NC Gubernatorial candidate Barbara Howe is polling 7%, according to a poll last week conducted by Civitas:
http://www.nccivitas.org/2012/civitas-mccrory-lead-narrows-with-libertarian-in-poll/
Ms. Howe also polled 7% in a SurveyUSA poll on May 22:
http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=be466bb5-41fa-4592-b815-a90ead1940c6
Two reputable polling companies — SurveyUSA and Public Policy Polling – have recently found she is getting seven percent support in her race against Republican Pat McCrory and Democrat Walter Dalton.
Howe suspects the reason for this polling success is a general dissatisfaction with the status quo. Currently, one in four voters in North Carolina is registered as Unaffiliated.
Ms. Howe is campaigning for reducing taxes, eliminating burdensome regulation, ending corporate welfare and reducing licensing requirements that stifle entrepreneurship in the state.
If elected, education will be one of the key issues in Howe’s administration. Education is the largest expense in the state budget, yet North Carolinaeducation system fails to deliver on top quality education. “You can study all the numbers from many different sources and you get a different picture of how the schools perform. Those numbers don’t really paint a good picture. Nor a clear one. But simple logic tells me, as a parent, kids are different and trying to have a one size fits all education system to meet the needs of two million plus children just doesn’t fit the bill.”
Howe’s plan would be to implement a tuition tax credit scholarship plan in order to introduce greater school choice. “If North Carolinais going to tax its citizens to provide for education, it seems reasonable to give taxpayers greater options for how those education dollars are spent.”
Howe’s Tuition Tax Credit Scholarship Plan would allow any taxpayer to direct their tax dollars to provide a scholarship for any child to attend any school, be it government, private, or home school.
“The explosion of educational opportunities that will arise when the dollars are freed from the grips of education bureaucrats and politicians and placed in the hands of consumers will give parents greater choice of how to best provide for their children’s education.”
She has also vowed to work to repeal the recently-approved North Carolina marriage amendment that outlaws gay marriage. In protest over the passage of the amendment, on Tuesday, May 29, she and Tom Howe, her husband of 35 years, shredded their marriage license in front of the North Carolina Legislative Building. Several others joined in the shredding event.
“Native or immigrant, gay or straight, black or white, all people have the right to life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Ms. Howe says. “Constitutions are to limit government, not people.”
Ms. Howe, 59, is a full-time homemaker, who has devoted much of her adult life to three causes she finds important: home schooling, volunteering for La Leche League — an international support group for breastfeeding mothers — and working for liberty through the Libertarian Party of North Carolina.
A four-term former LPNC state chair, Ms. Howe is making her third bid for governor. She ran for that office in 2000 and 2004, and in 1998 she was a candidate for the US Senate.
Barbara Howe made history in 2010, when she finished at 22% while running for the North Carolina General Assembly against eleven-term incumbent, James Crawford (D).
Mounting a true grassroots campaign this time around, Howe is planning to visit each of North Carolina’s 100 counties and complete a 5K run. “Approximately 50% of NC voters live in 15 counties. Many of the other counties get ignored. I will visit every one.”
