This guy sure does know how to handle his critics:
http://www.motherjones.com/...
Tillis has recently been trying to make the case to GOP and Tea Party voters that he isn't the establishment's preferred candidate:At a closed-door meeting last year at the North Carolina General Assembly building, Thom Tillis, the state speaker of the house and frontrunner in the GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in November, clashed with Republican activists and legislators who claimed that Tillis was blocking conservative legislation to bolster his chances in the Senate race. In a contentious exchange that was caught on tape, Tillis and a fellow Republican tried to put their disagreements behind them before stumbling into an argument over whether Tillis was wearing "big boy pants":Unidentified speaker: Sometimes in the heat of the moments things are said that maybe could be better stated had we had time to think about what we’re gonna say. But sir, I think it’s time now for us to put this behind us, put our big boy pants on and say okay we—
Tillis: I understand that, I understand that, but I have big boy pants on every day, with all due respect. That's why I'm sitting in this room trying to solve this problem. That was fine up to this point, I think that kind of comment’s not really showing respect.
This is funny, because who says "big boy pants"? (Besides Florida Dem Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who used the term to diss Mitt Romney.) But the context is significant. At one point, according Chuck Suter, a North Carolina conservative activist who was in the meeting and posted the clip, Tillis slammed his chair into the table and began to walk out of the room before returning to finish a point. The chair-slam can be heard on the tape. - Mother Jones, 4/10/14
http://www.hickoryrecord.com/...
But Tillis isn't fooling anyone, he's the establishment candidate:U.S. Senate candidate and N.C. Speaker of the House Thom Tillis argued against being labeled as an establishment candidate and touted his ability to build coalitions, including the Republican return to control of the General Assembly at a Conover campaign stop Tuesday night.At a Catawba Valley Tea Party meeting, Tillis and his wife, Susan, spoke about when he quit his job while eating a fish sandwich to devote himself full time to busting the old establishment and restoring a Republican majority.
“Some of my opponents and other people call me the establishment candidate,” Tillis said. “I’ve been in the minority longer in the legislature than I’ve been in the majority.”
A member of the audience questioned how effective a Republican-controlled Senate would be with President Barack Obama finishing his second term. Tillis said he was more optimistic.
He proposed a strategy of stifling the Affordable Care Act. He pointed out that a repeal if passed by a simple majority of Republicans would most likely be vetoed by Obama. He favored an approach of passing appropriations bills and riders that choke out the original legislation by defunding pieces.
“He will veto some of those, but he can’t veto them all, because if we package it and craft the legislation properly, there will be some things that the vetoes are really going to make it damaging for the presidential elections for 2016,” Tillis said. “So those are the first priorities. I think they need to be the first thing we’re doing because they’re the greatest threat to this nation. They’re a threat to our fiscal future. They’re a threat to our health care system.” - Hickory Record, 4/10/14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
And the party establishment are counting on Tillis winning the nominee:North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) leads a crowded Republican field for the right to face Sen. Kay Hagan (D) in November, according to a new survey conducted for a super PAC backing his campaign.Tillis scored 27 percent of the vote, compared with 16 percent for physician Greg Brannon and 10 percent for state Baptist Convention President Mark Harris. A handful of other candidates received only single-digit support.
The poll was conducted this week by veteran GOP pollster Jan van Lohuizen, who also conducts surveys for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. It was commissioned by American Crossroads, the super PAC run by former McConnell chief of staff Steven Law; Crossroads is running $1.1 million in ads backing Tillis in advance of the May 6 primary.
Tillis is the preferred candidate of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which hopes he can score the 40 percent necessary to win the primary outright and avoid a July 15 runoff. He'll get another boost later this month when the Chamber of Commerce formally endorses his candidacy on April 21, according to two sources with knowledge of the chamber's plans. - Washington Post, 4/11/14
http://www.nationaljournal.com/...
