Perdue to speak in Iredell today
By Jim Mcnally
Published: January 26, 2011
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nowBuzz up!Editor’s note: Political notebook is published every Thursday. If you have information for this space, e-mail Jim McNally or call him at (704) 873-1451 ext. 4433.

North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue will be in Statesville today to speak  to area civic leaders and make an announcement about jobs coming to the city.
Perdue is slated to speak to the Statesville Rotary Club for the group’s lunch meeting at the Statesville Country Club.
She will then speak at the opening of Providencia, a materials manufacturing company, where she is expected have news about the expansion of the company.
Neither of these events is open to the public.

Responses to speech

Both of Iredell County’s members of the U.S. House of Representatives said the proposals made by President Obama in his State of the Union address did not seem to zero-in on the primary problem the nation is facing: unemployment.

Tenth District Rep. Patrick McHenry and the 5th District’s Virginia Foxx — both Republicans — said that while the speech may have been good enough, it did not point to specifics regarding job growth.

“President Obama used the language of fiscal responsibility,” McHenry wrote in an e-mail to the R&L. “But what he’s proposing is another stimulus and state bailout. That’s the wrong approach.”

McHenry, whose district takes in Mooresville and southern Iredell, said that is the approach the president has been taking since he took the office and it has not been successful.

“If his free-spending policies of the past two years worked,” he said, “then we wouldn’t still be looking at almost 10 percent unemployment. It’s our deficits and debt that are hurting our competitiveness and job creation. We need real spending cuts today in order to spur job growth, not another Presidential pledge to ‘freeze’ some spending.”

Foxx, whose district includes Statesville, had similar comments.

“President Obama rightly spoke of reducing federal spending in his address to Congress,” Foxx said in an e-mail to the R&L. “I hope this marks a shift away from the runaway spending he has presided over for the past two years.”

Like McHenry, Foxx said the spending freeze Obama proposed is not enough. The federal government, Foxx said, has to be reduced.

“The sooner Congress cuts federal spending the better,” she said. “We need to focus on job-creation and spending reductions and I hope that President Obama will join us in reducing the size and scope of the federal government and getting our economy humming again.”

Additionally, Foxx’s Press Secretary Aaron Groen said the congresswoman was “fine” with the inter-partisan seating arrangements at the State of the Union address.

Groen said Foxx sat next to Democratic Rep. Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Iredell reps chosen

All four of Iredell County’s North Carolina House of Representative members were named to chair or co-chair committees or subcommittees in the General Assembly’s lower chamber.
As the legislative bodies convened Wednesday for their so-called “long session,” representatives Grey Mills, Darrell McCormick, Mitchell Setzer and Julia Howard — all Republicans — each had chairmanships of the new GOP-led General Assembly.

Mills (District 95), a Mooresville attorney and the only General Assembly member who actually lives in Iredell, was named as co-chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
McCormick (District 92), who like Mills is starting his second term, was named to chair a House Commerce Subcommittee.

Setzer (District 89) and Howard (District 79) are co-chairs of the House Finance Committee. Additionally, Howard, who is in her 12th term, will chair the House Ethics Committee.
Mills said he plans to meet with the staff of his new committee “immediately” and that he “looks forward to giving input on the state’s present and future transportation needs.”