The magazine of the North Carolina Center for Voter Education • Saturday May 19, 2012

N.C. No Longer Just a Presidential ATM

By Damon Circosta
Published: Aug. 24, 2011

RALEIGH - The City of Charlotte is one of the largest financial centers in the nation. Several of the country’s top banks are headquartered there and North Carolina’s economy has long been bolstered by their presence.

Recently, GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann held a fundraiser in the Queen City. In doing so she followed a path that has been trodden by most presidential aspirants of the last few decades. The Charlotte stopover, where a candidate swoops in to collect campaign checks, only to be gone a few hours later, is nearly a rite of passage for those running for the highest office in the land.

Candidates in the past have treated our state much like an ATM. They stop in to hurriedly pick up some cash, but rarely linger to talk to citizens and campaign for votes. The thinking has been that there are more important and competitive states to run in. Most candidates wouldn’t dwell in North Carolina much longer than it takes to cash some checks and be on their way -- often to campaign in South Carolina and that state’s key early primary.

In 2008, we caught a glimpse of what it is like to be more than just a cash-coffer stopover in a presidential election. In both the primary and general election, the Barack Obama campaign competed for votes in the Tar Heel state. By narrowly squeaking out victories in both those campaigns, Obama proved that North Carolina can be an important component in a national election strategy.

In 2012, for perhaps the first time ever, North Carolina will comprehend what it feels like to be a true battleground state. With both major political parties already gearing up to contend for North Carolina’s 15 Electoral College votes, we can expect candidates to spend more time in our state than ever before.

In many ways, this will be a boon for our state. Candidates will pander to our electorate, talk about local issues, eat our barbeque and say flattering things about our sports teams. And with the Democratic National Convention coming to town and both sides competing aggressively on television throughout our state, there will undoubtedly be an economic uptick as a result of all of these efforts focused within our borders.

While having the circus come to town has some advantages, it can cause some problems as well. Local candidates not at the top of the ticket are going to have trouble getting their message out in this crowded political atmosphere. With so much attention focused on the presidency, it will be tough for candidates for offices like state senator or insurance commissioner to compete for media attention, campaign contributions, or even podium time at local political events.

As we head into a marathon political season, we all are going to have to spend considerable energy separating the political wheat from the chaff. We are going to have to discern which North Carolina politicians will best serve us and we are going to have to do this not in quiet contemplation, but in the middle of the maelstrom that is presidential politics.

Hopefully, after it is all said and done we will be able to tune out the noise and live up to our end of the bargain in a society that governs itself by casting responsible, thoughtful ballots.

Indeed we are about to get a taste of the raucous world of high-stakes presidential politics. Who knows, maybe after 2012 we will want our state to go back to just being a presidential ATM.