Unless he can explain his ads, Stan White does not have sufficient character to be a N. C. Senator. We'll show you why we feel that way. | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    We published an article recently that fact-checked current ads being run by Stan White, the NCAE and other Democrats that calm specific representatives and candidates have "cut education funding." Recently released numbers from the Department of Public Instruction prove just the opposite. Funding for Pre-K-12 has increased since Republican took control of the Legislature, not decreased. Neither White nor anyone else has rebutted that contention, thus we assume they accept it as accurate. If not, we'd love to hear from them.

    Now White's out with a mailer that accuses Bill Cook, as a representative of House 6 in the last legislature of cutting "$1 billion from our public schools and community colleges and fire 3,400 teachers, teachers' assistants..."; laying off police, firefighters and public safety professionals; requiring toll on ferries and giving millionaires another huge tax cut." A footnote cites the bills upon which he bases these accusations. So we checked the bills he notes. Here's what we found.

    HB 200 was the House Appropriations Act of 2011. Cook vote yes on final passage and White voted no. Perdue vetoed it. Cook voted to override the veto and White voted not to override. It did indeed have a huge tax cut. It repealed the Perdue increase of the sales tax. Millionaires? Everybody pays sales tax and the incidence of the any sales tax is heaviest on the poor, who pay a larger share of their income with higher sales tax rates. So Cook voted to cut the sales tax, White voted not to cut the sales tax.

    The other bill was HB 950--Modify 2011 Appropriations. This bill, along with "technical amendments" rolled back the Ferry tolls that had earlier been added to the budget but White does not mention that they were rolled back. Nor does White mention why and how the tolls got rolled back. He would know if he had asked the Senate President Pro Tempore or his staff, as we did. They gave credit to none other than Bill Cook and Norm Sanderson.

    What White does not say in his adds if that the teachers and teacher assistants that were cut were the result of the phase-out of the Obama Stimulus money. But the legislature did not "cut 3,400 teachers" as White says.

    Moreover, if you do a search of HB 200 and HB 950 (the budget bills) for "police," "firefighters," "professional safety professionals" you will find that no such cuts were made as claimed by White's mailer. The only impact of the budget was on the State Capitol Police force and there are no mandated cuts of any local police or firefighters. None. Zero. Zip. Nadda.
Stan White forever in the orbit of the Beverly Perdue / Marc Basnight / Jim Hunt machine.     photo by Stan Deatherage
    If Bill Cook were to play White's game he could just as easily claim Stan White voted to close the public schools and eliminate all public safety services. In fact using White's standard, Cook could say White voted to shutdown state government. If Bill Cook voted to cut 3,400 teachers, Stan White voted to cut every teacher who now has a job.

    Stan White has some explaining to do, in our opinion. He obviously either did not know what went on in Raleigh last session or he is lying about it.

    Even a freshman legislator should know that to make an ligitimate case that he or another legislator voted for or against something in an omnibus bills requires that an amendment be offered and the vote on the amendment tagged on individual legislators. That is precisely why amendments are offered. The separate out specific issues. To be sure Senator White understands this. If he does not his ignorance is sufficient to send him home. If he does understand he is being dishonorable in his ads.

    But we will offer him equal space to defend his claims. Stay tuned and let's see how he responds. But don't hold you breath.

    Commentary

    This election has, in our opinion, been the most dishonest we have ever experienced. That's at the national and state levels. And we've had our share if it locally. So this is more than just sloppy research and inaccurate ads. There is a pattern here. And we think it is past time to put a stop to it.

    As long as the voters continue to vote for politicians who lie and distort and then refuse to defend what they put out then they and those who follow them will continue to do so. It used to be that a politician tried to get information correct for fear of being caught in a falsehood. But those days are gone. Since Bill ("I did not have sex with that woman...") Clinton, we have been treated to "say whatever you have to say, no matter whether its true or not."

    Until the voters reject such politicians, the unscrupulous ones will continue to lie.

    Stan White, like some others, seems to have no honor or shame. He does not deserve to be representing us in Raleigh no matter what his politics. This is a character issue and unless Mr. White can sufficiently explain his ads then we can conclude nothing else but that he has an intolerable character flaw.