Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / Nov. 5, 2014, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of Elon University Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Wednesday November 5, 2014 • NEWS ELECTIONS from cover as North Carolina’s Speaker of the House would serve the state well. port from more seasoned poli ticians. Bill and Hillary Clinton endorsed Hagan, while TiUis re endorsement from former Massa chusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Throughout the race, Hagan portrayed' herself as a moderate candidate, though she received continued support from President Barack Obama. “To me it all comes down to record,” said John Stewart, Chairman of the 9th district for North Car olina GOP. “In four years, Tillis has passed tort reform, corpo rate tax reforms, corporate tax code. Hagan, in the past six years, all she has done is be the deciding vote on Obamacare.” Both candidates received sup "I BELIEVE IN THE VOTERS, AND IF WE'RE STILL IN CHARGE, WE'LL DO ALRIGHT." JUSTIN STEWART REPUBLICAN FROM CHARLOTTE ceived support from John McCain and Lindsey Graham as well as an This resonat ed Mth some North Caro linians, like Jill Kazura, a former state employee. “Hagan is moderate, and she’s willing to listen to all sides,” Kazura said. “That’s something we haven’t seen in a whUe.This stale mate in Wash ington has got ized on Hagan’s aHgnment wdth Obama on 96 percent of the issues including the Aifordable Care Act, as something that would negative- ly impact the state. Libertarian candidate Sean Haugh hovered at about 4 percent of the vote throughout the evening. Other races to stop.” The TiUis campaign capital Walker and Fjeld faced off to replace former U.S. representative Howard Coble, who recently re tired after 30 years in office. Walk er led the race early on and main tained his advantage right up until polls closed about 8:15 p.m. With 16 percent precincts ac counted for, Walker was declared winner with 59 percent of the vote shortly after the polls closed. Voters came from across the state to celebrate with the candi dates they supported. John Try- mosky, a Rockingham County resident, drove 20 miles to support Walker and to work in the polls Tuesday. “His ideas_ to make changes in Washington were very positive,” Trymosky said. “He’s going to be a terrific congressman.” Republican Renee Elmers won the seat for the 2nd Congressional District over Democratic candi date Clay Aiken. She took 59 per cent of the votes over Aiken’s 41 percent. There were a couple of victories for Democrats as G.K. Butterfield won the 1st Congressional Dis trict, which encompasses most of northeastern North Carolina, over Republican Arthur Rich. Dem ocrat David Price also beat out Republican candidate Paul Wright for the 4th Congressional District, which includes Orange, Durham and Wake County. Additoinal reporting by Halt Tauxe-Stewart, staff photographer. Latest Elon Poll emphasizes tight race A surprising shift toward gay marriage opposition occurs Michael Papich Assistant News Editor With midterm elections sl-ated for Tuesday in North Carolina, the latest Elon University Poll shows incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan, 0-N.C., ahead of her Republican challenger, N.C. Speaker of the House Tiom Tillis. But the lead is a slim one. “Tie rule of thumb is, if you really want to be 95 percent confident about the outcome of an election, you need about a seven-point difference,” said Kenneth Fernandez, director of the Elon Universi ty Poll. “Right now we’re at a four-point difference.” Tie Senate race has come down to a statistic-al tie that has tightened signifi cantly over the year. Jason Husser, assis tant director of the Elon Poll, said Tillis has been able to get better name recogni tion, which has improved his chances. “Tie’s campaigning full-time now," Husser said. “Over the summer, he had to split time between campaigning and working as Speaker of the House.” As anyone in North Carolina who’s turned on a television or watched You Tube knows, campaign ads have showed up all over this fall. Tillis is the target of the most attack ads in the country at the moment, with Hagan the eighth-most at tacked. Husser added that negative ads have a strategic benefit for campaigns. “Scholars say people remember nega tive things more. If you’re campaigning, you want to keep your name and your op ponent’s name in the voter’s head,” he said. “You can say something positive about yourself, but that’s easier to spin.” Fernandez said it’s possible that too many negative ads can lead to voter apa thy, but he doesn’t think that’s going to be the case in this election. “I would predict th-at turnout