GOP governor hopefuls make pitch at Asheville luncheon today

January 24, 2008 by Jordan Schrader

The Republican race for governor stops in Asheville today, on the heels of Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory’s debut as a candidate and just ahead of a key fundraising deadline.

Today’s candidate luncheon comes at a time of uncertainty for the region’s native son, Bob Orr, whom analysts said is likely to continue to struggle to raise the money essential to winning the May 6 primary election.

Friday is the reporting deadline for candidates to disclose how much they raised and spent in the second half of 2007.

“It’s tough raising money,” said Orr, of Burnsville. “If it’s about money, I lose. If it’s about ideas and substance, I win.”

Another challenge for the former state Supreme Court justice is to distinguish himself from the pack.

State Sen. Fred Smith has diligently met with local Republican activists and will rely on the party’s base, said Chris Sinclair, a Republican consultant unaffiliated with the campaigns.

Smith is hosting barbecues in each county aimed at attracting the party’s rank and file.

Sinclair said McCrory, who announced his candidacy last week, would appeal to business leaders and to voters who are less conservative.

Not that he is giving up on any segment of his party.

“I have a very conservative voting record with regard to reducing crime, balancing budgets, using my veto, creating jobs. That’s a strong Republican platform,” McCrory said.
Orr has appeal to conservatives

Orr’s opposition to targeted economic-development incentives appeals to conservative voters, said John Davis, director of the N.C. Forum for Research and Economic Education, a business association.

He is liked by a certain kind of conservative, Sinclair said, “a level of folk who are real cerebral in their approach to policy.”

Orr has cast himself as a moderate on education, though.

“I think other than the incentives issue, Pat and I probably have more similarities in our policy positions than perhaps I have with Bill or Fred,” he said this week.

But Smith, of Clayton, and Salisbury lawyer Bill Graham, best known for his fight to cap the gas tax, can make their pitches using personal wealth that allowed them to loan their campaigns hundreds of thousands of dollars by last summer.

McCrory could see contributions from the business community, Sinclair said.

“If the nicest guy won, Bob Orr would be our next governor,” Davis said. “He’s truly a remarkable person. But he is going to struggle to raise the money necessary to be competitive in the big leagues.”

Orr put Mr. Nice Guy aside Wednesday in a statement that accused McCrory of not playing straight with voters.

Orr said McCrory’s campaign in its first week “has repeatedly provided skewed information to the people of our state,” in one case by claiming at first that a typo proclaiming McCrory was running for “governer” was the work of a hacker.

They also failed to mention that former Gov. Jim Martin had endorsed Orr as well as McCrory and cited statistics on illegal immigration that the Charlotte Observer reported were not kept by officials, Orr said.

The statement also went after McCrory for suggesting Orr copied his plan to make the state schools superintendent an appointed instead of elected job.

“That’s sad,” McCrory said of the news release, noting he introduced the idea at a debate last week before Orr unveiled his own plan Tuesday and clarifying that others had come up with the idea long before them.

“I’m not going to get in these foolish games,” he said.