By Ian Chrisafis
This year has seen several political firsts. Voters had to choose between the first female or Jewish presidential nominee on the Democratic side. On the Republican side, voters could choose the first Latino presidential nominee.
However, because of the commotion around the presidential election, many of the smaller elections have been ignored. Many of these local elections such as the Senate are just as important as the presidential election and are often overshadowed by the circus of the POTUS elections.
But this begs the question, what is hiding in those shadows?
Well, more often than not, a myriad of deceit and underhandedness. Take North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory’s campaign for instance. McCrory has long claimed to be a staunch supporter of North Carolina’s teachers and education system.
“Teachers are the number one factor in our students’ academic
success. The excellence on display today is a reflection of the greatness that is happening in classrooms across North Carolina,” said McCrory at the ceremony naming the 2015 teacher of the year.
And in order to help along these professionals, one would suspect that McCrory would suggest budget increases for the state’s public education budget so that teachers would be paid more, but that is not the case.
In 2015, the same year as his statement on the importance of teachers, McCrory suggested the total percent of state education budget contributed toward public k-12 schools to be 37.8 percent, which was up from 37.3 percent in 2013-2014 according to the state’s official budget statement, but not by nearly enough to be considered an aid to teaching professionals.
McCrory said one thing that he thought the public would like, but he pushed for legislation that said quite the opposite. This is not uncommon in politics, however duplicitous it may be.
This kind of deception is not confined to one party, however. McCrory’s opponent Roy Cooper
Roy Cooper, North Carolina Attorney General, gives a keynote address to Airmen during the opening ceremony of Military Saves Week at the Airman and Family Readiness Center Feb. 23.
made claims that McCrory took money from state disaster funds to pay for lawsuits.
“Gov. McCrory took $500,000 directly out of the disaster relief fund,” said Cooper, “And you know what it’s for? House Bill 2.”
As it turns out, this statement is half-true at best, according to Politifact, a website made so that the public could easily fact-check politicians and their occasionally erroneous statements. Cooper used deceptive language in order to make a cartoonish villain of McCrory.
To summarize a very complicated situation, McCrory didn’t ‘take’ the money like a Rumplestiltskin-esque baby snatcher the way Cooper paints. McCrory asked for it in general–a request instead of a demand–and he certainly did not ask to pull the money directly from the state’s disaster relief fund.
Cooper took advantage of the different ways people could construe the wording ‘took money’, which is why context was incredibly important in this situation.
As these examples show, politicians often bend the truth to fit their target demographic’s ideals. But with careful research through websites such as Politifact, VoteSmart, and OnTheIssues voters can keep their state officials in check.