Editorial Roundup: North Carolina

Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:

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Aug. 31

The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer on North Carolina and the 2020 presidential election:

In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s last campaign stop was in Raleigh for a raucous late-night rally at N.C. State’s Reynolds Coliseum. That Clinton chose to close her campaign in North Carolina seems to reflect the fatal miscalculations of her supposedly data-driven campaign. The Democratic presidential nominee never went to Wisconsin – a crucial state she lost by less than 1 percent. Instead she spent her campaign’s last hours appealing to voters in a state she lost by more than 3 percent.

But Clinton’s error may have been more a matter of timing than of counting. She and her pollsters saw a state once reliably Republican in presidential races trending toward Democrats. Yet, even as she stumped in North Carolina as late as possible, she may still have been too early.

Four years later these trends – increasing urbanization, more newcomers from outside the South and a rising minority population – point toward a once red, then purple state turning bluer. Barack Obama won the state narrowly in 2008, the first time North Carolina went for a Democratic presidential nominee since Jimmy Carter in 1976, but it went back to the Republican column in 2012, favoring Mitt Romney over Obama.

Since 2016, much has changed. More than 1 million people are newly registered to vote – 61 percent of them younger than 30. The number includes people moving into the state, young people turning 18 and residents registering to vote for the first time. Compared to late August 2016, the state’s total of registered voters has climbed by almost 400,000.

David McLennan, a political science professor who directs the Meredith Poll at Meredith College in Raleigh, expects the presidential race to be typically close in North Carolina, but the electorate will be notably different than it was in 2016.

“The most obvious difference is the number of new voters – 1.1 million,” he said. “They are less partisan, they are browner and they are younger.”

That change could mean the difference. Polling averages compiled by the website FiveThirtyEight show Democratic nominee Joe Biden and President Trump virtually tied.

Chris Cooper, who heads the Department of Political Science and Public Affairs at Western Carolina University, said North Carolina’s increasing diversity and the effects of the pandemic will work against the president this time around.

“The electorate is different, more suburban and urban, slightly more diverse and more mobile. And the mood is different,” Cooper said. “In a second-term election, people are going to vote on ‘Am I better off than I was four years ago?’ And clearly that’s a tougher question for Donald Trump to answer right now.”

While the state’s changing demographics will have even greater weight, both McLennan and Cooper said other elements will also matter. Democrats will need a strong turnout by Black voters and young voters. Republican candidates will benefit if COVID-19 concerns reduce turnout and Trump’s dire warnings about urban unrest and threats to the suburbs take hold.

Republicans chose Charlotte as the site of their 2020 national convention because North Carolina was seen as a Trump-leaning state and one that is crucial to his re-election. But Trump is returning to a state that has drifted left – with a push from the conservative policies of the Republican-led General Assembly.

One thing, though, is the same. The way the choice in 2020 is being defined. Clinton framed it at her last rally much as Biden did as he accepted his party’s nomination. She said, “We don’t have to accept a dark and divisive vision for America. Tomorrow you can vote for a hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted America.”

That message went unheeded in 2016, but it could resonate louder in today’s North Carolina.

Online: https://www.newsobserver.com/

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Aug. 31

The News & Record on payday loans:

No time would be a good time to let unscrupulous payday lenders start preying on North Carolina residents again. But now - as the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted jobs and lives - letting payday lenders take advantage of those down on their luck could be devastating.

We’ve fought this battle before. Legislators banned the practice here back in 2001. But lenders, who are crafty and resourceful, have kept finding ways to creep back in. They would find loopholes. Out-of-state lenders lured borrowers with online loans. Lenders offered loans secured by the borrower’s car title. They set up shop on Native American reservations. They partnered with out-of-state banks to get around North Carolina law.

One way or another, they’d pop up again, like villains in some arcade game.

Finally, in 2006, the state’s banking commissioner ruled that the largest payday lender operating in the state, one using the out-of-state-bank ruse, was here illegally. That shut the door - for a while.

But now, the payday loan industry, after years of successful deep-pocket lobbying in Washington, has a powerful new ally: the Trump administration and its war on consumer-protection regulations.

The threat of payday lending is back in force, and the timing could hardly be worse. The pandemic has thrown a lot of people out of work, and most of the emergency help that kept them going is running dry.

Predatory lenders and the politicians who enable them argue that the loans are simply helping people who need quick cash in an emergency. Unfortunately, their brand of “help” often drags people down so that “emergency” becomes a way of life.

The idea is that the borrowers need a small loan to tide them over until the next paycheck. The catch is that the interest rates are extremely high. Too often, something happens before the next paycheck, and the borrower can’t pay the loan back. So the lender rolls it over, tacking on more interest. Interest rates soar as high as 400%. A loan of a few hundred dollars can balloon into a debt of thousands and take takes years to repay, if ever.

