NCSEN: STILL waiting for some substance | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton keeps the U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina in clear perspective in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    Okay. It's become pretty clear that Kay Hagan's upper middle-class family has benefited greatly from our bloated state and federal governments. See brother in law David's real estate commissions from the city of Greensboro, hubby Chip's stimulus money, and son Tilden's business getting cash from the USDA.

    On the GOP side, we've had law clients of Thom Tillis's brother-in-law getting cozy treatment from the state of North Carolina while he was serving as speaker, and we've had big contributions show up in Tillis's campaign kitty right about the time said contributors got (1) favorable verbal feedback from Tillis or (2) favorable action from the state House.

    Both major party candidates appear to have used their positions within government to the benefit of friends and family. So, we have a relative TIE on the issue of ethics / sleaziness, etc. split

    The campaign is being dominated by ads talking about public school class sizes and textbook expenditures. THAT would be an issue for your local school board race, or something to discuss at your local school board's public comment time. I don't see the population size of your kid's classroom coming up for a vote on the US Senate floor any time soon.

    There also appears to be a lot of concern about Kay Hagan's attendance at Senate Armed Services Committee hearings. As though her presence there depended on whether beheadings, explosions, and outright anarchy would continue in the Middle East.

    Kay Hagan has voted for radical leftist lawyers, who do things like represent cop-killers, to Justice Department positions and judgeships. She has supported feminist witch-hunts in the military and the NFL. She boasted about helping to write ObamaCare, and has defended its passage. If I were running against her, I would be standing with Pattie Curran's family – going broke taking care of their kids thanks to ObamaCare – blasting Hagan and this horrible law with every ounce of energy I had. But Pattie backed Brannon in the primary, so there might be too much stupid pride among Theam Tillis to go there. (And there's the inconvenient fact that Tillis tried to saddle us with an ObamaCare insurance exchange.)

    There is also the issues with our southern border. Way too many politicos are scared to offend their agri-help interest donors who depend on migrant workers. Hagan voted for the Gang of Eight amnesty bill. Tillis told the Farm Bureau he might be able to "help" them.

    Then there's the horrible economy. How about sharing some vision on how to turn things around?

    It's nice that Thom had a paper route and worked his way through college. A lot of people have done that. There are also a lot of people I would not like casting votes on my behalf in the US Senate.

    Let's leave the school stuff to the local school board candidates. Leave the birth control to the doctors. Share with us your vision for reviving this economy and protecting our nation from a flood of Third-World illegal immigrants and the issues they bring with them.