Harry Taylor's 2008 Campaign Against Sue Wilkins Myrick
This was Harry Taylor's 2008 campaign website in his attempt to win the U.S. House congressional seat to represent North Carolina's District 9. On November 4, 2008, Sue Wilkins Myrick handily won re-election to the United States House. She defeated Harry Taylor (D) and Andy Grum (L) in the general election. The content below is from the site's 2008 archived pages.
Although Harry Taylor put up a good campaign, the odds against his winning against the incumbent were high. Due to redistricting, North Carolina's District 9 was heavily weighted in favor of the Republicans. I grew up in this area of North Carolina and it is definitely heavily Republican. Myrick was one of the most conservative members of the House. She certainly would not have approved of the job I have now selling bulk vapor products and accessories to vape stores and clinics that sell medical marijuana. Unlike many states in the US North Carolina does not have a progressive approach towards the marijuana legislation although in 2014, North Carolina did take a very small step forward, enacting a CBD-focused law. However, the law leaves the vast majority of potential medical marijuana patients without legal protections. In 2015 Rep. Kelly Alexander introduced a comprehensive medical marijuana legislation, HB 78. The bill would have protected North Carolinians with a variety of serious medical conditions and doctors’ recommendations from arrest and prosecution for using medical marijuana. The House Judiciary Committee voted against the bill. It will be reintroduced in 2017. Nevertheless, vaporizers have been gaining popularity in the state as they have in the rest of the U.S. My company's business is booming, although NC does prohibit sales of electronic cigarettes or vaping/alternative tobacco products to minors. North Carolina passes a law in 2014 that taxes liquid nicotine at 5 cents per milliliter. In 2008 these issues were not even on the horizon. I wonder where Harry Taylor would have stood on these issues?
Circa 2008
Game On! It’s campaign season at its busiest…and we need your help!
The economy in the Ninth Congressional District is one of the worst in the nation. Staggering job losses, rising gas & food prices, skyrocketing healthcare costs, and a Congresswoman who doesn’t care about her people. Republican Sue Myrick has voted against working families and with George Bush 94% of the time. It’s time for a change, and that change is Harry Taylor!
Harry Taylor started this campaign to FIGHT FOR US and the nation, and he can’t do it alone. Please stand with him to make a difference.
Our phone banks are open day & night and we need you! Help us reach out and talk to voters so that when they cast their vote they KNOW that change is possible, and Harry Taylor is THEIR candidate!
You can join us in the Campaign Headquarters or phone bank in your slippers from the comfort of your own home! Email dfrederick@carolina.rr.com and SIGN UP TODAY to volunteer for Harry Taylor for Congress!
We also need people to staff precincts on Election Day, and Early Voting Days. Consider taking a vacation day on November 4, or spend a weekend day at an Early Voting Site, and sprint with us to the finish line. Covering every precinct possible increases our odds dramatically!
We also have over 1000 lawn signs to get out. Email m_smithson@hotmail.com to ensure you have one in your yard ASAP…and help us get them out to others who know Harry Taylor will make an EXCELLENT member of the US Congress!
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Who is Harry Taylor?
Throughout his life, Harry Taylor has given generously of his time and energy to such organizations as Big Brothers, Habitat for Humanity, Outward Bound, the Sierra Club and the Charlotte Folk Society, associations in which he has served as both leader and participant. Helping to develop hope, self-esteem and courage in disadvantaged youth has been a lifetime pursuit, as has his advocacy for a clean, safe planet for our youth to inherit.
Harry has also been a tireless political activist, working through grassroots organizations to protect and defend the principles he holds sacred. He is best known for his courageous-and courteous-confrontation of President Bush in Charlotte in April of 2006, a “shot heard ’round the world.” Harry Taylor was born and raised in northern New Jersey, earned a B.A. from Colgate University, served in the US Air Force, lived and worked in real estate and development in Colorado for many years and relocated to Charlotte in 1987. Owner of a highly regarded commercial real estate brokerage, Harry is also an enthusiastic and talented “old-time country” musician (he plays banjo, mandolin and fiddle). It is from his music life that Harry has become convinced that putting aside differences and focusing on solutions is not only possible, but essential. “After all, music is a universal language,” Harry says. “It allows people from incredibly diverse backgrounds to come together and create something that pleases all of us-something that comes a little bit from the heart of every one of us.”
