NC House Speaker Thom Tillis (R, NC House District 98)

Updated 12:10pm Friday
State Rep. Thom Tillis (R-Cornelius), the Speaker of the NC House and Representative for the 98th District which includes Davidson and Cornelius, on Thursday announced he’s running for the U.S. Senate. Tillis first will face Greg Bannon in the GOP primary, as both vie for the chance to unseat incumbent Democratic Senator Kay Hagan in the 2014 midterm elections.

Tillis made the announcement in part with statements on his Twitter feed and on his Facebook page:

Friends, I have decided to run for the US Senate against Kay Hagan in 2014. I hope to earn your support.

Senator Hagan is currently serving her first term in the Senate.

Tillis served on the Town of Cornelius Parks and Recreation Board in 2002, and was then elected to the Cornelius Board of Commissioners from 2003-2005. Tillis assumed office as the 98th district’s NC House representative in 2007, and has been reelected four times. Tillis was selected to be Speaker of the House in 2011 following the NC GOP’s landmark electoral victory in the 2010 elections, taking a majority in both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. Before his involvement in local and state politics, Tillis was an executive with IBM.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Tillis said he wants to help create a Republican majority in the Senate, to “help turn the country in the right direction.”

“I see a government that’s broken. They’re not making any progress and the president is taking us in the wrong direction,” Tillis told the AP.

Speaker Tillis will be facing Cary resident & Tea Party candidate Greg Bannon in the Republican primary, with other names being floated for potential Senate runs including US Representatives Virginia Foxx of Banner Elk and Renee Ellmers of Dunn.

Tillis will be entering the race before the beginning of the 2013 NC GOP convention in Charlotte which kicks off next Thursday and will be featuring several prominent national Republican speakers, including GOP strategist Karl Rove and former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown. Speaker Tillis is currently scheduled to lead a breakout session next Saturday titled “Your House Majority: A 2013 Session Recap.”

Speaker Tillis’ campaign website, which does not currently reflect the announcement: thomtillis.com.

GOP Primary candidate Greg Bannon’s official campaign site: gregbannon.com.

Senator Kay Hagan’s official campaign site: kayhagan.com

]]> http://davidsonnews.net/election/2013/05/30/speaker-thom-tillis-r-to-announce-run-for-us-senate-challenging-incumbent-kay-hagan-d/feed/ 0 http://davidsonnews.net/election/2012/11/08/prof-tops-pundits-with-perfect-presidential-prediction/ http://davidsonnews.net/election/2012/11/08/prof-tops-pundits-with-perfect-presidential-prediction/#comments Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:18:21 +0000 David Boraks http://davidsonnews.net/election/?p=52561

Josh Putnam of Davidson College was one of a handful of election watchers to call the presidential race accurately. (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

News coverage of polls leading up to Tuesday’s election made the presidential race seem like a neck-and-neck battle – a nail-biter whichever side you were on. But poll-watcher Josh Putnam has known how it would turn out for months.

The Davidson College political science professor came out on top among those tracking the presidential polls this time around, accurately predicting how the Electoral College votes would fall: 332 for President Obama, 206 for Mitt Romney.

Slate.com made Josh Putnam one of those three blue darts in the bull’s eye in a ranking Wednesday. Click to see the graphic on Slate.com.

His spot-on Electoral College tally put him in elite company – one of three nationally known prognosticators to get it right, according to Slate.com’s “Pundit Scorecard,”published Wednesday.

Besides Prof. Putnam, others who nailed the Electoral Vote totals were Nate Silver of The New York Times and Democratic adviser Chris Lehane.

In fact, Prof. Putnam’s prediction of 332 votes for President Barack Obama and 206 for Republican challenger Mitt Romney has remained the same since he began tracking the numbers earlier this year on his blog, “Frontloading HQ,” or FHQ. (http://frontloading.blogspot.com/.)

[The 332-206 tally puts Florida's 29 electoral votes in the Obama column. President Obama leads in Florida by about 46,000 votes, though officials were still counting absentee ballots on Thursday.]

So how did he do it?

Prof. Putnam looks at all the scientific polls he can find, and calculates a weighted average of the results in each state. His formula gives more weight to the most recent polls, and discounts older ones.

“You can so easily get on the roller coast ride of looking at the polls,” he said Wednesday. “This smoothes it out.”

He also successfully studied poll results in the 2008 election, taking a cue from his dissertation adviser, Paul Gurian, at the University of Georgia. (As it turns out, Prof. Gurian has an office down the hall in the Chambers Building this year, as a visiting professor at Davidson.)

