24 October 2010

Ellers for Congress?

One of the seats up for grabs in this round of Congresscritter elections is NC2. The current incumbent is Democrat "Boxing" Bob Etheridge and his challenger is Republican Renee Ellmers. Etheridge is expected to keep his seat, and I can tell you why; Ellmers is just not a strong candidate.

When she announced her candidacy I checked out her website and emailed a question about her stand on the Fair Tax. I got no reply, but found the information elsewhere (she's all for it, for what it's worth).

After Boxing Bob showed his street cred to a couple of aspiring journalists, I decided to send in a donation to the Ellers campaign. At the same time I sent another Email message asking for a yard sign. Once again, nothing.

I did get a nice email letter from the candidate thanking me for my donation and then asking for more. This was, to say the least, irritating since I had made what I thought was a pretty substantial donation from someone who makes less than 250K a year and so by definition isn't one of the evil hated rich. I round-filed the nice little note and made up my mind to McCain her (hold my nose and pull the lever for her because she isn't as bad as the other guy).

A couple of weeks later I got yet another email bleg, which I responded to (it came from the email address listed on the website as belonging to the candidate) by saying that I had not gotten a reply from earlier emails and if I wanted a Congresscritter to take my money and otherwise ignore me I already had that.

Once again, no reply.

Looks like I'll be voting for the Libertarian. Predictably the Republican party and their "candidate" (who hasn't show that she really wants the job all that badly) will not understand why.

Never underestimate the ability of Republicans (both the Party and the individual candidates) to shoot themselves in the groin.

4 comments:

Mr. Bingley said...

But not for nothing, in a very close race such as NC-2 appears to be your voting for the Libertarian is a vote for Etheridge. You have a real chance to get rid of the guy. The fact that she doesn't seem to have a well-oiled political machine is frankly a good thing.

Please don't waste a chance to get rid of Etheridge by, in effect, not voting. She may not be great, but she WILL be 1000 times better than Etheridge.

Larry said...

Unfortunately, Mr Bingley, this just sends the message to the Republicans that they only have to be "not as bad as the other guy" to win.
I want someone that I can want to vote for, not someone that I want to vote against. In short, I'm tired of holding my nose.
I will most likely vote Ellmers regardless of my rant just because I do prefer her stance on the issues, particularly the Fair Tax. But if she does not get out and at least make the attempt to connect with the voters, the incumbent will win and predictably she and the RNC will completely miss the mark as to why.
Thanks for dropping by!

Mr. Bingley said...

I certainly agree that I'd love to have someone that I actually am excited to vote for.

but mostly that don't happen.

So I'm willing to vote for someone who will vote the way I want 50% of the time versus someone I know will vote against me 100% of the time.

I agree about the candidates needing to get out, and I've sent several rather pointed emails to the repub running in my district making that exact point, but at the end of the day I've got to go for the best I've got instead of what I'd like.

That's democracy. :)

Larry said...

It's a hell of a way to run a railroad.
Thanks for dropping by!