A Democratic Senate Campaign Committee TV ad criticizes Republican Senate candidate Thom Tillis over the toll issue.
Updated Monday, Nov. 3, 2014, 10:05am
By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net/CorneliusNews.net
The NCDOT’s plan to widen I-77 north of Charlotte with toll lanes has become a key issue in this year’s election, and mainstream Republicans are being squeezed in the middle. Democrats, along with conservatives and Tea Party Republicans, are hoping toll-averse voters will help defeat Republicans who have supported tolls in the past.
Opposition to tolls cuts across the political spectrum in the Lake Norman area. The anti-toll campaign Widen I-77 got its start a couple of years ago initially with help mainly from conservative Republicans. The issue flared in last year’s local elections, particularly in Cornelius and Huntersville, when Widen I-77 members posted signs urging voters to unseat town commissioners who had supported the DOT plan.
But Widen I-77 organizers say the group’s support has since broadened beyond conservatives. “We have Democrats, independents and Republicans working together,” said Vallee Bubak of Davidson, an early Widen I-77 organizer.
Bubak and some other Widen I-77 members last year formed a new group in north Mecklenburg called Lake Norman Conservatives to continue their political activity. They’re focusing much of their criticism on Republican leaders.
“It’s about the ruling political elite and the corporations versus the rest of us, the corporates they (the leaders) are beholden to and who are pulling the strings,” Bubak said.
And Democratic candidates have joined the anti-toll chorus, coming out strongly against the DOT’s I-77 widening plan. They include candidates for Mecklenburg County Commission and the statehouse.
Fliers sent by the Natasha Marcus campaign attacking her opponent over tolls.
The unusual alliance is most visible in the NC House of Representatives 98th District race, where Democrat Natasha Marcus faces Republican and current Cornelius Commissioner John Bradford. The pair are seeking the seat that NC House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Cornelius) is giving up as he challenges U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan (D-North Carolina).
Bradford has joined fellow Republican elected officials in the region in supporting the NCDOT’s plan – drawing the ire of conservatives and providing an issue for Marcus. She has sent out a barrage of mailings attacking Bradford on the issue and spoken out against tolls during campaign forums this fall.
“For too long our representatives in Raleigh ignored the problem,” Marcus said in an interview. “They didn’t offer any solutions to our increasing congestion, and then finally when we were offered solutions, were given 2 bad options: Wait 20 to 25 years to come up on the priority list, or you can be the first in the state to take one of these toll lane projects.”
The 26-mile I-77 widening project will be the first of its kind in the state. NCDOT has signed a deal with giant infrastructure contractor Cintra, which will help finance, build and operate lanes with variable tolls between I-277 and Exit 36 in Mooresville. Transportation experts call these kind of toll lanes “managed lanes,” and say they’ll guarantee a reliable ride to and from Charlotte at rush hour. Tolls will rise as traffic in the toll lanes increases, to prevent congestion. Cars with at least three people would ride the lanes free, a move to increase carpooling and reduce the number of cars on the road. The lanes also would be free for buses and motorcycles.
State and local leaders – many of them Republicans – have pushed the idea as the best way to get the road widened sooner. The DOT says the lanes could open in 2017.
But Marcus is campaigning hard against the idea. “I’ve talked to lots of voters in this district and I know that people in this district are opposed to the project,” she said.
Toll opponents have put Bradford on the defensive, and even heckled him, as they did at an Oct. 9 campaign forum in Cornelius.
Bradford said then he believes the project is the only way to finance the widening of I-77 soon. He notes that the DOT has more projects than it will ever be able to finance, forcing officials to look at creative ways to pay for road work.
“We have a $70 billion problem with $11 billion to solve it,” he said during one campaign forum. “Is [the managed lanes system] a perfect solution? No. But it’s better than having nothing at all for 25 or 30 years.”
But amid the attacks, Bradford also has tried to deflect some criticism. In a recent mailing, he says he “took action and encouraged Governor McCrory to put I-77 tolls on hold.” [He’s referring to a letter signed last June by some commissioners from Davidson, Cornelius and Huntersville asking state officials to delay signing the contract with Cintra, amid new information about potentially high toll rates. ]
The 98th District race is perhaps the best example of how the toll issue has split the Republican Party. It’s no surprise that Democrats are hoping to exploit that division this election cycle, political scientist and elections expert Josh Putnam said.
“Democrats are seemingly playing up that division, not necessarily to persuade Tea Party-aligned Republicans to vote for them, but to perhaps increase ballot roll-off in down-ballot races among that constituency,” said Putnam, a former Davidson College professor now teaching at Appalachian State University.
“The aim could be to decrease the number of people voting in the District 98 race, making it an election among Democrats and mainstream Republicans. That’s something that would theoretically benefit the Marcus effort,” he said.
Candidates for other offices also see an opportunity in the tolls issue.
In the 41st District state Senate race, incumbent Jeff Tarte has faced questions about his support for the plan, including from Democratic challenger Latrice McRae. She said toll lanes would place an undue burden on working families. She wants the state to consider other ways of paying for extra general purpose lanes. “We need to go back to the drawing board and reconsider the whole project,” she said.
Tarte has defended the project, often saying that he doesn’t like the idea of tolls, but it’s the best way for the state to quickly relieve congestion on the busy thoroughfare.
Leonard Richardson, a Democrat running for north Mecklenburg’s District 1 seat on the Mecklenburg County Commission, also opposes the NCDOT’s I-77 plan. “It’s an existing road that’s been there for decades. For us to add another tax to it is wrong,” he said.
In Richardson’s case, his Republican opponent, Jim Puckett, has broken with fellow party members over the issue. Puckett also is speaking out against tolls in his campaign.
The issue even has been batted around at the top of the North Carolina ballot, in the US Senate race between Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan and Republican challenger Tillis.
Tillis is taking heat both from the Democratic Party, which has run campaign ads attacking the speaker for supporting toll lanes, and from Lake Norman area toll opponents. The anti-toll Widen I-77 group has spoken out against him. And there’s even an independent candidate pursuing a write-in campaign hoping to steal votes from Tillis. John Rhodes of Huntersville, who lost the 98th District House seat to Tillis in 2007, is backed by conservative toll lane opponents.
Says political scientist Putnam: “That the issue has persisted and camps have formed signals that there are opportunities in the tolls issue for those seeking office. These are strange bedfellows — Tea Party-aligned Republicans and Democrats — but it isn’t out of the ordinary.”
“It isn’t all that common though, in these polarized times, either,” he said.
Will the I-77 toll lanes issue make a difference Tuesday? That depends on whether Democrats and conservatives turn out in high numbers and follow with votes against Republicans. Even then, with Republicans outnumbering Democrats in most of the districts up for election, a strong mainstream Republican turnout could make the difference the other way.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct background information about John Bradford’s actions asking the governor to stop the tolls. His campaign literature referred to a June 2014 letter from area commissioners, not a 2013 town resolution.
The article also has been updated to note that some Widen I-77 members have formed Lake Norman Conservatives to continue their political activities. Another Widen I-77 founder, Kurt Naas, notes that as a nonprofit organization, Widen I-77 cannot endorse candidates.
