U.S. SENATE RACES - 2004

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[DefCon]

SENATE RACES 2004

DEMOCRATS			REPUBLICANS
Bayh, Evan	IN		Bennett, Robert	UT
Boxer, Barbara	CA		Bond, Christopher	MO
Breaux, John *	LA		Brownback, Sam	KS
Daschle, Thomas	SD		Bunning, Jim	KY
Dodd, Christopher	CT		Campbell, Ben Nighthorse	CO
Dorgan, Byron	ND		Crapo, Mike	ID
Edwards, John *	NC		Fitzgerald, Peter *	IL
Feingold, Russell	WI		Grassley, Chuck	IA
Graham, Bob *	FL		Gregg, Judd	NH
Hollings, Ernest *	SC		McCain, John	AZ
Inouye, Daniel	HI		Murkowski, Lisa	AK
Leahy, Patrick	VT		Nickles, Don *	OK
Lincoln, Blanche	AR		Shelby, Richard	AL
Mikulski, Barbara	MD		Specter, Arlen	PA
Miller, Zell *	GA		Voinovich, George	OH
Murray, Patty	WA
Reid, Harry	NV
Schumer, Charles	NY
Wyden, Ron	OR
* designates open seats

[billbears]

You are forgetting that the South is not just about textiles, globalism has brought thousands of high paying jobs to the south. yes, jobs have been lost. Mostly $6 and hour ones that have been replaced by $15 and hour ones.

Here in NC it still is. And these aren't $6 an hour jobs either. Many are over $15 an hour. Tell that to the good folks of Kannapolis that just lost over 6,000 jobs in one area. Or the 3,000 jobs lost in Winston-Salem from tobacco when the Republican controlled Congress passed the tobacco buyout bill that included a 'no-tax' tax increase on the manufacturing side. NC unfortunately is a tossup state in more ways than one. And the Republicans have no one to blame but theirselves.

And as for your 'high paying jobs' from globalism you can come to Raleigh NC and tell us all about those as well. Price of land has absolutely skyrocketed from the technology sector in RTP and the jobs available to native North Carolinians is dwindling. Of course you could always believe our idiot governor (D) and our worthless Senator (R), the Tweedledum and TweedleDee of biotechnology, that somehow believes all these ex-textile and ex-tobacco workers are going to morph overnight into biotechnicians at the local community college

[Kuksool]

A Zogby poll, a few days before the election, showed Cronyn leading Kirk, 49-48. Dick Morris was gloating about how blacks and hispanics are rising up to elect RATS in TX. How wrong he was.

[hosepipe]

God help me but:
Strange as it seems, the movie passion might have political ramifications... Yes! political..
Kinda early to say.. but I perceive something very deep in its impact on many levels...
Well I did say God help me..

[deport]

I don't know if Zog screwed up with that poll or that was his attempt to push Kirk a bit.... In either case he was off by a ton as Cronyn won by some 12% over Kirk.....

[Impy]

Congressmen Johnny Isakson, usually called a rino here (he's not that bad at all, but Georgia can do a lot better) and Mac Collins (Conservative).

[Impy]

How abusrd.

[Glenn]

The pisser here is Fitzgerald (R-IL). He tried to do the right thing and the GOP chased him out of office in a most mean-spirited way. If that seat goes Dem, the GOP will be to blame for losing one they had in the bag.

[DefCon]

Yes, but that is just his oppostion in the primary.
I can't find out who the dims are going to run in this spot.

[Impy]

Oh. All the big name rats have passed.

http://www.politics1.com/ga.htm

My guess right now is Nadine Thomas will win the rat nod due to the black vote.

[raloxk]

I dont believe NC is a toos up state for the Presidentail election.

If people in Textiles are earning $15 per hour, that is probably the root of the job losses

[billbears]

If people in Textiles are earning $15 per hour, that is probably the root of the job losses

Wow, a slur against textiles and tobacco from someone not in this state. Who would have thought < /sarcasm> From the table provided on page 3 you'll notice that as late as 1998 the average salary here in North Carolina for textiles was over $10 an hour ($12.57) with the average in the Piedmont Triad, where all the jobs were lost, approaching $15 an hour.

[Dog Gone]

I think that was his point. If you owned a business and you could pay your employees $15 an hour, or 35 cents an hour to get the same product, what would you do?

