The NC legislature’s Senate race in District 23 offers two women candidates this election cycle, challenger Mary Lopez-Carter (R)  and the woman currently holding the seat, Valerie Foushee (D).  There will be two parts to the look at this race. In this installment, we’ll look at Valerie Foushee.

About Valerie Foushee
Foushee was appointed to the NC General Assembly to replace Senator Ellie Kinnaird when she resigned in 2013. Foushee left her House seat (District 50) to do so. That move put liberal Graig Meyer into Foushee’s vacant House seat.  Foushee was a freshman Representative when she was appointed to the Senate.

When Foushee took over the seat, some priorities were overturning the extremely popular voter ID law and expanding Medicaid.  She also made comments about fully funding education.

A few comments about Foushee’s priorities.
Voter ID remains hugely popular, with a recent poll putting 72% of North Carolinians in favor of the law.
There are very good reasons why NC did not expand Medicaid. One of the biggest is that it would cost our state upwards of $3.1 billion on top of the $13 billion Medicaid costs North Carolina already.  The Federal government would have paid the first three years of the expansion, but after that a minimum of 10 percent would come back on North Carolina to pay. Do the math for 10% on $16.1 billion. (Read: Medicaid Expansion: A Quick Primer)

North Carolina’s budget is big, but Education gets the biggest share. For 2014-2105, the budget is $21 billion, with over $8 billion for education and over $11 billion for education when you factor in the university system and community colleges. NC is 8th in the nation for state spending on Education, but 46th in the nation for local spending on education. Related Read: Education Pay In NC

Prior to serving in the NC General Assembly, Foushee was on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education and served two terms as an Orange County Commissioners.

Foushee’s Fundraising
Foushee has the typical Left leaning donors like Lillian’s List and Planned Parenthood on board. The largest donor to date is the NC Democratic party with over $43K.

Jane Brown and James Protzman held a fundraiser for Foushee, when she ran for District 50, characterize her as ‘”solidly progressive” in the event notice. In the same Lillian’s List fundraiser invitation, it was also said by James Protzman that, “In my view, Valerie is a terrific NC House candidate, running a strong campaign in a wildly gerrymandered district against an extremist teabagger.”

Fun fact: Protzman also tried to run for Governor. He instead ended up arrested at Moral Monday and then complained when public records were made available to the public. His wife, Jane Brown also committed her act of civil disobedience at Moral Monday by volunteering ahead of time to be arrested.

It is worth noting Foushee is using ACT BLUE for her fundraising. ACT BLUE feeds into Catalist. If you are unfamiliar with Catalist, you need to get familiar with it because they are familiar with you.

Foushee’s Record
Unsurprisingly, Foushee has scored poorly on surveys measuring Conservatism. Foushee was given an “F” by Civitas Action and ranked her at 103 out of 122.  Foushee’s score on the NC Values survey of her voting history, she did poorly as well.  Foushee voted with her party the majority of the time.

View Foushee’s NCGA voting record.
View Foushee’s Project Vote Smart record.
View Foushee’s Donors.
View Foushee’s Twitter timeline.
View Foushee’s Facebook.

Foushee’s Twitter 
Lots of endorsements from Far Left groups and a few fun shots with Clay Aiken and with Cass Sunstein:

@ValFoushee thank you for attending #Mayor Innovation meeting in Chapel Hill with @CassSunstein pic.twitter.com/xOx5UxconC

— Laurie Paolicelli (@lauripaolicelli) August 21, 2014

Of course, Foushee is a Moral Monday fan and apparently, an attendee:

Ain’t no stopping us now! Forward together, not one step back! #moralmarch pic.twitter.com/WSWK3tywHe — Valerie Foushee (@ValFoushee) February 8, 2014

If Foushee believes that schools are not to be for profit, does she oppose Common Core?

“Schools should be for children, not for profit!” #forwardtogether pic.twitter.com/uPlcxhVoIA

— Valerie Foushee (@ValFoushee) February 8, 2014

Total lack of self-awareness here with this quote From BallotPedia:

“We need to empower women and their doctors, in consultation with family and faith, making decisions about their health without Republican men getting in the way.”

Yeah, like how the Democrats totally aren’t in the way with Obamacare?

From Foushee’s own ‘Legislative Updates‘, she gets it wrong on Common Core quoting $70 million when it was $66 million — or $57 million, as Atkinson kept changing the figure.

Changes to Common Core are Imminent

On June 4th, the Senate passed a bill (Senate Bill 812) that promises to shake-up the standards that govern education for North Carolina’s children. The bill directs the State Board of Education (SBE) to review the Common Core standards that have been in place since 2010. To accomplish this, the bill establishes an Academic Standards Review Commission, which will be comprised of 17 members. Two members of the commission will be state legislators, one of which will be appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and one of which will be a Representative appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The commission will be tasked with drafting a report of its findings and presenting them to the SBE.

What does this mean for North Carolinians? Should this bill become law, North Carolina will become the second state to repeal Common Core standards. Although Common Core has undergone sweltering criticism recently, what the Republican leadership is proposing will amount to wasting the over $70 million already invested in professional development and the implementation of Common Core standards. Moreover, we are currently only approaching the third year under these new standards, repealing Common Core will surely invite uncertainty into the classroom as teachers will now have to prepare for – a yet to be determined – new set of standards.

“repealing Common Core will surely invite uncertainty into the classroom as teachers will now have to prepare for – a yet to be determined – new set of standards.”

Gee, same line the Chamber, Atkinson and any pro-Core person has used. Where was Foushee’s uncertainty when the standards were brought in with no materials and training just months before the start of school in 2011?
By the way, my sources tell me that DPI’s estimated cost of technology alone for Common Core is now ballooned between $500 million to $1 billion. How’s that for waste?

Useful Links:
NCGA Unofficial Candidate List