Democratic gubernatorial candidate Walter Dalton suggested Monday that his GOP candidate’s employer, a major Charlotte law firm, is using McCrory’s status as a potential governor to bring in business.
After speaking to the Raleigh Rotary Club, Dalton questioned the role of former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory with the firm of Moore & Van Allen. He said McCrory is not a lawyer and says he does nolobbying for the firm.
“They say he is a rainmaker in new client development,” Dalton told reporters. “How is he making the rain? Are they lining up big corporations at the door and going ka-ching, ka-ching, and bringing them in and saying, ‘This is Pat McCrory, the guy we are going to make governor of North Carolina: Tell them what you want and we want you as a good client and this is what we can do for you’?”
“I don’t know that is what is going on,” Dalton added. But he said that is what “rainmakers” do and that “people deserve to know.”
Moore & Van Allen is one of the largest law firms in the Southeast, with more than 300 attorneys. McCrory is director of strategic initiatives and says he is a policy consultant on issues such as energy and land use, and also does client development and marketing.
Meanwhile, McCrory’s campaign on Monday put out a statement criticizing Dalton’s tenure as co-chairman of the Senate budget committee.
“Walter Dalton can try and distance himself from he and Governor Perdue’s broken government policies that helped dig North Carolina into a fiscal mess, but North Carolina won’t get fooled again,” the McCrory campaign said.
McCrory well ahead in new poll
McCrory’s firm grasp on the North Carolina governor’s race continues as a new poll shows him 10 points ahead of Dalton. McCrory received 47 percent to Dalton’s 37 percent in a survey of likely voters released Monday by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. The results are identical to a PPP survey from Sept. 30 and indicate the first statewide TV debate and a month’s worth of TV commercials did nothing to boost Dalton. Libertarian Barbara Howe received 5 percent, and 11 percent remain undecided, the poll showed. Meanwhile, Democrat Linda Coleman and Republican Dan Forest are running neck-and-neck in the race to decide the next lieutenant governor, according to the PPP report released Monday. The poll shows Forest with a 38 percent to 37 percent lead, well within the margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.
Twenty-six percent remain undecided. In other down-ballot races, PPP shows every incumbent enjoying a lead, and a sizable gap in the state Supreme Court race where Sam Ervin IV leads Paul Newby 32 percent to 24 percent.
Focus on ‘pre-registration’ law
A state law passed a few years ago that allows North Carolina high school students to “pre-register” to vote has attracted national attention.
While five other states allow teenagers to register starting at age 16, only North Carolina requires county elections officials to hold registration drives at high schools. This November will be the first presidential election since the law passed in 2009.
“We all know the national trend that voter participation with youth is pretty low, it’s pretty pathetic to be honest,” state Rep. Tricia Ann Cotham told Fox News. “So I hope that this is a tool to say ‘participate in your government, be involved’ and let’s form good habits as citizens and be engaged and informed.”
Staff writers Rob Christensen, John Frank and Austin Baird
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