[billbears]

If you owned a business and you could pay your employees $15 an hour, or 35 cents an hour to get the same product, what would you do?

I would expect them to go for the jobs at 35 cents an hour. However, my point was don't expect those that have lost these $15 an hour jobs that may have voted for Bush the first time because they believed in his social conservatism to do so the second time. Bush may win NC, however it will be closer than it was in 2000. I also think counties that I would expect to vote Republican almost automatically (those particularly between Charlotte and Greensboro) to be more of a battle than before.

The other issue in this state, contrary to the biotechnician cheerleaders some may be around here (parroting our CINO Senator Dole), is tobacco. The loss of thousands of jobs in the tobacco industry, partially from the 'no tax' tax voted for by Mrs. Dole, will have an effect as well

[HIDEK6]

Sorry. Greg Maddox is one of those guys that used to be good.

[Dog Gone]

I can hardly believe that the textile jobs in NC that have been lost are thought to be the fault of the Republican party. Maybe I'm wrong; it's one of the few states I've never visited, but it doesn't make sense to me that they were ever Bush voters.

The tobacco issue might have more traction, but I'm not sure it transfers up to Bush. I certainly can't imagine those farmers voting for Kerry.

[billbears]

You have got to be kidding me. Textile workers in this state not conservative? They may have agreed in the past with Democrats on work issues but they always went back to Republicans for social issues. And here in North Carolina, if your job is relatively safe, you vote by what you know from going to church week in and week out. Top that with a strong sense of patriotism and you've got part of the Republican stronghold of the South for the past generation

The state has lost 147,000 jobs in the last three years, 37,500 of them in the textile industry. In the last year, at least 12 textile plants have closed in and around Burlington alone. Burlington Industries, bought out of bankruptcy last month by the financier Wilbur Ross, a connoisseur of distressed companies, is a shadow of its former self. Scores of smaller local companies have closed: Flynt Fabrics, which once employed 1,200 people; Tower Mills, a hosiery maker; Classic Hosiery.

Pillowtex, which bought up companies like Fieldcrest and is based about 70 miles, or 110 kilometers, to the southwest in Kannapolis, went bankrupt this summer and laid off all 4,800 of its North Carolina workers.

"The industry has gone through the worst situation since 1929 - and it's all happened in the past three years," said James Copland 3rd, president of the family-owned Copland Fabrics. Copland says the company has been losing money for the last three years

--------------

But people here have little patience for arguments about trade theory and global competition, and they are putting considerable pressure on President George W. Bush. Textile companies and their employees are organizing get-out-the-vote drives and warning that even ordinarily reliable Republican voters will turn against Bush and his allies in Congress if they fail to address their demands.

"The Solid South is no longer the Solid South for George W. Bush," said Jason Copland, executive vice president of Copland Fabrics and James' son. When Bush visited Winston-Salem this month and talked about the need to retrain workers displaced by shifting trade patterns, people here were not soothed. "It was kind of like a slap in the face," the younger Copland said. "Why are we sending jobs over to Communist China? It was just like he didn't get it." There is no question that textile companies, along with many other kinds of American manufacturers, have been hammered by foreign competition. But China is only part of the problem.

North Carolina's vanishing textile industry

North Carolina, which went Republican by a very narrow margin in 1992, and a close but wider margin in 1996, went solidly into the GOP column in 2000, as Bush-Cheney secured a plurality of 373,471 votes (12.83 percentage points). Bush carried 75 counties to 25 for Gore. Bush won every county in the western part of the state and all the counties along the coast; Gore carried a cluster of 8 counties in the SE and another cluster of 17 counties in the NE. North Carolina did not see much activity at the presidential level, with the exception of the second presidential debate, held on Oct. 11 at Wake Forest University.

North Carolina 2000

All those counties in the western part of the state (Raleigh westward)? Textile and tobacco counties. Charlotte and the surrounding four or five counties being the exception to that.

[Dog Gone]

I have this impression of Sally Fields, union workers, and crappy jobs. Maybe it comes from some Hollywood movie.

[NYC Republican]

Ping

[billbears]

I have this impression of Sally Fields, union workers, and crappy jobs. Maybe it comes from some Hollywood movie.

Unfortunately that's too true. We've been fighting against that for years.

[raloxk]

it isnt a slur, but economic reality. It is essentially a low-skilled job that is paying $15 per hour