in this election will be higher than in the 2010 midterm because so much money is being spent,” he said. Shift in gay marriage Elections are unpredictable because big news items can interrupt established narratives, -and the 2014 election is no dif ferent. Ebola, ISIS and same-sex marriage have been part of campaigns and debates across the country, so the Elon Universi ty Poll asked North Carolina voters how they feel about these topics. One of the biggest surprises in the poll comes from an uptick in opposition to same-sex marriage, with 50 percent now opposed and only 39 percent supporting. Husser attributed this to the recent news from the Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage in North Carolina and the magistrates who resigned over it. “I think that finding is a blip and we’re not seeing a long-term trend away from support for same-sex marriage, which we’ve seen growing statewide,” he said. Husser said it’s possible that putting same-sex marriage back in the news will help Tillis by invigorating more voters to go to the polls, but when the latest poll asked voters what the most important issues were, “same-sex marriage did not come up at all.” Instead, foreign affairs were import ant to both Hagan’s and Tillis’ support ers. When asked what the United States should do about ISIS, 43 percent of re spondents said .air strikes and ground troops should be utilized, while one-third said only air strikes. Only 15 percent of respondents said no military action should be taken. Fernandez said framing ISIS as a polit ical issue should help Republicans, but not necessarily now. “In the long run, it will help because ISIS and national defense questions draw away from women’s issues and education, which North Carolina republicans have not been doing well on,” he said. In other issues, an outbreak of Ebola remains a concern for many. A patient was admitted to Duke University Hospi tal late Sunday night for suspected Ebola, but preliminary test results Monday were negative. On average. North Carolina voters said there was a 31 percent chance of an Ebo la outbreak affecting 100 or more Amer icans. Hagan voters thought it was a 23 percent chance, and Tillis voters thought it was a 38 percent chance. Wheri asked how voters feel about the Affordable Care Act, 48 percent of re spondents thought the law will make the health care situation in the state worse. Despite efforts to tie Hagan to the law, polls have her on top of the issue. “In 2010, people were losing sleep over it. Not so much now,” Fernandez said. “And a lot of people are not voting for it to be repealed. They just want to modify it.” Husser said the Supreme Court’s de cision in the Hobby Lobby case — about whether a private company has to fund contraception — has also made the law more palatable for social conservatives, and there have not been any major issues with the law, such as issues of crashes and programming problems during the site’s initial launch in 2013. Who votes, anyway? 996 adults were polled from Oct. 21-25, 2014 and asked whom they would vote for in the NC Senate race. The results were as follows: Results from the Nov. 4, 2014 NC Senate race are as follows, with 96% of precincts reporting (as of 10:47 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2014): Kay Hagan; 44.7% Thom Tillis: 50% Thom THtts; 40.7% Kay Hagan: 46% pQffii’Ortw, siss; 6.3% Don't know: 6.6% Sean Haugh: 3% KRISTEN DEM.^RIA ] Design Cb'' Hagan saw a six-point drop in self-identified independents who say they are voting for her, according to the poll But, Husser said, true Independents who do not lean either way are rare, making up about 1-in-lO voters. “If we cut it down to true Independents, Hagan is getting more,” he said. “But true Independents are usually not very sophis ticated and have less political knowledge, so they’re unpredictable.” The 2014 election is also the first elec tion where some of the voting reforms go into effect in North Carolina. While photo I.D. wiU not be required until 2016, same-day registration is no longer an op tion. “TTiere is a considerable amount of data showing same-day registration gets a lot of votes, so that could really hurt turnout,. Fernandez said. But Fernandez also said the summers Moral Mondays protests may also help turnout, as well as what appears to be a boost in early voting this year. The midterm election between Hagan and Tillis is widely-regarded as the clos est in the country. For North Carolina, the state’s future as either red or blue hangs very much in the balance of the results.
Elon University Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 5, 2014, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75