In spite of the deep lateral
divides in the Republican party, there are a still a few subjects capable of
uniting. On Monday night Lt. Governor Dan Forest, Rep. Larry Pittman (82nd
district) and Rep. Carl Ford (76th district) met with dozens of
citizens at Concord's Old Creamery Event Place. The Tea Party group, We the
People Inc, sponsored the gathering with catering from The Wayside Diner. The
town hall meeting is one of the many Lt. Gov. Forest has headlined around the
state.
Rep. Ford began with a
speech that declared the federal case against North Carolina's Voter Id law was
merely a delay tactic to keep a perfectly legal law from being enacted before
the 2014 election. When asked about the claim that the law will adversely
minority voters he responded by stating that it could not, as obtaining an ID
is fairly easy and that the state will pay to help those without one.
Rep. Ford also advises
citizens to make their voices heard before the General Assembly is in session.
He suggests that short, sweet, and personalized messages are much more
effective in reaching legislators than mass emails.
After a prayer, Rep. Pittman
declared that a recent mass email depicting President Obama as a traitor was
simply not true, he hadn't done anything to betray Kenya. The crowd responded
enthusiastically and Pittman went on to support the Voter ID law. He claimed
that voter fraud was not only committed by minority groups, therefore the new
law could not be said to single out one group over another. In response to the
low incidence of voter fraud Pittman said, "We know there is voter fraud
in some places so why not make sure it doesn't come here?"
Lt. Gov. Forest took the
stage next and began with a speech similar to the ones he has given around the
state in recent weeks; he said tax reform efforts in North Carolina have moved
the state from number 44 to 17 in a list of states with favorable taxes for
business. He defended the state's decision to not expand Medicaid, citing “good
math.”
The separation between Tea
Party candidates and establishment Republicans was highlighted when Forest
declared “Dam Mitch McConnell” ought to be the new name of the Kentucky dam
project that was funded in last week's bill to reopen the government. The crowd
responded with hoots and laughter for support. In response to a question about
how conservatives will fair in 2014 Forest said,
"There is the Republican Party, the Tea
Party, the Libertarian movement, Conservative movement; there are a lot of
individual movements going out there and there is no unity out there to hold it
all together. I think that is a great challenge that we face."
When the Common Core
Standards were addressed the people came alive, shouting demands that the State
write a check to return the $400 million federal Race to the Top grant it
accepted in return for adopting the recently revealed standards. Forest
responded, "There is a lot of sentiment out there for that and I believe
that is the way it should happen....The legislature has every opportunity in
the world to put the pause on this."
He says North Carolina
accepted the standards “sight unseen” and will have to work to implement them,
even though, "I don't think standards in and of themselves are the things
that are going to transform education in our country."
One member of the audience
asked Forest about Senate Bill 14, the first bill Gov. McCrory signed into law,
calling for diplomas to reflect a student's “career readiness” or “college
readiness. The concerned man has been a teacher for 15 years and does not want
to see kids labeled before they get out into the world. Forest neither defended
or supported the measure, but claimed that pairing teens with vocations and
apprenticeships at young age ensured better employment and might solve the
problem of unemployed college graduates.
Forest has been repeatedly
reminded of his statement that N.C.'s teachers ought to be the highest paid in
the nation, but has back-pedaled in his last few appearances. Comprehensive tax
reform passed earlier this year and it failed to address teacher pay. Forest
now says that teacher pay isn't as low as it seems as N.C. Teachers have a low
cost of living, great healthcare benefits, and other perks.
Forest said he could not
comment on the State Board of Education's lawsuit against the state about
funding for the More at Four program, as he is a voting member of the board
Enthusiastic questions and
concerns came from an Asheville group promoting medical marijuana rights in the
South East. Two women from The Buzz (NORML newsletter), a cancer survivor, and
Todd Stimson wanted to know why a bill allowing cannabis for medicinal purposes
was stalled before the end of the last session. Forest said it wasn't a
pressing issue for lawmakers, which raised questions about lawmaker complaints
that they had been “annoyed” by overwhelming support for the bill.
Forest was bombarded with
more questions; why should a non-violent marijuana user be labeled a felon and
lose the right to a driver's license and voting? Todd Stimson suffered that
fate when his business, Blue Ridge Medical Cannabis Research Corporation was
raided in 2011. Stimson had been paying taxes and disclosed the nature of his
research to the state. Forest agreed that the penalties were too steep and non-violent
offenders, "need to be able to be assimilated back into our society
again." He said he is working with his brother, the Chief Federal
Probation Officer of Western N.C., the Department of Transportation, and the
Department of Public Safety to resolve this issue.
When more questions related
to cannabis arose he said, "This is not the cannabis town hall...this is
not my issue, you can take it up with your other legislatures."
The meeting came to end
after Forest answered the last question, what exactly is your job? It is to be
a voting member on a number of boards, host town hall meetings, and to be voice
between citizens and the state.
Lt. Gov. Dan Forest was
elected independently of Governor McCrory, his website has not been updated
since he won the nomination in 2012.
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