AIKEN NEWS NETWORK OCT 22 & 23, 2014

[Marilyn]

http://fusion.net/video/23203/the-youngest-congresswoman-ever-a-gay-republican-and-clay-aiken-the-midterms-are-more-interesting-than-you-think/

4) North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District:

Incumbent Renee Ellmers is facing challenger Clay Aiken in the race for North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District. Yes… that Clay Aiken.

Clay Aiken wants America’s vote again this November, but will his celebrity status help or hurt him in his battle to unseat incumbent Rep. Ellmers? Warning: Don’t ask him to sing.

[Marilyn]

Clay for North Carolina
Just now · Alexandria, VA ·
Next town hall is tonight in Dunn at 6:30 pm, Triangle South Enterprise Center, Cafeteria, 600 S. Magnolia Ave, Dunn, NC 28334. Looking forward to another day on the road!

[Marilyn]

Emily Thomas @Divabaybe

My daughter & daughter-in-law with Clay Aiken pic.twitter.com/kVIN2c13pp

[Marilyn]

Christopher Hale @Chrishale92     ·  11h 11 hours ago   

@Chrishale92: That moment when you go to Walmart and forget your wallet, but roll up on @clayaiken @ClayForNC #DunnNC

Christopher Hale @Chrishale92     ·  4h 4 hours ago   

Town Hall Mtg w/ @clayaiken in Dunn NC. Talking to voters. No matter your political party, he's a great man.

[Marilyn]

Hi Everyone,
SO SO sorry for not getting you this update before now...We've been on the road all morning and this is literally the first moment I've had at my computer.

I'm sure you're all wondering if you we're able to hit the 100K goal by midnight PST last night. Well, the answer is YES! You actually were able to hit 103K!!!

I'll certainly send out fundraising updates to both the Blue and Gold teams, since you're still reaching for your individual team goals until the end of the election.

The GREAT news is that there will be a web performance after the election - and be on the lookout for "Gethsemane", I have a feeling it will make it to you soon!

Thank you so much for everything that you've done!

 

Nick Leisey

Finance Director

Clay Aiken for North Carolina

[Marilyn]

Clay for North Carolina
Just now · Alexandria, VA ·
Next town hall is tonight in Dunn at 6:30 pm, Triangle South Enterprise Center, Cafeteria, 600 S. Magnolia Ave, Dunn, NC 28334. Looking forward to another day on the road!

[Marilyn]

Monica Young
23 mins ·

So...I'm at the state fair with my job sitting down eating and Clay Akin walks up and shakes everybody's hand...

[Marilyn]

Our endorsements for the 2014 general election

The mute button on my remote control is nearly worn out. My home mailbox runneth over with glossy campaign mailers. My email inbox overfloweth with subject lines like: "Please help us, Lisa," and "Listen, I'm urging you."

The INDY's endorsements are a way to cut through the noise, to read analyses of races that keep the greater good in mind. The process works like this: The news staff sends questionnaires to the candidates and conduct background research on them, including political experience, voting record, other endorsements and criminal background checks.

After we receive the completed questionnaires, the news staff discusses the pros and cons of each candidate. We judge the candidates on several criteria: experience, intelligence and their commitment to making the Triangle a more just and progressive place to live.

Then we vote on whom to endorse. Each news reporter writes a set of endorsements; however, these stories are not bylined because the endorsements represent the opinion of the INDY as an institution.

A quick note: Last month we held two candidates' forums, which substituted for questionnaires in those races: In Wake County, commissioners in Districts 1, 2, 3 and 7; N.C. House 40 and 41; and State Senate 16 and 17. In Orange County, the forum featured commissioners' candidates in District 1, plus N.C. 23, House 50 and House 56.

As to who is giving how much to whom, campaign finance reports for the third quarter aren't due until Oct. 27, a little over a week before Election Day. We'll blog the reports—sometimes they take a while for the boards of election to process them—that week.

Read the questionnaires and view the forums available through INDY Week's site.
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The Clay/Renee part of the endorsement
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/add-democrats-to-us-house-senate/Content?oid=4273864
U.S. House, District 2




Renee Ellmers is a problem. The hawkish, self-described Tea Party Republican g is committed to repealing Obamacare, rolling back women's rights and deploying the young men and women of Fort Bragg to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria. She is an NRA-endorsed Islamophobe, and while the rest of her party cedes gay marriage as inevitable, just two weeks ago she held fast to the now-outdated "one man and one woman" talking point.

Congress is gridlocked and ethically compromised. Washington is filled with freshmen Representatives who show up with big dreams to accomplish something but are quickly ground down by the quid pro quo machinery. Clay Aiken seems to understand this and to have really thought about it—perhaps there is a chance that this knowledge will vaccinate him from the seemingly inevitable. Aiken has built his campaign on his desire to not just become another rank-and-file Democrat; with no ambitions as a career politician, perhaps he can remain independent of the party apparatus and beholden only to his constituents.

