North Carolina is up for grabs in the election.
NC EconWatch: Economic blame game at center of '04 election
GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. - Forty-nine-year-old Glen Poole of Wake Forest is facing a mid-life crisis not of his own making.
"I'll be 50 years old and still trying to figure what to do with my life," Poole said a month after he lost his job when the Weavexx mesh manufacturing plant in his hometown closed.
Poole is among tens of thousands of North Carolinians who have lost work over the past few years in the textile, furniture and tobacco industries. Textiles and furniture have been hard-hit by cheap foreign imports and Chinese competition, while tobacco is a victim of declining demand and increased government restrictions.
As a result, Poole's vote is up for grabs in November's general election.
"I'm registered Republican, but I'm not party loyal," he said.
The election stakes of 2004 couldn't be higher: for the first time since 1996, North Carolina voters will elect both a governor and senator in the same year. The 13 congressional districts and 170 seats in the closely-divided General Assembly are up for grabs, along with Council of State posts and judgeships.
For many voters, North Carolina's economic direction tops their list of concerns.
After Nicky Canter of Taylorsville was laid off from his furniture job in 2001, he said, "I was so discouraged that I thought I never was going to be voting again."
Now that he has a community college degree and a new job, the 48-year-old is willing to examine candidates again. "I feel like it's our duty to vote," he said.
North Carolina lost 12,400 textile mill jobs during 2003, a drop of 15.8 percent, according to the state Employment Security Commission. The apparel industry watched its work force drop by 5,600, or 17.6 percent, while jobs in furniture production declined by 4,200.
Though the number of manufacturing jobs increased in December for the first time in nine months, the state's jobless rate of 6.1 percent remains above the national rate of 5.7 percent.
Mike Walden, an economist at North Carolina State University, said the gap between state and federal unemployment rates should narrow but remain through the rest of the year.
While the state's high-tech manufacturing economy is recovering nicely from the long national slump, Walden said, since 2001 "our loss of traditional manufacturing has accelerated."
A September poll commissioned by NC FREE, a nonpartisan business research group, shows many Tar Heel residents believe the state has taken a wrong turn economically.
Just 32 percent of those questioned believe North Carolina is going in the right direction - half the 66 percent who thought so in 2000. And 50 percent of those questioned in September said they believe the state is headed in the wrong direction.
Voters are most unhappy about the economy, with 42 percent of those polled citing jobs and joblessness as the single major problem facing the state, compared to 5 percent in the 2000 poll.
Those polled named foreign trade policies - particularly NAFTA - and the federal government - as the top culprits for job losses.
That could bode poorly for Republicans in the state's congressional delegation, especially supporters of President Bush, whose general inaction on trade policies has angered textile leaders across the state.
"I think people are extremely angry and they feel let down by their political leaders," said Harris Raynor, southern regional director for the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, which represented workers at now-closed Pillowtex Corp.
At least one GOP stalwart, U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte, has broken with Bush on trade policy, criticizing the president for being "out of touch."
Textile executive George Moretz is seeking the Republican nomination to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger in the state's 10th District. Moretz is careful to blame Congress, not the president, for textile job losses.
"Congress basically was relegated to responsibility for regulating trade," Moretz said. "Bush has inherited some of these issues."
Though North Carolina has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1980, Bush is by no means a shoo-in for the state's 15 electoral college votes, especially if John Edwards is on the Democratic ticket.
Both major candidates in the race to succeed Edwards in the Senate could find trade a liability.
Democrat Erskine Bowles supported NAFTA and fast-track authority while working in the Clinton administration, while Republican Richard Burr is closely aligned with Bush.
At the state level, Democratic Gov. Mike Easley and hopefuls for the Republican nomination already are battling on the economy.
The GOP candidates have united in accusing Easley of not doing enough to attract new business to the state by lowering corporate tax rates or adding economic incentives.
"Clearly, we cannot create enough new jobs when Gov. Easley has given us the highest tax rates in the region on the small business owners who create jobs," Republican hopeful Richard Vinroot said this week.
Easley and other state Democrats say the fault lies in Washington, not Raleigh.
The recession puts state Democrats in a precarious position, said Jac Heckelman, a Wake Forest University economics professor.
"They'll push the blame as much as possible to Washington, but a lot of voters certainly blame the problems on Easley's policies," Heckelman said.
Nicky Canter blames both parties for job losses.
"President Clinton was in there when NAFTA passed, but the Republicans, they just let the jobs go overseas," he said. |
