re looking at. We’re conferring with the Senate. It will be a product of our caucus, and I have encouraged all of our members to sit down and talk about our legislative agenda, make recommendations. You’ll see those recommendations come out over the next several weeks.”

David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal. Find him on Twitter and Facebook.
Article originally posted January 28, 2011 on Carolina Journal.

Connect with House Speaker Tillis on Facebook, and Twitter

NC TEA Party takes no credit whatsoever for the writing of this article.