“He had done something similar, and I took the torch from him in 2008,” Prof. Putnam said. He created a model that “tried to arrive at something that made sense.”

Prof. Putnam has a PhD from the University of Georgia and a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been a visiting assistant professor in Davidson’s political science department since January 2011. His research looks at elections and at the rationale state political parties use as they move their presidential primaries ever earlier in an election year.

“All my work in political science is based on rules,” he said. “This (the Electoral College tracking) is just an offshoot of that.”

Prof. Putnam was interviewed by national media often during the election season for his latest take on the vote. After staying up until past 4am on Election Night, it was back to classes Wednesday, which kept him off phone calls with reporters.

But it’s not the attention that drives him: He just loves the science. “I can’t not do it,” he said. “I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t having fun.”

That’s the advice he gives students who come through his door with questions about careers.

He asks: “Are you willing stay up late to do it?” Answer yes, and you’ve found your calling.

AUDIO INTERVIEW

Listen to an audio interview with Josh Putnam by David Boraks. Click the play button to start. Can’t see the player or hear the audio? CLICK HERE> (MP3, 5 mins., 51 sec)

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Robert Pittenger gave a victory speech in Charlotte Tuesday night. (Briana Duggan / WFAE)

By GREG COLLARD
WFAE

The 9th district congressional seat will remain Republican. Former state Sen. Robert Pittenger defeated Mecklenburg County Commissioner Jennifer Roberts 51.77 to 45.67 percent. Mr. Pittenger will replace Republican Sue Myrick, who is retiring after 18 years in office.

Libertarian candidate Curtis Campbell had 2.56 percent in the race. The newly reconfigured 9th District now stretches from Charlotte north into Iredell County.

In his victory speech at the Marriott SouthPark, Mr. Pittenger spoke of freedoms under attack, “especially the free enterprise system.”

Robert Pittenger

And he pledged that he will work to that system. from the government.

“The greatest [antidote] to poverty is the free enterprise system, not the government,” he said.

Mr. Pittenger had two big advantages over Roberts: Personal wealth and demographics. The 9th is historically a conservative district, and Pittenger spent more than $2 million of his own money on the race.

Still, Ms. Roberts said she’s glad she ran.

“I had people on both sides of the aisle encouraging me to run. I think it was a great decision, I think it was great campaign, and I’m just humbled to be at the center of it all,” Ms. Roberts said.

Ms. Roberts raised about $500,000. Mr. Pittenger raised more than $600,000 in addition to the $2.3 million he contributed to his campaign.

See full results on the state board of elections page, NCSBE.org.

Karen Bentley was re-elected in Mecklenburg County Commission District 1.

Voters handed the Democrats a 6-3 majority on the Mecklenburg County Commission Tuesday, including a sweep of all three vacant at-large seats.

Democrats Pat Cotham (19.8 percent), Kim Ratliff (19.6 percent) and Trevor Fuller (19.1 percent) won the three at-large seats. Those seats were left vacant when current County Commission Chair Harold Cogdell Jr. decided not to run and commissioners Jennifer Roberts and JIm Pendergraph decided to run for the 9th Congressional district seat.

In the county commission District 1 race, Republican Karen Bentley easily won re-election, defeating Democrat Keith Bradford 54 percent to 46 percent. District 1 includes Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville and other parts of Mecklenburg County.

Meanwhile, the Democrats won a majority on the commission thanks to victories by Vilma Leake, who won re-election in the 2nd District; George Dunlap, who was unopposed in District 3; and Dumont Clarke, who was unopposed in District 4.

Republican Matthew Ridenhour won the District 5 seat by a 56-44 percent margin over Paula Harvey. And Republican Bill James easily defeated Democrat Connie Green-Johnson, 57-43 percent.

MECKLENBURG COUNTY COMMISSION AT-LARGE

Candidate Votes %
Pat Cotham (DEM)		        241,509 	19.80% 	
Trevor M. Fuller (DEM)			232,777 	19.08% 	
Kim Michele Ratliff (DEM)		239,250 	19.61% 	
Michael Hobbs (REP)			158,096 	12.96% 	
James F. Peterson (REP)			156,647 	12.84% 	
Wayne Powers (REP)			155,196 	12.72% 	
Jason Bateman (LIB)			36,353 	        2.98%

MECKLENBURG COUNTY DISTRICT 1

Candidate Votes %
Keith Bradford (DEM)			32,254 	        45.92% 	
Karen Bentley (REP)			37,984 	        54.08%

For an unofficial tally of Tuesday’s votes in Mecklenburg County, visit the N.C. Board of Elections website