Koch brothers breaking all spending records to defeat Democrat Kay Hagan [View all]

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Koch brothers breaking all spending records to defeat Democrat Kay Hagan

by Joan McCarter

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The Koch brothers are so intent on buying the Senate, they'll spend anything to make it happen. Right now, they are focusing primarily on one race: Democrat Kay Hagan's Senate seat in North Carolina. It's a twofer for them: in attacking Hagan, they're boosting one of their reliable lackeys in state House Speaker Thom Tillis.

Americans for Prosperity, a group co-founded by the conservative billionaires, has already dropped $8.2 million on TV, radio and digital ads in an effort to defeat the North Carolina Democrat. According to sources tracking media buys, the group has so far spent more in North Carolina than all Democratic outside groups in every Senate race in the country—combined.

And while AFP won’t predict the amount it will ultimately spend in North Carolina, if the conservative group keeps the same pace, it’ll spend more than $27 million by Election Day in the Tar Heel State. That’s more than twice what any outside group has spent in the past dozen years in North Carolina congressional races. <...>

Hagan’s popularity has taken a hit just as the onslaught by the Koch group has intensified, with a solid lead dropping her to about even with her prospective foes in the polls. Hagan still has hopes that a messy GOP primary will damage the leading GOP candidates—Tillis, obstetrician Greg Brannon or Baptist pastor Mark Harris—and that their far-right positions will be rejected by voters in a state that has seen sharp shifts in public opinion. Her campaign has about five times more money than the most well-funded GOP candidate, Tillis, giving Democrats hope that the eventual GOP nominee will be easy to define in the eyes of voters as the election draws nearer.

“No one in the country has gone to the mat for the Koch brothers the way Thom Tillis did in the North Carolina Legislature,” said Matt Canter, a DSCC spokesman.

The Kochs saw North Carolina as a key state to take over early, and it was one of the first states where they set down their astroturf. Among their victories, with the help of Tillis, was rejecting Medicaid expansion. They've done a good job taking over North Carolina. And now, thanks to the Supreme Court and its Citizens United decision, the Koch brothers can spend every grimy cent they have on installing their lackeys in the U.S. Senate. There's little question that that's the ultimate aim of their relentless assault on Hagan.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/12/1277040/-Koch-brothers-breaking-all-spending-records-to-defeat-Democrat-Kay-Hagan

Why NC (surprisingly) is a national leader in Affordable Care Act enrollment

Posted by : Adam Searing

Last week I was meeting with other health advocates from around the country. Many of them had one question for me – with our state’s refusal to expand Medicaid or set up a state exchange under the Affordable Care Act, how is it that NC is enrolling twice the percentage of its uninsured people in private health plans than any other similar state? In response I wrote this op-ed in today’s News and Observer:

While North Carolina has refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and many politicians continue to complain about the federal health exchange, the roll-out of Obamacare in N.C. tells a far more positive story.

North Carolina is enrolling uninsured people at a rate at least twice that of any other state that has refused to set up its own health exchange and refused to expand Medicaid. In short, among states that are dragging their feet on the Affordable Care Act – no advertising campaigns, no speeches by the governor on how important it is for everyone to have access to health care, no Medicaid expansion that guarantees the lowest income workers coverage – North Carolina is by far leading the pack in private plan enrollment.

Even with the federal health exchange’s shaky start, N.C. has already enrolled 107,778 uninsured people in private health plans. Compare that with Virginia (44,676 enrolled), South Carolina (24,116), Georgia (58,611), and Tennessee (36,250). Only states like Florida and Texas with many more uninsured people than North Carolina are enrolling anywhere near our raw numbers, and they are far behind us in the percentage of uninsured getting coverage. (Read more)

http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2014/01/29/why-nc-surprisingly-is-a-national-leader-in-affordable-care-act-enrollment/

More: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/01/28/3572241/how-nc-surprisingly-became-a-leader.html