Comments by Mattie Lawson | Eastern North Carolina Now

This move was a surprise to me as Tine's opponent in 2012 and 2014. I am very interested in this change because if Tine had run as a Unaffiliated (as he claims is more closely aligned with his beliefs) I would be the District's current House Representative. And the NC Republican House Caucus would have had an actual Republican in it's ranks rather than making room for a liberal Unaffiliated who will just muddy the waters.

My supporters and I worked hard and lost against a super well-funded Democrat and voters cast ballots for someone who wasn't really what he said he was. Politics aren't fair. It's hard to make this look like anything but an opportunity for Tine to use donors and use the political system to gain power for himself. Hopefully, this will somehow bode well for District 6 in the end.

Although Tine didn't beat the Democrat drum as much as I've heard other politicians during the campaigns, I found his ideas leaned far left: the answers to our problems are more government involvement.

Politically, he made a smart move as someone who wants to be a mover and shaker, which he clearly does. Getting into the Republican Caucus won't hurt him though I fail to see how it helps the Republicans who don't need his vote and will find he doesn't help bolster conservative ideas of less government involvement in our daily lives. Look at this voting record in the past. Civitas gave him an "F" rating for good reason.

In making this announcement Tine claimed he wasn't free to vote as he chose as a Democrat. That's quite a condemning statement on Democrats. Maybe his most significant contribution to his home District might have been to remain a Democrat so he could reform it from the inside allowing politicians to vote their conscience rather than follow lock-step in line with the party.

He voted against keeping Sharia Law out of NC courtrooms. His position on Common Core has him aligned with the NC Department of Instruction rather than with parents. He can’t run from the $2000 he gave from his personal resources to elect 0bama.

I imagine the NC and outside NC Dems that gave him thousands and thousands of dollars to beat me twice are not happy right now.

Bottom line: I'm glad he did it and am not disappointed he didn't switch to Republican because he kept some credibility.

It will be interesting to see what legislation he sponsors and who the "Dare Care" Dems will find to run against him in 2016. Becoming unaffiliated makes him more beatable by a hard-hitting Republican candidate regardless of which race he tackles next.

Keep on eye on his voting record. Talk is cheap. Action is what matters.

Commented: Monday, January 12th, 2015 @ 2:55 pm By: Mattie Lawson

Again one of my opponents has chosen to whine about "he said/she said...," "she did it first..." and other such trivial matters. I will not respond point by point to such childishness.

There are too many more important issues to be talking about in this campaign, such as how to turn the economy around in our state, how the state can prevent further damage to our nation by Barack Obama and especially how House District 6 can help complete the job begun by the Republican majority in the last session of the Legislature. Mr. Adams' continuing insistence on going off on tangents serves no useful purpose, either in finding solutions to the real problems facing our district or in helping voters determine who will best deal with those issues.

I regret that I initially fell for Mr. Adam's attempts to call attention to himself by such tactics as using quotes out of context and parsing words. I won’t participate in such childishness. If Mr. Adam's wants to dwell on trivial matters he is certainly free to do so. I'm going to focus on the important issues in this campaign.

Barack Obama and his arrogant czars and bureaucrats are ruining this country, from an insidious attempt to subjugate American sovereignty to the United Nations, all the way down to diving rules on our beaches, without our state officials standing up to him. That must stop. The Republican Legislature passed SB 2 to prevent the implementation of ObamaCare in this state. A Democrat governor vetoed it. We must elect a Republican governor and enough conservative Republicans to override any veto if need be. And the way we do that is to focus on the issues that are important not to politicians, but to the people of Eastern North Carolina. Our people do not care who decided first to run in this election or what conversations were held between potential candidates. Nonsense! That kind of nonsense is exactly why so many people are disgusted with politicians and government today. Let’s find ways to get the People's job done. I call upon Mr. Adams and all candidates to join me in focusing on what we need to do to turn this state around and restore constitutional government in North Carolina and in Washington, D.C. In November let’s send Mr. Obama into retirement.

Commented: Saturday, April 28th, 2012 @ 2:24 pm By: Mattie Lawson

The problem with calculating any degree of productivity is the ability, or lack thereof, to establish measures. Without metrics it is not possible to benchmark performance. The benchmark is the point of departure used for comparison purposes.

Productivity looks at both the burn rate or use of consumable resources, like time, and the cost of the studied performance.

I propose that productivity should not be the primary goal for the service sector, which unhappily today includes public education. As much as I agree the loss of productivity is more dearly felt when we are talking about the education of our precious children, the lack of productivity is not the factor that needs to alarm us. No, the measure of perfomance when it comes to educating should be the value of the education over the cost.

Whether the topic is argiculture or the service sector, value determines if the result is worth the cost. No matter what the cost, if our children are not being enabled to become self-sufficent citizens capable of critical thinking with an appreciation for how the real world works, it is our job to stop it and replace it immediately with education that delivers true value regardless of the productivity.

Commented: Wednesday, March 14th, 2012 @ 5:25 pm By: Mattie Lawson

I certainly agree! I would think anyone who changed parties just to get elected would be too embarrassed to show up in public, let alone do stump speeches! Where is any sense of integrity? Who is supporting these chameleons?

As I understand it a full one third of voters know nothing about the candidates when they go to the polls. They just like the names and select them at random. So sad. It cancels out the votes of knowledgeable voters who took the time to study the candidates and maybe even contribute toward one or more. These voters are almost as arrogant as those who run for office under the pretense of being the kind of person they claim to be. Our Founding Fathers would have shunned such a politician – and such a voter.

Thanks for the article. It is timely.

I've been a Republican for over 35 years! I'm a TEA Party Conservative. Check my voting record. I have nothing to hide

Commented: Monday, February 20th, 2012 @ 3:16 pm By: Mattie Lawson