Do not nominate a Liberal Republican Again!

I am speaking about Pat McCrory, the leading Republican candidate for governor and longtime mayor of Charlotte. Pat’s policies left Charlotte the highest taxed metropolitan area in the Southeast. He aggressively expanded his tax base through annexation and put priority on numerous projects that benefited downtown interests. Examples:

Pat tore down a perfectly good arena close to the airport to construct a smaller capacity arena downtown with inadequate parking against the wishes of the voters. Cost to the citizens of Charlotte ~ $300,000,000.

Pat pushed through a light rail line that was 100% over budget and has to be subsidized to the tune of over $20/rider http://www.scribd.com/doc/37555193/Spotlight-399-PublicTransit-in-North-Carolina. Although Charlotte has some of the worst roads in the state, it continues to press for additional light rail lines leading downtown that do nothing to support manufacturing.

While campaigning as a conservative in North Carolina, Pat McCrory made at least three trips to Florida to advise on increasing sales tax for passenger rail, one of his favorite metro boondoggles. http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/dailyloaf/2010/06/11/charlotte-mayor-pat-mccrory-comes-back-to-tampa-to-advise-on-hillsboroughs-light-rail-proposal-2/. Despite the fact the interests Pat represented out-spent their opposition 100 to 1, the referendum failed. http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/blog/2010/11/2010-vote-on-transit-tax-spending.html

Take a close look at Pat McCrory’s legacy.  The unemployment rate in Charlotte has remained higher than that of North Carolina throughout the recession. Over half the housing sales in Mecklenburg County last year were the results of foreclosures or homes on the brink of foreclosure, a record. Charlotte is consistently ranked in the top 10 in crime in the nation but has to spend as much servicing its debt as it does on police.

I’ll end by mentioning Pat’s carbon copy replacement for mayor failed to get elected ten months after Barack Obama had been in office, the peak of the conservative uprising. If Pat is the Republican nominee, the Democrats will just as effectively use his record to keep conservatives home on Election Day, 2012.

Jay Privette

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