NCSEN: Civitas FLUNKED Thom Tillis in 2010 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton explains what he, and Civitas understand to be that Thom Tillis may very well not be North Carolina's most Conservative candidate - nay, far from it - in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    The details have been scrubbed from The Internet, but — thanks to resources like The Wayback Machine — nothing is ever truly GONE from cyberspace. The NCGOP took the majority in the General Assembly in 2010. Thom Tillis got elected speaker as the session opened in early 2011.
Thom Tillis speaking with NC county commissioners: Above.    photo by Stan Deatherage
Washington, D.C. - Vidant Medical Center has been ranked as one of the best hospitals for 2014-15 in North Carolina by U.S. News & World Report. Vidant Medical Center is ranked #8 in North Carolina and is recognized among the Best Hospitals in the Coastal Plain (NC). The annual U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings, now in their 25th year, recognize hospitals that excel in treating the most challenging patients. “Naturally, we are pleased to be listed by U.S. News as a ‘best hospital’,” said Steve Lawler, president of Vidant Medical Center. “This recognition is a wonderful reflection of a remarkable team, physicians and other professionals, working to deliver best-in-class care and best-in-class experience to the people and communities we are so privileged to serve.” Vidant Medical Center also is singled out for recognition as “high-performing” in nine areas of medical specialty: Cardiology and heart surgery Diabetes and endocrinology Ear, nose and throat Gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery Geriatrics Gynecology Nephrology Pulmonology Urology For 2014-15, U.S. News evaluated hospitals in 16 adult specialties and ranked the top 50 in most of the specialties. Just 3 percent of the nearly 5,000 hospitals that were analyzed for Best Hospitals 2014-15 earned national ranking in even one specialty. U.S. News also recognizes hospitals that perform nearly at the level of their nationally ranked peers and represent valuable regional sources of quality care. “The data tell the story – a hospital that emerged from our analysis as one of the best has much to be proud of,” says U.S. News Health Rankings Editor Avery Comarow. “A Best Hospital has demonstrated its expertise in treating the most challenging patients.” U.S. News publishes Best Hospitals to help guide patients who need a high level of care because they face particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition or extra risk because of age or multiple health problems. Objective measures such as patient survival and safety data, adequacy of nurse staffing levels and other data largely determined the rankings in most specialties. The specialty rankings and data were produced for U.S. News by RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Using the same data, U.S. News produced the state and metro rankings. The rankings are freely available at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals and appeared in the U.S. News “Best Hospitals 2015” guidebook. ">
    But — in Civitas's 2010 conservatism rankings of legislators — Tillis got a Big Fat F. Really? The guy running as the GOP nominee for US Senate, the purported leader of Raleigh's conservative revolution, got flunked by one of the state's leading conservative organizations? Let's look at some of the votes Civitas shellacked Tillis on:

   •  HB 589 expanded the state health plan to include coverage for hearing aids and autism.

   •  SB 1114 allowed Asheville, Carrboro and Chapel Hill to forego things like competitive bidding and public notice in starting up their alternative energy operations.

   •  SB1216 increased regulations on banks and other mortgage lenders to stall foreclosures and lender efforts to recover the debts owed them.

   •  SB1171 tinkered with state economic incentives to allow data centers — like the one set up by Google in western NC — to receive goodies from the taxpayers.

   •  SB1210 increases licensure fees in the state for athletic trainers.

   •  HB1973 approved incentives for film production companies, and struck down rules that disqualified people who had run-ins with DENR from obtaining economic incentives.

    Civitas gave Tillis a D in 2009, and a C+ in 2008. Since 2011, when Tillis was elected speaker, Civitas has not been scoring or ranking him. As speaker, he doesn't vote enough to compute a score.