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ISSUES
On the Economy
The economy exists to benefit us all. When the economy is struggling, the universally accepted approach to jump starting it is to put more money in the hands of the people who will spend it…the lower and middle income taxpayers. That’s because two thirds of our economy is driven by consumer spending.
The cornerstone of the Republican’s economic policy for seven years has been tax cuts for the rich, with the overwhelming benefit going to the wealthiest 1%! We see an endless line of “free trade” agreements that leave Americans without work, and entire communities devastated as their company’s operations are moved overseas.
The marginal tax rates for the richest men in our country (Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, the hedge fund managers, the private equity investors), people who make tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars each year, is lower than that of the average flight attendant at U.S. Airways, or customer service representative at Wachovia or Bank of America. On the next dollar you earn, you pay more in taxes than they do!
Our current tax system favors wealth over work. The purchase of Rolex watches and private jet sales don’t drive our economy. It’s the purchase of bread and milk, clothes and a new couch. It is past time to target tax breaks to the engine of our economy…ordinary taxpaying citizens.
I favor tax cuts that target American workers. To pay for them, I propose we let the Bush cuts for the wealthiest expire rather than blindly extend them.
I support slow track, not fast track fair trade agreements. Fair trade can benefit us all. But we’re the largest economy in the world. We need to use our leverage to ensure the security of Americans…income security.
I support closing the loopholes and incentives that drive Fortune 500 companies in America to relocate “shell” headquarters offshore to evade U.S. income taxes. Our country, its laws, values and citizens, made them what they are today. It’s the antithesis of patriotism for them to sneak headquarters offshore and stick us with the deficits.
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On Jobs and Business
My entire career has been spent in private business, specifically commercial real estate brokerage, construction, and development. On a daily basis I work to bring people with divergent interests together, to craft transactions that benefit all parties.
I understand what it takes to be a cog in the wheel of our free enterprise system, and believe in it deeply. It is the engine that drives our world. So it is that I believe quality of life begins with a job, and that everyone who can support him or herself should do so. But critical to that concept is that if a person works at a full time job, at the very least that person should be paid enough to make ends meet. We, as a country, need to be active in protecting jobs, and supporting the health and growth of local business.
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On the Iraq War
The war in Iraq must end. There is universal agreement among our military and civilian leadership that success in Iraq requires a political, not a military solution, and that the Iraqi people must take control of their own destiny.
No amount of American lives or money will force the Iraqis to end their civil war. We must tell them that we are leaving, and then do just that within the next 12 to 18 months. Concurrently, we must shift our efforts to an intensive diplomatic mission. We must engage Iraq’s neighbors and the community of nations with a stake in regional stability to join in mediation, peacekeeping and the rebuilding of Iraqi infrastructure.
Where does Sue stand? Side by side with President Bush’s failed policies and gross mismanagement of the war. Side by side with President Bush when he recently notified Congress he has no intention of enforcing their ban on permanent bases in Iraq. Side by side handing a blank check to President Bush as he has spent $650 billion dollars on the war…and continues to do so at the rate of $2.5 billion dollars each and every week
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On Fiscal Responsibility
When the Bush Administration and the Republican controlled Congress took over in 2001, they inherited an unprecedented budget surplus. In record time they squandered the surplus, piled up $3 trillion in debt and lavished obscene tax breaks for the super-rich. They boast that deficits don’t matter. Our national debt is being financed by China, Japan and Saudi Arabia at frightening levels, threatening our security and standard of living.
Deficits do matter. I fully support the Democratic Congressional pledge for “pay-as-you-go,” requiring future tax cuts or spending initiatives to be offset by increased revenues or spending cuts in other areas.