And Tillis is feeling very confident he can win his party's nominee but Tillis isn't the only one feeling confident:But the timing of the chamber's support of Tillis, coming nearly a month before the primary, might surprise some, and counts as another example of the Republican establishment trying to use its influence to bolster candidates it considers the most viable in general elections. Although eager to avoid unelectable candidates like Todd Akin or Christine O'Donnell, top GOP strategists have been wary of overtly backing their favored candidates because of the backlash it might incite among grassroots conservatives.So far this year, they have carefully selected supporting only the candidates they consider the safest bets. (Crossroads, in addition to backing Tillis, has also run ads on behalf of a Republican Senate candidate in Alaska, Dan Sullivan.)
The establishment's show of support might be winning over some conservatives, too. Tillis said Monday that he had received the endorsement of National Right to Life, an advocacy group that opposes abortion rights.
Republicans are hoping that Tillis not only wins the Republican primary but earns at least 40 percent of the vote, the threshold candidates must reach to avoid a runoff election that would cost him both time and money. His opponents, mindful that a runoff is likely their only remaining chance to win the nomination, are stepping up their criticism of Tillis in hopes of keeping him below 40 percent. - National Journal, 4/7/14
http://www.newsobserver.com/...
And polling shows that the GOP is heading for a runoff:U.S. Senate candidate Greg Brannon appeared on Glenn Beck’s radio program Thursday to paint his campaign against House Speaker Thom Tillis as David versus Goliath.Tillis is holding the advantage against Brannon in recent polls as both lead a field of eight candidates. But in the interview, Brannon said he expects it to change.
“We are pulling back the veil and showing who the wizard is and they are getting exposed,” Brannon said of Tillis, whose conservatism he questioned at multiple points. “We are going to win this without a runoff. There’s no doubt in my mind. The wave is coming.”
Brannon flew to Texas to appear in studio with Beck in the pair’s third interview. Beck, a controversial conservative personality, has declared a “man-crush” on Brannon. - News Observer, 4/10/14
And we'll have to see if this guy makes any traction:We’re less than a month away from the May 6 primary election, and according to a new poll, the Republican race in the state for a seat in the United States Senate looks like it’s headed for a runoff.Tom Jensen, of the left-leaning Public Policy Polling in Raleigh, said that North Carolina Speaker of the House, Thom Tillis, leads the GOP field with 18 percent of voters’ support, and his nearest competitor, OBGYN Greg Brannon, sits at 15 percent.
“Thirty-four percent of voters remain undecided, but Tillis would have to win about two-thirds of those undecideds in order to get to 40 percent. Unless something changes drastically, we are going to be headed to a second primary,” Jensen said.
This is somewhat surprising, Jensen said, considering that Tillis’ lead is so narrow in spite of having more name recognition than the rest of the Republican field. Sixty percent of voters know enough about Tillis to have formed an opinion, compared to 31 percent for Brannon, according to the poll.
“It is just a situation where his [Tillis’] campaign has not really caught fire with voters yet,” Jensen said. “Also, when we see so many voters undecided still, it shows that a lot of people just haven’t tuned into this race at all yet. But we could see more happen in these last four weeks than we did in the previous six months combined.” - Chapel Boro, 4/9/14
But Tillis remains confident he can still come out the victor:The Rev. Mark Harris, a Winston-Salem native, has accepted an invitation to the Republican U.S. Senate candidate debate on April 23 at WRAL-TV station in Raleigh after the station initially didn’t invite him to participate.“I was pleased to hear that this news station made the right decision and invited our campaign to attend,” Harris said in a statement Wednesday. “This was an incredible grassroots victory, our supporters let their voice be heard by calling the news station and taking to social media, and this should serve as a reflection of the momentum that we have among our base.”
Click HereHarris will debate House Speaker Thom Tillis, Heather Grant, a Wilkesboro nurse, and Dr. Greg Brannon, a Cary physician. A WRAL executive said that Harris was initially excluded from the debate because he failed to attract 10 percent of likely Republican primary voters in a recent poll. - Winston-Salem Journal, 4/9/14
http://www.fayobserver.com/...
But the GOP civil war is very much alive in North Carolina:With or without a runoff, Thom Tillis thinks he'll be running against U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan in November.Tillis, the Republican speaker of the N.C. House, spoke Saturday at the fourth annual Pizza and Politics gathering sponsored by the Cumberland County Republican Women's Club.
