Anyone touting out-going Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory as the guy to take down Rep. Larry Kissell must not have noticed how McCrory ran last November in the Charlotte precincts in that congressional district. Bev Perdue waxed him.
Understand what is going on here. The GOP knows that the best chance to pick off a sitting congressman is after his first term, hence all the Kissell “target” talk. The next trick is to gin up media interest in the district, not to mention chum the waters a little for the consultants, by floating a big name or two, names that have raised and spent serious money in the past. That might get a “buzz” going on the race, which then might build on itself. Linking McCrory to the race accomplishes both goals, just so long as no one looks at the underlying numbers too closely.
This is not to say that Kissell cannot be beat. On the contrary, he is vulnerable to an outsider with a clear track record of opposing corporate bailouts, corporate welfare, and the Obama bailout mania. Much of East Charlotte has already decided that Pat McCrory is not that guy, however.
