Democrats Vie To Retake 2nd Congressional District | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Dan Way, who is an associate editor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Candidates hold similar views but have much different experience

    RALEIGH     Democratic congressional candidates Toni Morris and former state Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco espouse similar political beliefs, such as the need to raise taxes while cutting spending.

    But they differ in background, and both see the difference as a strength in their May 6 2nd Congressional District primary — Morris because of her work inside the Democratic Party and Crisco for his work inside Raleigh and Washington.

    Singer-celebrity Clay Aiken also is in the Democratic primary, but after multiple attempts by Carolina Journal to schedule an interview for this story, Aiken and his campaign spokesmen refused.

    The winner will challenge either incumbent Republican Renee Ellmers or GOP primary challenger Frank Roche in November. The district, which was represented by Democrat Bob Etheridge for seven terms until Ellmers defeated Etheridge in 2010, is rated Strong Republican by the North Carolina FreeEnterprise Foundation.

    "I'm an underdog, one, because I'm a female. Unfortunately, that's the way some people think," Morris said.

    "I'm an underdog because of the amount of money that a celebrity and a businessman can raise compared to me. But underdogs also come out on top," she said.

    As of April 17, according to NCFEF, Crisco spent $493,087, and still has $37,877 cash on hand. Aiken spent $108,207, and has $124,925 remaining. No current campaign finance report was on file for Morris.

    "I did run in 2012, and pull [45.6] percent in the primary, so the district already knew me," said Fayetteville resident Morris, a licensed professional counselor and member of the Democratic State Executive Committee.

    "I've been working with candidates and helping candidates get elected with the Democratic Party [while] the other two have not been doing that," she said. "Within the Democratic Party they know me."

    "Congress is not an entry level job. We do not need on-the-job training," said Crisco, of Asheboro. He is founding partner and former chairman and president of Asheboro Elastics, now AEC Narrow Fabrics, and served as a White House Fellow for a year under the assistant to the U.S. secretary of commerce during the Nixon administration.

    "I've got the experience to do the job. I understand business. I've run a company. I've been active in private life, and in public life. I've met a payroll. I've traveled the world. I've got a perspective on a world economy," Crisco said.

    "I've spent time in Washington, I've spent time in Raleigh," said Crisco, who will "very quickly talk about term limits if I'm elected. I think we need a citizen legislature."

    Both candidates said the $17.5 trillion national debt is unsustainable and must be reduced.

    "We might have to raise some taxes in some areas, but we're definitely going to have to cut spending in some areas," Morris said. "It's got to be a combination."

    But cuts must be shallow if considered in social services and welfare programs, she said, "because right now we have people who are struggling, and that's a way of people maintaining, and eating, and taking care of things."

    "You've got the top 1 percent that could do more. Then you've got people in the middle class, their taxes are a little bit higher, and they're paying more than they probably can afford to pay," Morris said. "So if we did some balancing ... I don't think that 1 percent, if they increased it a little bit, it wouldn't hurt them too bad."

    Crisco also advocates a blend of higher taxes and spending cuts.

    "There are occasions when additional revenue is appropriate," which may not be the politically smart thing to say, he admitted.

    "Our ports and roads, we cannot ignore them forever. So there's needs in some areas for additional expenditures, but there must be a net reduction in expenditures," Crisco said.

    "There's a lot of places for reduction," he said. "You've got to make sure the economy is not overshocked" by cutting too deeply, too quickly in social services or defense spending, which he supports.

    "I'm not very supportive of going into a major expenditure like a war we've been in the last 10 years. Both parties did it without understanding you need financing for such operations," Crisco said. "We simply took it out of deficits."

    Crisco believes "mistakes were made" by the government in the handling of the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, the IRS targeting of conservative nonprofits applying for tax-exempt status, and the government Fast and Furious program that allowed weapons to go untracked to Mexican drug cartels.

    "After a while we need to move on," he said. "I will say from 20,000 feet that most of these issues don't deserve the extended attention. We should get on and worry about national debt, worry about competitiveness of our industry."

    In Benghazi, "there's more to it than we know," Morris said. Were she a congressional leader, she said, "You're going to be held accountable because lives were lost, and we don't do that."

    But she questions extending the congressional hearings into Benghazi, IRS targeting, and Fast and Furious. "Again, the question with the hearings is are they really going to get the information they need," or just drag on while officials block release of pertinent details and tie up Congress.

    Morris wants to keep the Affordable Care Act in place.

    "It didn't roll out smoothly. We've got some of the kinks worked out," she said. "Let's re-evaluate it. As you re-evaluate it, the things that need to be fixed, let's go back and fix them. What's working, keep it."

    "The Affordable Care Act does have some positives, has quite a bit of negatives," Crisco said. "We can do it better privately, I know we can, but we need to put politics aside."

    Using premium supports to allow the uninsured to purchase private health plans is one option to explore, he said.

    "Premium supports allows the private efficiencies to work, and it just makes it more reachable for more people, and therefore the market expands," he said. Market expansion would drive down costs, he said.

    Morris would vote to keep the Patriot Act and National Security Agency surveillance programs in place "because that's the only way we can catch those who are trying to do harm to the United States," she said. "We just have to have things clearly defined, and make sure everybody adheres to the rules and regulations that are a part of it."

    "There is a price to pay to be safe, and we need to understand that price" when it comes to using drones and NSA surveillance, Crisco said.

    "There has been a little bit of far-reaching, and we need to use some judgment when we eavesdrop on the head of states of our allies," he said. There have been some constitutional privacy abuses on surveillance of U.S citizens. "Abuses should be addressed. They should be stopped."

    On the increased use of executive orders to enact de facto legislation that blurs constitutional boundaries, Crisco said it signals the president's frustration in dealing with a recalcitrant Congress. "The current president's doing a bunch of it, but he didn't invent the procedure. We should not do it," he said.

    "When the president does have the authority to do an executive order it's when things are not working. And unfortunately over the past six, seven years Washington has not been cooperating," Morris said. Congress should come to consensus on bills the president "can live with" and sign into law.

    Morris believes illegal immigrants should be documented by employers, given a work visa to make them legal, and put on a time-limited pathway to citizenship. Those who don't want to become U.S. citizens should be told, "you may have to go back to your own country."

    Crisco said a program could be devised to grant a driver's license and work permit for long-term illegals working in "certain categories of industry" such as textiles, landscaping, and agriculture. Any program participant who was charged with two misdemeanors or one felony would be disqualified from the program.

    Aiken's views can be found on his website.