Is Pittenger in Trouble in NC-9?

Today, I did a little precinct walking in a heavily Republican precint, and one thing seemed rather clear to me.   Robert Pittenger's hyper-negative primary campaign against Jim Pendergraph may very well come back to haunt him. If the totally unscientific results from the many conversationss I had this afternoon hold anywhere close to the actual results, Pittenger's primary victory could turn out to be of the pyrrhic variety.

Pendergraph Electability Takes Hit

What a difference a few hours makes.

The last post outlining some possible electability issues went out yesterday at 2pm and by 630pm the Observer had yanked Jim Pendergraph's endorsement, throwing his electability in November into question.  See "2 better choices in 9th Congressional District"

Again, I know most people will be incredulous at that suggestion, but here's how this will play out.

Pointing out the "best conservative" appears to make the less conservative nervous

In Monday's post, "NRCC: 'On the Radar' But Off Target on NC-9", I clearly pointed out why I think Ric Killian is the best conservative in the NC-9 race.  It did not take long for the responses to come in.  Apparently, pointing out who is the "best" choice makes people nervous.  I imagine that to be the case when the only replies generated were based on misdirection and incomplete information.

It was an interesting day.

Rep Myrick's hand-picked successor? I think I'll make my own choice.

Coming as a surprise to nobody, Republican Sue Myrick endorsed Jim Pendergraph as her hand picked successor Monday - following that up quickly with an email blast seeking fundraising support for the former Democrat running in the heavily Republican and newly re-drawn NC-9 Congressional District.

FlackCheck.org Meets Mecklenburg Politics

A funny thing happened last night when I got home from Dr Kathleen Jamieson's lecture at Davidson College on ugly campaign tactics. Waiting right there in my inbox was an email that made me think "does this qualify?"

Sue Myrick bails...NC-9 Fiscal Conservatives Go From Frying Pan into Fire?

Sue Myrick's choice to leave Congress at the end of this term, gives NC voters a chance to put a real fiscal conservative in that seat. I'm not sure they'll get the chance though.

Sue Myrick is certainly a strong foreign policy conservative, and she may be a good social conservative too.  However, I stopped seeing her as any sort of fiscal conservative when she supported the Charlotte Streetcar project back in 2010 to the tune of #$25M.  See her letter of support here.  This letter came in late in the project's application process for Federal grant money and likely put the project over the top by rounding out support from our local congressional delegation.  (The line doesn't even go into her old 9th district by the way.)  It was the last nail in the coffin for any effort to prevent what will surely be a huge waste of money.

Here's a link about Democrat Jim Pendergraph running for Sue Myrick's seat.  No, you didn't misread that.

That link is from 2007 when speculation was rampant that then Democrat Pendergraph was planning to run for the 9th District seat even back then.  Pendergraph was leaving Mecklenburg County for what turned out to be a short-lived Washington job at Homeland Security.  While in DC working under the Bush administration, he switched parties to become a Republican.

Now that he's thrown his hat in the ring for the newly redrawn NC-9, we'll get to see how far that conversion from Democrat to Republican has truly come.  My guess is not far enough for some in the GOP.