AIKEN NEWS NETWORK OCT 22 & 23, 2014

[Marilyn]

Jamie Maness Garner
7 mins · Robbins, NC ·

Mason went to vote with his Grandma today. I asked him who he voted for.....his answer?! "Cuh- lay Hankins," (Clay Aiken.)

[Marilyn]

Paige Rentz @paigerentz

.@clayaiken talks impact aid, Common Core, supporting teachers at a Town Hall event in Spring Lake. pic.twitter.com/yvPojwwrju

[Marilyn]

Mayor Chris V. Rey @ChrisRey4NC

@ClayForNC believe local governments should incentive teachers to come back home to teach. Thinking outside the box. #Vote2014

Mayor Chris V. Rey @ChrisRey4NC

@ClayForNC student loan rates are way to high and we need an advocate in Washington to help bring those rates down. #Vote2014

[Marilyn]

Chris Rey
about an hour ago · Edited
Join us at 7:00pm at Town Hall as we hear from Clay Akien and he shares with us why he should be the next Congressman to represent our city in DC.

Clay Aiken Who's that?? I'm having a Town Hall tonight too!!
Like · Reply · 2 · 57 minutes ago

[Marilyn]

Endorsement: Clay Aiken would help unlock congressional gridlock

October 23, 2014 Updated 7 minutes ago

Clay Aiken doesn’t sing on the campaign trail, but his voice still compels attention and deserves applause. Residents of North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District would do well to have him speak for them. We support his election.

Aiken, who gained fame as a singer and runner-up in the 2003 “American Idol” competition, uses his voice now to discuss how he will support education, ease the burden of student debt and help veterans and members of the military who face troubles with joblessness, substance abuse and health issues. He’s also committed to being a moderate voice who will seek a way past the partisan gridlock that has this Congress on track to be the least productive ever.

Aiken, a 35-year-old Raleigh native, is running against Renee Ellmers, a two-term Republican incumbent. A former nurse from Dunn, Ellmers, 50, narrowly won office in 2010 by riding a tea party wave and won her second term handily after the district lines were redrawn to favor Republicans. Over two terms, she has stood with House Republicans in their relentless opposition to the Affordable Care Act and virtually every proposal offered by the White House.

Ellmers also has been prone to political tone-deafness. After supporting a Republican-driven shutdown of the U.S. government, she initially declined to follow others in Congress who deferred their pay in sympathy with federal workers who lost theirs. “I need my paycheck. That’s the bottom line,” she said. Recently she raised eyebrows by saying lawmakers need to bring policy debates “down to a woman’s level.”

Nonetheless, Aiken is running uphill. He’s a gay Democrat in a Republican-leaning district. But Aiken thinks his name recognition may help him win the substantial number of the district’s unaffiliated voters and even some conservatives who regard Ellmers as politically inflexible and not particularly responsive to constituent needs.

Ellmers, who went into office as a political neophyte, hasn’t taken long to assume the tone of an insider. She dismisses Aiken as “an entertainer” and says, “He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.”

What Aiken does know is that he wants to move the nation past the frustration of partisan politics. The broadest sentiment he picks up on the campaign trail, he says, is: “People hate politics. They are sick of it.”

Aiken has sought to bridge partisan differences. He has met with groups across the political spectrum, including tea party groups, as he campaigns across a sprawling district that stretches from western Wake County to Fayetteville and includes nine counties and the Fort Bragg military base.

An upset in this race would be more than a victory for Aiken. It would send a message from voters fed up with a divided, do-nothing Congress.

Ellmers is a part of the problem by being dogmatic and uncompromising. Even more troubling, she does not concede there is a problem. She says the House has passed hundreds of bills only to have them blocked by the Democratic-controlled Senate. She blames gridlock on the Senate majority leader.

“Harry Reid is the problem,” she says.

That “not us” attitude is what dooms compromise and the prospect of congressional action. Gridlock and automatic spending cuts under sequestration have hobbled the recovery from the Great Recession. There is a need for members of Congress who will sing a different tune and sometimes a duet with the opposition. It’s time for Clay Aiken.


NEWS OBSERVER!!!

[Marilyn]

Durham Daily News ?@durhamdailynews 1m1 minute ago
Endorsement: Clay Aiken would help unlock congressional gridlock: Clay Aiken would work against the partisan… http://dlvr.it/7J93ww

[Marilyn]

Vivian Dale Flett
2 mins ·

So nice to come home and find a personal message on Facebook from Clay Aiken. Made my day.

