Raleigh News & Observer endorses Clay Aiken for Congress

There are a LOT of independents in NC. Hope they will take some of this to heart and vote for Aiken,
even though he's running in a solidly gerrymandered Repub district.


From the endorsement:



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.

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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.”

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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.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/10/23/4259231_aiken-would-help-unlock-congressional.html?sp=/99/108/&rh=1#storylink=cpy