What are politicians thankful for this Thanksgiving?
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Imagine for a minute a Thanksgiving feast. There's an enormous turkey and all the fixins nestled in the center of the table and five people sitting around it. A Democrat, a progressive, a Republican, and a conservative and at the head of the table is Governor Pat McCrory. Before they dive into the spread set out in front of them, they go around the table and say what they're thankful for.
The Republican speaks up first.
Ask most any political observer and they'll tell you Republicans have the most to be thankful for. House Speaker Thom Tillis' hard fought Senate victory over incumbent Kay Hagan tops the list. It helped Republicans clinch a majority in the U.S. Senate and staved off potential liberal attacks that might have tried to leverage a Tillis loss. Republicans also have a litany of state legislature victories around the country to crow about (or, on this day, give thanks for). And in the North Carolina General Assembly, despite losing a net two seats (Republicans lost three seats in the House but picked one up in the Senate), Republicans held onto super-majorities in both chambers.
And THAT is something conservatives might give thanks for. The solid Republican win nearly guarantees two more years of conservative legislation being embedded into state code.
"Despite a lot of pressure in 2014 to change courses," said Mitch Kokai of the conservative John Locke Foundation, "Republicans decided to stick with some of the conservative and market based reforms that they initially focused on in 2013."
But liberals also have some successes to be thankful for. Progressives might give thanks for an early court victory on school vouchers and can boast a major (albeit still not definitive) win on gay marriage.
"People who have been zeroed in on that struggle for a long time will be very thankful for where we're at now," said Gerrick Brenner with the liberal activist group Progress NC.
Democrats can also give thanks that they won all four Wake County Commission races, giving them complete control of that county board. And Democrats held off Republican efforts to increase their control of the legislature. North Carolina was the only southern state where Democrats picked up seats instead of losing them.
Ironically, as Kokai points out, that's something Governor McCrory might give thanks for. By historical standards, Kokai says McCrory lost fewer seats in this election (the first mid-term election during his first term) than any other North Carolina Governor in nearly 40 years.
"Coming into this election," Kokai said, "the best performance was Jim martin, a Republican governor, first elected in '84. In his '86 mid-term, Republicans lost four seats in the General Assembly. That was the best performance. This time around, there's a net loss of two for Pat McCrory. He has to be very happy that that took place this time and be thankful for that."