Things get worse. The borrower loses his car, then his job, maybe even his home. Any chance of getting out of debt and making a better life is gone.

The lenders target the most vulnerable people, preying on people of color and low-income residents of depressed areas with limited banking. True, people who turn to payday loans don’t have many options, but the answer is not to give them an option than leads to financial ruin.

Over the years, payday lenders have preyed heavily on troops at North Carolina’s military bases, especially young enlisted troops with little experience and struggling veterans.

The Obama administration worked to rein in payday lenders on the federal level, with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau devising tough new rules.

The Trump administration lost little time in reversing them. It killed rules that were supposed to make payday lenders verify that borrowers could reasonably pay back loans. It blocked efforts to limit lenders’ attempts to pull money out of borrowers’ bank accounts. It refused to limit the number of times a loan could be rolled over.

Now a new federal rule proposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the Treasury Department would allow predatory lenders to partner with out-of-state banks to get around the state’s interest-rate cap. The federal rule could outweigh the state law, undoing North Carolina’s progress in banning predatory payday loans.

Officials here say they oppose this latest rule change that could open the door for payday lenders to return. They should spare no effort in fighting it.

North Carolina wisely has worked hard to block payday lenders. We’ve made a lot of progress and helped a lot of people. A reversal now would be a costly mistake.

Online: https://greensboro.com

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Aug. 27

Winston-Salem Journal on the census:

You would think that, of all the things we’d want to get right, the census would rank near the top of the list.

The census determines where billions of dollars in federal funding go.

According to the office of Gov. Roy Cooper, that comes to about $1,823 per person in North Carolina - or an annual total of roughly $7.4 billion.

The census count decides where funding goes for roads and highways, health care, economic development and other critical investments.

It also determines each state’s representation in Congress - whether it gains or loses seats based on population growth.

North Carolina is expected to add a 14th seat in the U.S. House. But that could be jeopardized by a census undercount.

Making this year’s census even more challenging has been COVID-19, which has delayed and limited the ability of census takers to canvass from door to door.

So, why, in the name of decency and common sense, would the U.S. Census Bureau not only fail to extend the deadline for responses for the 2020 Census, but cut them short by a full month?

Go figure. The bureau announced earlier this month that it is ending all census-taking efforts - including in-person, online, phone and mail responses - by Sept. 30.

Why do such a thing, given the stakes - and obstacles and complications created by COVID-19?

A written statement posted on the bureau’s website claimed that this will “accelerate the completion of data collection and apportionment counts by our statutory deadline of December 31, 2020, as required by law and directed by the Secretary of Commerce.”

Forgive our skepticism, but that language reads like a classified ad for a bridge sale.

So Cooper is right to join a bipartisan group of governors who are seeking an extension of the census count deadline at least until Oct. 31.

The governors expressed their concerns in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham.

“Your recent announcement calls into question how millions of Americans who have yet to fill out their 2020 Census will be counted,” the letter says.

“It is surprising to hear how optimistic the Census Bureau is about being able to reach 100% in less than 60 days, given the current daily self-response rate and the fact that, as of the writing of this letter, only 63% of the country has responded to the 2020 Census.”

In North Carolina, 41% of residents had yet to respond to the census as of July 31.

The governors of Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Vermont and Washington joined Cooper in signing the letter. Frankly, it’s disappointing that there weren’t more.

Among those who stand to lose the most in North Carolina if there is an undercount: rural counties, the elderly, people of color and military families.

In fact, federal dollars will be more critical than ever in an addressing the widespread, and ongoing, damage the coronavirus has done to health and economic well-being of millions of Americans.

Four former Census Bureau directors warn that not extending the deadline “will result in seriously incomplete enumerations in many areas across our country.”

There’s no good rationale for cutting short the Census, especially in the midst of a pandemic.

But there are some not-so-good ones: an undercount of immigrants, people of color, renters and other group that are historically underrepresented in the results.

“We need the extra time to ensure that the hardest-to-count communities are included in the count,” Vanita Gupta, who heads The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, told NPR.

“There is no other reason for the Trump administration to be rushing the census if they didn’t have a partisan or illegitimate motive.”

No other reason.

It’s not a stretch to suspect ulterior motives, since President Trump has been poking at the 2020 Census for months.

As for what you can do? Don’t let him.

Make sure you’re counted. If you’ve received your census questionnaire via mail, fill it out and return it.

You also can respond by phone at 1-844-330-2020 or by web at MY2020CENSUS.GOV.

Stand and be counted. It’s your right. And it’s your future.

Make your voice heard, whether some people are eager to listen or not.

Online: https://journalnow.com