Stam

I struggle to describe the radical North Carolina branch of the Republican Party. As I tell my Republican friends, this is not the Republican Party I grew up with in Minnesota.

The message that drew my mother to the "Party of Lincoln" 50 years ago: fiscal efficiency, individual responsibility, equality of opportunity, and protecting rights and civil liberties, is now completely lost. The NC GOP of 2008 has abdicated those mainstream American values in favor of anti-government rhetoric, rigid and dangerous fiscal policy, social intolerance, and divisiveness.

I wanted to share a press release I sent out today condemning my opponent for his lone vote against the Noose Bill.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ed Ridpath
Telephone: (919) 567-2099
Mobile: (919) 274-0744
Email: info@edridpath.com
Website: www.EdRidpath.com
Ridpath condemns Stam for Noose Bill Vote.

Ed Ridpath, Fuquay-Varina Democrat and Candidate for NC House 37 made the following statement today:

What kind of buildings would we name after the GOP minority leader? Here are some ideas:

• The Skip Stam Sewage Plant - planned to be located strategically in the center of New Hill between the 2 churches in that community. Now every Sunday, the odor will remind worshipers of how poorly Stam defended their rights.
• The Skip Stam Landfill expansion - As the mountain of garbage greets those entering Holly Springs, it will remind them that Stam was too busy defending marriages to worry about Holly Springs.
• The Skip Stam Toll Way (now with "Stam Tax"!) - Now as the good citizens of Southern Wake pay twice - once with gas tax and again with a hefty toll ("Stam Tax"), they can remember who neglected the roads. Of course, Stam can't even get funding passed to start building I-540 as a toll road.
• The Skip Stam Mandatory Year Round School and Trailer Park - Since Stam, a real estate lawyer, fights transfer and impact fees to the exclusion of doing anything for the district, it's only fitting to name an overcrowded school after him.

Anyone who has been around BlueNC for any time at all knows I hate the so-called North Carolina Education Lottery. I hate everything about it, but mostly I hate the fact that our elected officials have seen fit to bet the future of public education on their ability to coax mostly poor people into gambling.

So my natural instinct is to be sympathetic to people who want to stop the lottery in its tracks by suing the state for not following proper procedures when the monstrosity was approved. But the more I read about these people, the more disgusted I become.

According to the N&O, the plaintiffs in the case include Paul Stam, the Wake County Taxpayers Association and the N.C. Family Policy Council. These folks were against the lottery in the first place, and they've been looking for an angle to stop it ever since.

So why to they have to lie about what they're doing now?

They say their goal is not to end it -- but to make sure its passage followed the state constitution.