Rasmussen Poll Of NC Likely Voters: Romney 51%, Obama 43%

Is North Carolina still a battleground state? Maybe not. From Rasmussen:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Tar Heel State shows the putative Republican nominee earning 51% of the vote to Obama’s 43%. Two percent (2%) like some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

That’s a big change from last month when Romney posted a narrow 46% to 44% lead over the president in Rasmussen Reports’ first survey of the race in North Carolina.  

Policies have consequences.

Bloomberg Headline: Obama Carolina Convention Plans Going Awry for Democrats

From Bloomberg:

President Barack Obama’s decision in February 2011 to hold the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina looked like a bold move to reclaim a state he’d won in 2008. Today, it’s more like an awkward fit.

The state’s Democratic Party is mired in a sexual harassment scandal. Voters just approved a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which conflicts with Obama’s view on the issue. Convention fundraising has been slow, and labor unions tapped to fill the financial gap are angry the convention will be in a city — Charlotte — with no unionized hotels and in a state where compulsory union membership or the payment of dues is prohibited as an employment condition.

North Carolina’s 9.7 percent unemployment rate is above the national average and one of the host city’s top employers –Bank of America (BAC) – has announced job reductions. Obama is scheduled to accept his party’s nomination at Bank of America Stadium in September.

“It’s inconceivable that they would move the convention,” said Don Kettl, dean of the school of public policy at the University of Maryland. “But they may wish that they had placed their chips on another swing state.”

I.D. Required

Last night my husband bought a 12 oz. can of paint primer at a  home improvement store. He was required to either give the cashier his birth date or show her his driver’s license. When I asked why, she said it was to keep people from using the primer to get high.

About three weeks ago, I voted in the primary election. There is no such requirement to keep people from voting illegally. It makes no sense.

Keeping The Competition Out

Keeping the competition out is the impact, if not the goal, of at least some occupational licensing programs. A new report from the Institute for Justice outlines North Carolina’s licensing rules. Carolina Journal’s Sara Burrows details the report:

A number of occupations have higher-than-average barriers to entry in North Carolina, the report said. For example:

• North Carolina requires almost two years of education to become a barber compared with the national average of slightly more than a year.

• It takes three years to become a landscape contractor or a fire/security alarm installer, compared to national averages of one-and-a-half years or less. 

• Aspiring pest control applicators must spend two years in an apprenticeship, despite 32 states requiring no experience at all.

Often the education requirements North Carolina and other states impose don’t seem consistent with the demands of the job.

While it takes only 39 days of training to earn a license as an emergency medical technician in the state, it takes substantially more to become a licensed manicurist (70 days), massage therapist (117 days), skin care specialist (140 days), cosmetologist (350 days), or barber (722 days). 

Chatham Commissioners Vote 3-to-2 To Support Voter ID

Chatham County commissioners have voted to support House Bill 351, the voter ID bill, which Gov. Perdue vetoed.

CBS: Romney 46%, Obama 43%

From CBS comes this new poll of registered voters. Failed policies have consequences.

According to the survey, conducted May 11-13, 46 percent of registered voters say they would vote for Romney, while 43 percent say they would opt for Mr. Obama. Romney’s slight advantage remains within the poll’s margin of error, which is plus or minus four percentage points.

Last month, a CBS News/New York Times poll showed Mr. Obama and Romney locked in a dead heat, with both earning 46 percent support among registered voters. Polls conducted in February and March showed Mr. Obama with an advantage over Romney, while a January poll showed Romney edging out Mr. Obama 47 percent to 45 percent. Another January poll showed the two tied. 

Problems With Cary’s Red-Light Cameras Rightly Stirs Up Debate Again

They’re called false positives. That’s when you’re wrongly ticketed for running a red light by the automated camera system. That’s what has occurred in Cary, which has officials questioning the system’s use.

Councilman Don Frantz echoed those sentiments, saying the town could significantly modify its traffic-control system.

“We did it with the intention of public safety. Since then, the town has made some improvements to a number of intersections,” Frantz said. “A good question now is: Is the red-light camera system even needed anymore?”

Bingo. JLF’s Fergus Hodgson has blogged and written about red-light cameras several times,  including here.

Now There’s An Idea

Over at sister blog Squall Lines, Chad Adams posts a note about a movement for a privately funded baseball stadium.

Gov. Perdue Pushes Tax Hike And More Spending. Again.

In her latest budget proposal, Gov. Perdue advocates again for taking $760 million out of the pockets of North Carolinians via a sales tax hike, and putting the hard-earned cash into the state’s bank account to be spent on expanding government. Whether it comes from Perdue, or from the Orange County commissioners, the economic policy from liberal elites is consistent, as well as flawed: spend and tax, spend and tax, spend and tax.

Orange Commissioners Pushing Transit Tax Hike This Week

Get ready northern Orange County. The liberal elites who control the Orange County commission are pushing yet another tax hike. This one’s not a new idea — it’s a half-cent sales tax hike to fund rail, and it will most likely be put before voters  in November. This week’s meeting on the transit tax comes just six weeks after Orange County’s quarter-cent sales tax hike went info effect, and just a couple weeks following comments about the possibility of a property tax hike as well.

Add it up and the conclusion is inescapable: the leftists who  run the county will never be satisfied with the current level of taxation (and tax relief is unfathomable to them) or the level of government control and power over Orange residents. Their quest for other people’s money is simply insatiable.

It appears that only one commissioner is opposed to the transit plan and associated sales tax hike.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners is expected Tuesday to approve a $1.4 billion light-rail project for Durham and Orange counties and vote June 5 on a half-cent sales tax to fund the controversial transit plan.

“I think we have a majority of the board” that favors putting the issue before voters on a Nov. 8 ballot referendum, Chairwoman Bernadette Pelissier said May 4, a day after the commissioners met in work session to further refine a draft cost-sharing agreement with Durham County and Triangle Transit Authority. 

“We vote on the transit plan and then it’s up to the public to tell us whether or not they want to do this,” Pelissier said, acknowledging there will be differences of opinion among voters.

But what Pelissier called a historic “tension between urban and rural Orange County” guarantees the vote will not be unanimous.

“I do not believe we have the population density, nor do I believe we have the tax base to support [light rail],” Commissioner Earl McKee said. “I don’t think that it is the best plan for the current conditions. I think we need to look at expanding bus systems.”

“This plan focuses the great majority of the funds to a light rail system that will serve a very small percentage of residents of Orange County and an equally small percentage of the geography of Orange County,” McKee said.