He is one of eight Republicans seeking to challenge Hagan, a Democrat.
One of the candidates must get 40 percent of the votes to avoid a second primary, or runoff, pitting the two candidates with the most votes against each other.
"We're working hard to avoid the runoff," Tillis said before the meeting. "We're confident if there is one, we'll win it."
Tillis said Democratic groups have run $4 million in advertisement against him.
"We still maintain a strong position," he said.
Tillis said he won't shy away from talking about laws passed by the General Assembly if he faces Hagan.
"We're going to run hard on our record," he said.
Tillis mentioned the General Assembly's record in his remarks to about 150 people at the gathering.
He said that there's no significant difference between the primary candidates because they all want to repeal Obamacare, oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants, believe in the right to life and support Second Amendment rights.
"So when you make the decision about who to pick, you don't have to worry much about whether or not we share similar values," he said. "It comes down to whether you or not you have the experience."
Tillis said he thinks that he has demonstrated over the last three years that he is obsessed with making sure things get done. - Fay Observer, 4/12/14
Anything can happen between now and the primary but Hagan is anticipating that Tillis will be the nominee:Most Republican leaders expect Mr. Tillis to finish first in the primary, but state law requires the top finisher to attract at least 40 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. And while eight candidates are running, Mr. Brannon and Mr. Harris have emerged as those most likely to push Mr. Tillis into a runoff.Some party leaders privately worry that Mr. Brannon, if he prevails in the primary, could doom their chances in the fall. He was recently found guilty of misleading two investors in a failed start-up company and has been ordered to pay them back more than $450,000, a verdict he is appealing.
He also has a history of remarks that even some in his own party consider provocative: He has praised Jesse Helms, the longtime Republican senator from North Carolina who never renounced racial segregation, as a “modern hero,” and during the 2012 election said a vote for Mr. Romney would “advance tyranny.” Some of the leaders liken him to Todd Akin, the Republican congressman who won the 2012 primary to face Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, only to alienate voters with comments suggesting that women who are victims of “legitimate rape” rarely become pregnant.
He waved off the whispers that he is too radical as grumbling from entrenched party leaders. “I think the establishment wasn’t ready for this,” he said. It is not clear how active Mr. Paul will be in Mr. Brannon’s campaign; so far, he has helped him raise money but has not campaigned in the state.
While Mr. Tillis is viewed as the favorite of mainstream Republicans, he is far from moderate: Under his leadership, the legislature passed broad restrictions on voting, rejected the Medicaid expansion provided under President Obama’s health care law and passed an amendment to ban same-sex marriage, among other measures.
Ms. Hagan has already telegraphed the strategy she would use against Mr. Tillis. She plans to attack him on ethical grounds — Mr. Tillis paid two staff members more than $19,000 in severance pay after they resigned amid a sex scandal involving lobbyists — and to highlight his most conservative positions. Mr. Tillis, for instance, has called raising the minimum wage “a dangerous idea.”
Ms. Hagan’s record, said Sadie Weiner, a campaign spokeswoman, “is a strong contrast with Thom Tillis, who leaves North Carolina’s middle-class families hanging out to dry as he pushes his special-interest Tillis-Koch agenda that cut public education by almost $500 million, froze teacher pay, gutted unemployment insurance and opposes raising the minimum wage.”
Ms. Hagan’s campaign rebuts the idea she is not visible in the state, saying she has held town meetings in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties.
She is raising money aggressively, and had $8.3 million on hand at the end of March. The race is likely to cost tens of millions of dollars. - New York Times, 4/12/14
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/...
And Hagan's backers are preparing to face off against Tillis:Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan on Saturday framed her re-election campaign as a contrast between out-of-state special interests and North Carolina interests.Coming just over three weeks before the May 6 primary, Hagan’s comments at the Mecklenburg County Democratic convention appeared to target her leading GOP opponent, House Speaker Thom Tillis.
Hagan blasted Republican legislative actions, particularly the new voting law, which, among other things, will require photo identification, as well as what she said were tax cuts for the rich.
