As North Carolina voters head to the polls to select the president, they will likely put a Republican in the Executive Mansion.
Democrat Walter Dalton, the current lieutenant governor, will face Republican Pat McCrory, the former mayor of Charlotte. McCrory is favored to win, said Pope McCorkle, visiting lecturer of public policy studies. McCrory’s platform for education includes budget cuts to higher education, affecting the University of North Carolina system and indirectly Duke, even as a private institution.
“Duke has benefited from the notion of North Carolina being an education state and now [the UNC system’s] fate is hanging in the balance,” McCorkle said.
According to a Nov. 3-4 poll from Public Policy Polling, McCrory leads Dalton at 50 percent to 43 percent. The Cook Political Report, an independent, non-partisan election analysis newsletter, categorizes the race as leaning Republican. This is McCrory’s second run for the office after losing to Gov. Bev Perdue in the 2008 election. Perdue announced that she would not run for re-election in January. A Republican victory could mark GOP control of both the governorship and the legislature for the first time since Reconstruction.
Sophomore David Winegar, co-president of Duke Democrats and a North Carolina native, admits that the race will be a tough fight for Dalton because some voters are looking at McCrory’s record as the mayor of Charlotte.
“McCrory was a moderate mayor, but he has really gone far to the right in his campaign for governor this year,” he said.
McCorkle noted that Dalton’s main issues have been difficulty raising funds and fighting a contested primary. He said that McCrory has prevented Dalton from making the campaign based on issues.
“Dalton tried to make the election about education and the economy, but McCrory still has the ability to say he’s for change,” he said.
McCrory has portrayed Dalton as part of a ‘good ol boy’ network, referring to corruption in Southern politics, despite his progressive record as a state legislator, a tactic that he also used against Perdue in 2008, McCorkle added. The Democrats are still viewed as the incumbent party, despite the fact that Republicans control the North Carolina General Assembly.
“The Democrats are still being held responsible for the downturn in the economy—or rather McCrory is not being held responsible for the downturn in the economy,” he noted.
Winegar said that the gubernatorial race will affect Duke students because of the candidates’ contrasting views on issues such as education and voter ID laws. McCrory supports maintaining the education cuts passed by the General Assembly, totalling $414 million cut from the UNC system in the 2011-2012 state budget.
McCrory’s platform about education could have a negative impact on the UNC system which could hurt Duke, despite the fact that the university is not a state institution, because Duke collaborates with state universities on research and other projects, McCorkle said.
Junior Taylor Imperiale, chair of Duke College Republicans, noted that the campus party has not been vested in the gubernatorial race but added that the candidates have very distinct views on education.
“McCrory has made school choice an important issue, and even some Democrats have come to believe in school choice,” he said.
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