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GOP candidate from N.C. backs down from questioning Obama's birthplace
The Kansas City Star
Franco Ordonez
5/11/2012
Excerpt:
"WASHINGTON -- After questioning the authenticity of President Barack Obama's birthplace, North Carolina congressional candidate Richard Hudson now says he's willing to give the state of Hawaii the benefit of the doubt and accept that the president was born in the United States.
Hudson is the leading Republican in a highly contested two-man runoff with dentist Scott Keadle for the chance to face Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell in November. Hudson admitted this week that he made a mistake when he told a "tea party group" before the May 8 primary that "there's no question President Obama is hiding something on his citizenship."
"I could have expressed myself better," Hudson said in an interview at his home in Concord, N.C. "It's not an issue I've talked about before. Once I had time to really think about my words better and I was not in a forum with a one-minute clock running, I could have given a better answer that I accept the fact that the state of Hawaii says (Obama's birth certificate) is legitimate."
Some critics have charged for years that Obama was born in Kenya, his father's birthplace. Top Republicans had declared the issue dead last year after the White House released a detailed birth certificate that showed Obama was born in Honolulu.
Hudson was one of several Republican congressional candidates in North Carolina who brought new attention to the old controversy while campaigning in hard-fought primary races.
John Whitley, one of Hudson's competitors in the Republican primary, also raised questions about Obama's birthplace. So did Jim Pendergraph, a Mecklenburg County commissioner who is in a runoff for the 9th Congressional District seat that includes Charlotte.
Hudson, a former congressional chief of staff and one-time aide to former Rep. Robin Hayes, now the state's Republican Party chairman, received the most votes among a five-candidate field in the 8th District Republican primary. But he failed to get the required 40 percent to avoid a July 17 runoff.
Keadle, who received 21 percent of the vote, surged in the final days of the race after receiving thousands of dollars for TV ads from the Washington-based Club for Growth. The club also helped Indiana tea party favorite Richard Mourdock upset a six-term incumbent, Republican Sen. Richard Lugar.
It's unclear whether the birthplace issue will continue to be part of the debate in North Carolina, but political experts say the runoff is shaping up to be another example of the battle between the GOP establishment and the tea party."
Up to 37 percent of Republican voters in the North Carolina primary affiliate themselves with the tea party movement, according to Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning polling firm in Raleigh, N.C."
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View the complete article at:
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/11...acks-down.html
The Kansas City Star
Franco Ordonez
5/11/2012
Excerpt:
"WASHINGTON -- After questioning the authenticity of President Barack Obama's birthplace, North Carolina congressional candidate Richard Hudson now says he's willing to give the state of Hawaii the benefit of the doubt and accept that the president was born in the United States.
Hudson is the leading Republican in a highly contested two-man runoff with dentist Scott Keadle for the chance to face Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell in November. Hudson admitted this week that he made a mistake when he told a "tea party group" before the May 8 primary that "there's no question President Obama is hiding something on his citizenship."
"I could have expressed myself better," Hudson said in an interview at his home in Concord, N.C. "It's not an issue I've talked about before. Once I had time to really think about my words better and I was not in a forum with a one-minute clock running, I could have given a better answer that I accept the fact that the state of Hawaii says (Obama's birth certificate) is legitimate."
Some critics have charged for years that Obama was born in Kenya, his father's birthplace. Top Republicans had declared the issue dead last year after the White House released a detailed birth certificate that showed Obama was born in Honolulu.
Hudson was one of several Republican congressional candidates in North Carolina who brought new attention to the old controversy while campaigning in hard-fought primary races.
John Whitley, one of Hudson's competitors in the Republican primary, also raised questions about Obama's birthplace. So did Jim Pendergraph, a Mecklenburg County commissioner who is in a runoff for the 9th Congressional District seat that includes Charlotte.
Hudson, a former congressional chief of staff and one-time aide to former Rep. Robin Hayes, now the state's Republican Party chairman, received the most votes among a five-candidate field in the 8th District Republican primary. But he failed to get the required 40 percent to avoid a July 17 runoff.
Keadle, who received 21 percent of the vote, surged in the final days of the race after receiving thousands of dollars for TV ads from the Washington-based Club for Growth. The club also helped Indiana tea party favorite Richard Mourdock upset a six-term incumbent, Republican Sen. Richard Lugar.
It's unclear whether the birthplace issue will continue to be part of the debate in North Carolina, but political experts say the runoff is shaping up to be another example of the battle between the GOP establishment and the tea party."
Up to 37 percent of Republican voters in the North Carolina primary affiliate themselves with the tea party movement, according to Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning polling firm in Raleigh, N.C."
....................................
View the complete article at:
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/11...acks-down.html