She tied those actions to special interest money in the form of more than $8 million in anti-Hagan ads, much of it from the conservative political action committee Americans for Prosperity.
“When I look at the amount of money coming into North Carolina … and I look at the agenda passed in Raleigh, they are thanking Thom Tillis with an $8 million ad buy against me,” she said. “They are looking for someone whose strings they can pull in Washington, and they know they cannot pull mine.” - Charlotte Observer, 4/12/14
And Hagan is picking up her endorsements for re-election:Voters won't find Charles or David Koch's names on any ballot in North Carolina this year.They're not residents of the state, and if a recent poll can be believed, most voters have only a vague idea who they are.
But the wealthy industrialists have already starred in at least one commercial aired in support of U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat, and will apparently be the target of more rhetoric from both the Hagan campaign and her allies.
The billionaire brothers have helped organize and finance a network of conservative organizations, including some that have aired some of the most aggressive ads against Hagan. Americans for Prosperity, the biggest outside spender thus far in this year's Senate campaign, has already spent roughly $8 million on ads critical of Hagan and her support for the Affordable Care Act.
Democrats in several states, including Hagan, recently told The New York Times that they would focus criticism on the Kochs for funding attack ads at the same time they were laying off workers.
"They’re spending millions of dollars to try to buy a United States Senate seat," Hagan told the newspaper. "These individuals have actually laid off workers in my state."
In particular, Hagan and her campaign point to 100 workers laid off in November 2013 at an Investa chemical manufacturing plant near Wilmington at the same time Americans for Prosperity began airing an ad critical of Hagan.
"It's unbelievable that the Koch brothers would be handing out pink slips to North Carolina workers while, at the same time, spending millions on false and misleading ads in an attempt to buy this U.S. Senate seat," said Hagan campaign spokeswoman Sadie Weiner.
It's unclear whether Hagan will target the Koch brothers in her own ads. But Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC that runs ads in support of Democrats, spent $1 million to tie state House Speaker Thom Tillis, the front-runner in the eight-way Republican U.S. Senate primary, to the Kochs. - WRAL, 4/10/14
http://insurancenewsnet.com/...
If you want to donate and get involved with Hagan's re-election campaign, you can do so here:While defending the ACA's progress toward improving access to medical care for millions of Americans, Hagan acknowledges the need to make improvements and pledges to help do that.She has been a hardworking, visible senator. She outworked Republican Elizabeth Dole in the 2008 election, capitalizing on Dole's record of being seldom seen in her home state during her six-year term. Hagan, 60, has taken the opposite approach, holding town hall meetings in all 100 counties, visiting scores of schools and community colleges and attending countless community events. She's addressed real issues in constructive ways. Those include:
l Working with Republican Sen. Richard Burr to address problems of contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune.
l Pushing legislation that provides tuition assistance for active-duty military personnel and creating incentives for small businesses to hire veterans.
l Adding a provision to the Violence Against Women Act that offers better training to help medical personnel recognize domestic abuse.
l Promoting a small-business loan fund with the Small Business Jobs Act.
l Crafting a bill -- not enacted yet -- to create a national credential system for workers who complete job-training programs in various technical fields.
l Getting a textile representative added to the Export-Import Bank's advisory council.
l Co-sponsoring the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which gives women a better chance to sue employers for workplace discrimination.
l Adding a provision to specifically include North Carolina in the bill extending unemployment benefits that passed the Senate Monday -- restoring a benefit that North Carolina leaders took away from long-term unemployed workers here last year -- if the governor agrees.
l Pushing to add military units at North Carolina bases, or to protect those already here.
Hagan's energy isn't a surprise to those who watched her rise in the ranks of the state Senate during the five terms she represented Guilford County. A lawyer by training, who also counts experience in banking, she's a tireless advocate for constituents and North Carolina businesses. While she's a mainstream Democrat, she's worked often with Burr on issues that benefit North Carolina and transcend partisan differences.
Hagan faces two challengers in the Democratic primary: Ernest T. Reeves of Greenville and Will Stewart of Hampstead. Neither has held elective office or presents a credible threat to deny Hagan the nomination. - News & Record, 4/13/14