[Marilyn]

clayfornc hanging to@day at HYCC early voting site in Cary! #clayfornc
http://instagram.com/p/ugzxl5s-HH/

[Marilyn]

Paige Rentz ?@paigerentz 3m3 minutes ago
Familiar site @ClayForNC campaign stops. @clayaiken offers his practiced hand when a line of voters asks for pics.

[Marilyn]

From FB: https://www.facebook.com/j.riggins.7

J Wayne Riggins
19 mins ·

Clay was fantastic at Spring Lake town hall meeting tonight. If most of our representatives were as articulate, informed, honest and fair-minded as Clay we would be in a much better place. In all the years I have been listening to local/ state candidates field questions I have never heard anyone better. He was remarkable.
Come see him this weekend at the Fayetteville "town hall" meeting at the downtown library. Go yo www.clayaiken.com for the date and time. I hope to see you there!

[Marilyn]

Clay Aiken makes campaign stop in Spring Lake


Posted: Thursday, October 23, 2014 11:05 pm
By Paige Rentz Staff writer

SPRING LAKE - A long, silver bus gleamed under a streetlight in the parking lot near the Spring Lake Municipal Building.
Inside, about 50 people were gathered Thursday night to hear Clay Aiken talk about why he's running for Congress and ask him questions about issues.
The Cary Democrat and former American Idol runner-up is challenging Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers, a two-term incumbent in the 2nd Congressional District.
Aiken's appearance in Spring Lake was his sixth town hall since Oct. 15 and is part of a three-week bus tour across the district leading up to Election Day. The campaign bus makes several stops a day, popping into local restaurants to meet with patrons, dropping into fall festivals and hosting town hall events - 11 scheduled in all.
"It ain't easy," Aiken said of the pace he's keeping, "but nothing that's worth doing is easy, right?"
With the district sprawling across parts of nine counties, he said, "If you want to talk to everybody, you're going to have to be on the road."
Aiken will host two more town halls in Cumberland County, one Sunday at the Headquarters Library on Maiden Lane in Fayetteville and another Wednesday at the Hope Mills Branch Library on Golfview Road.
Over the course of the forum, which lasted about an hour and a half, Aiken talked about raising the minimum wage to a level that will bring full-time workers out of poverty and paying for it by cutting payroll taxes on the first $5 million of payroll.
He spent a great deal of time before the mostly friendly crowd talking about the need to update impact funding for Cumberland and Harnett counties, which would help ease the burden of offering county services to those living on Fort Bragg, from whom they do not collect property tax.
Some questions had shorter, simpler answers.
Privatize social security and medicaid? "No," he said.
Support equal pay for women? "Yes."
On Thursday night, he received a question about genetically modified organisms, which he said would not be a priority issue for him if he's elected to Congress. But it's also an issue he said he doesn't know a lot about.
"I'll have homework when I leave tonight," he said after the event.
Aiken told residents that as a congressman, he'll have the power to bring attention to issues that are important to the residents of his district, even though if elected,, he'll be among the lowest-ranking members of Congress. He noted the national media doing stories about his bid to unseat Ellmers, who has served two terms.
If he makes it to Washington, part of his job will be "making sure people pay attention to what's needed down here," he said, "making sure the needs of this area are heard loudly."
Before Aiken left for another night on the bus, he challenged the audience to "do something the people in D.C. don't do, talk to people who don't agree with you." He challenged them to talk to five people who don't typically vote for Democrats and convey the urgency of this election.
"If we can have the boldness to have a conversation with someone we don't agree with," he said, "if we can do that here, the people in D.C. can do it. We should set the example."

FAY OBSERVER

[Marilyn]

Chris Rey
6 hrs ·
 Shout out to Clay Aiken for coming to Spring Lake tonight and sharing his vision for the 2nd Congressional District. — with Mayor Chris Rey.

[Marilyn]

Diane Ellis
15 hrs ·

Went and voted today!!!! My opinion is that Dems are out in droves in early voting. I am UNAFFILIATED. Talked to some great ppl working both sides of the road. Shout out to Mike York and Phillip Cantebury for doing their part! Oh yeah, look who was also working it hard in Chatham County today.....thats right, Clay Aiken! He took a selfie with me. Nice guy. Dont agree with some of his agenda items but still a nice guy. May God bless America! Vote!!!!

Clay Aiken Great meeting you, Diane!!

[Marilyn]

Matt Johnson at Canady Farm Corn Maze & Wagon Ride
October 17 at 3:35pm · Jessica Johnson and Clay Aiken

Clay Aiken Great to meet you all. Hope the debate competition went well. Safe travels home to FL.
October 18 at 2:45pm · 1

Matt Johnson Thank you, Clay. It was nice to meet meet you. The team is doing well. We have 21 events in finals so far.