When Durham residents—along with the Duke students that make it to the polls—pull back the curtain to vote for their congressional representative Nov. 2, they will choose between two opposing visions of economic recovery.
This fall’s race for North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District—which includes Durham and Chapel Hill as well as portions of Raleigh—is a rematch of the 2008 contest, in which Democratic Rep. David Price defended his seat against Republican challenger B.J. Lawson, Engineering ’96 and Medicine ’00. Although it appears by most estimations that Price will again prevail, a sagging economy coupled with anti-incumbent sentiment may make the race more tightly contested.
Price, who has served 11 terms in the House of Representatives, believes that Congress must press forward in its efforts to stimulate the economy through targeted spending.
“In a deep recession, no matter what you do, you’re going to go deeper in the hole,” he said. “The choice has to be to do something—to strengthen the safety net, to provide tax relief [for the middle class], to plug some holes in the state budget and to make strategic investments.”
Still, Price acknowledges that it is important to address long-term fiscal health and supports reducing the deficit in part by allowing for the expiration of tax cuts on individuals making more than $250,000 a year.
Lawson, however, believes that the path to fiscal recovery lies in reducing federal spending and cutting taxes.
“I know that prosperity cannot come from Washington—it has to come from the grassroots, from our local communities. That’s how we create real sustained economic growth,” he said, adding that when making spending cuts, “everything has to be on the table.”
As with many of the contests in this midterm election season, both candidates in the race for the 4th District have harshly criticized each other’s positions on the issues.
“[The race] couldn’t be more of a contrast,” Price said. “Lawson says federal funding of research should be ended—can you imagine, in the Research Triangle, saying such a thing? He thinks federal support for infrastructure, for highways, is unconstitutional. And of course, he totally opposes the recovery efforts, the efforts to bring jobs back. As far as I know, Lawson has no [economic] program.”
Lawson has attempted to portray Price as a part of a wildly unpopular Congress often characterized as “broken.” He has noted repeatedly, for example, that Price votes with Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi more than any other congressman.
Lawson also described Price as disconnected from the average person’s economic concerns, having “divided his time between the marble halls of Congress and the ivory tower of academia.”
Although both Price and Lawson say they are confident of victory, The New York Times’ political blog, FiveThirtyEight, rated the seat as “Solid Democratic” and calculated that Price has a 96.2 percent chance of winning.
Lawson’s campaign is quick to cite an Aug. 11 poll, conducted by polling and consulting group Action Solutions, that found that 46.5 percent of respondents said they would vote for Lawson, compared with 46.1 percent for Price. Some polling experts, though, have dismissed the poll as biased.
“I just think it’s a bad poll. It wasn’t very scientifically done,” said Dean Debnam, president and founder of Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling, citing the fact that Actual Solutions declined to release the poll’s questions. “When you look at the demographics of the district and you look at their sample, it doesn’t match the district.”
Still, it seems that Lawson’s message has resonated with Bull City residents to a greater extent than it did in 2008, when he lost to Price 63 percent to 37 percent.
Diane Puckett, a Durham resident, supports Lawson’s conservatism and emphasis on decreased spending.
“I’m very much for [Lawson],” she said. “We can’t afford [Pelosi’s] price anymore.”
But others say they want to stick with the familiar. Tanya Gasia, a resident of Carrboro who works in Durham, supports Price based on his previous service to the area.
“He’s not as far left as I’d like, but all in all I think he’s doing a great job for our district,” she said.
Duke students will be eligible to vote in the race because they will have lived in Durham for more than 30 days prior to Election Day. Students interviewed, however, said they were uniformed about the race.
Matt Barnett contributed reporting.
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