If anyone can do it, Aiken can. He already has a name and a fortune. He seems to view political office as a form of public service, not a job. This gives him a leg up on many other House Democrats. His nuanced and humane positions would also be a breath of fresh air in a room of dull Democrats. Aiken supports the Earned Income Tax Credit, a higher minimum wage, and has been out front on workers' rights, venturing out to rural Tar Heel, N.C. to meet with a union attempting to get representation in their poultry plant. He understands that the Affordable Care Act has issues, but is for tweaking it rather than repealing. As a high net worth individual, he understands that the one percent have to pay their fair share and shouldn't get special tax breaks. Aiken also gets disability advocacy. His non-profit National Inclusion Project is at the forefront of disability issues, bypassing many older nonprofits, as it seeks to integrate the disabled with the non-disabled. With his heartfelt, earnest Progressivism, forged in personal experience, Aiken would be a unique and welcome addition in the Democratic Party and the House of Representatives.



http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/our-endorsements-for-the-2014-general-election/Content?oid=4273855

[Marilyn]

Clay Aiken retweeted
Billy Ball @Billy_K_Ball · 20m 20 minutes ago

#indyweek endorsements up now. Picks include @SenatorHagan, @ClayForNC and more. http://bit.ly/ZNRFDr

[Marilyn]

Toy ?@thetoyanatimes · 1m1 minute ago
Clay Aiken is in the building right now as a candidate for the NC 2nd Congressional district race. Very gracious guy and TALL!

[Marilyn]

FROM TWILIGHT 926 AT CV

I just got home from the State Fair, I went with my mom ,older sister Darice niece Desiree. First when we got to the while we were trying to find were Clay was going to be, we looked at my neice's decorated cake she entered ,and cake for taste she made a Neapolitan cake.Desiree got first place,best in show for the Neapolitan cake! Desiree is 16. It took us a little while we found were Clay was going to be .Clay wasn't there yet I wore my Clay for NC shirt.I was going to wear before I knew I might see Clay. A guy at the both tried to give me a future Dem sister my mom told him I was 26 .So a few moments later Cay came I first saw Nick.I was the fist person at the booth this lady said to Clay how I was waiting to see him, If I remember right he asked how I was & shook my hand,then said something a getting a picture. my sister took the pic with her camera. then I said something about how I hope we make our goal,Clay said" I think you did,but don't quote me on that" Clay looked for Nick to ask him someone said in the bathroom Clay said I don't know why thats a secret " or something . Clay shook hands with my mom other people were coming over so then we left.

I had a deep fried brownie as we were getting ready to leave the fair it was really good!

I hope we get an official announcement about the goal soon!

Brittany Ellis @Twilight926

Look who I ran into at the NC state Fair today! @clayaiken!! pic.twitter.com/Y1ma0poodZ

[Marilyn]

Clay Aiken ?@ClayForNC 56s56 seconds ago

Well, @RepReneeEllmers bailed on today's @TWCNewsRDU debate. You can watch me debate an empty chair at 7pm this evening. #ncpol #nc02

[Marilyn]

Louise Kinnard?Harnett County Democratic Party
3 hrs ·

CLAY AIKEN BUS TOUR STOP

I got this off Clay's website: Dunn - Oct. 22nd, 6:30 pm, Triangle South Enterprise Center, Cafeteria, 600 S. Magnolia Ave, Dunn, NC 28334

And one of the comments:

Pat Ferguson He was in Whispering Pines last night (Tue) - had about 100 people there - many were Republicans. Almost every attendee asked him a question - they left with those Republaiken stickers on their shirts.

[Marilyn]

Aiken defends problematic TV ad
Posted by Lynn Bonner on October 22, 2014
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Clay Aiken, the Democratic candidate in the 2nd Congressional District, defended a new negative television ad Wednesday that a fact-checking organization found misleading.

Aiken’s campaign started airing an ad this week that takes on incumbent Rep. Renee Ellmers. Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, headlined its analysis, “Aiken’s Attack Ad Is Off Key.”

Tim Boyum of Time Warner Cable News North Carolina asked Aiken about it during a Q&A that will air at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The fact check says “Aiken falsely claims Ellmers ‘voted against the payroll tax cut because she thought $1,000 out of your pocket is not that much money.’ ”

According to the factcheck: “She voted against a two-month extension because it wasn’t long enough, and helped craft a bipartisan bill that extended the payroll tax holiday for one year.”

Responding to Boyum’s questions about the ad, Aiken repeated the claim about the payroll tax that the fact check found to be false.

“I take issue with anyone telling me it’s off-key, because at the end of the day what’s off-key is implying that $1,000 is not a lot of money to people in your district, and that’s what Congresswoman Ellmers did,” Aiken said.

Factcheck.org called Aikens claim “a gross distortion of Ellmers’ position.”

Additionally, Aiken says in the ad that Ellmers failed to stop a Fort Bragg Airwing from being moved out of state, implying that the air wing has moved when it hasn’t.

He continued his criticism of Ellmers on the issue during the Q&A taping, saying she was too slow to act. (Ellmers submitted an amendment that would keep the wing from being deactivated.)

Ellmers, a Dunn Republican, is seeking a third term. She declined to participate in what was to be a debate, so Aiken sat next to an empty chair.

NEWS OBSERVER

[Marilyn]

Clay Aiken @clayaiken

45 minutes away from my debate with Congresswoman Ellmers' empty chair on @TWCNewsRDU at 7PM pic.twitter.com/7VBcGPv5OF