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North Carolina - Democrats
Carter Wrenn posted on February 26, 2013 15:22
Back in 1980, Senator Helms’ political organization had won elections in 1976 and 1978. And after Reagan won, we figured the conservative millennium had dawned and we’d mastered the art of politics. Next election we lost five races.
Back in 1980, Jim Hunt had built the most powerful political machine ever seen in North Carolina and had never lost an election. He lost for the first time in 1984.
In 1980, when he was 32 years old, Bill Clinton was elected Governor of Arkansas – the youngest Governor in America. Two years later, after he lost the next election, he joked he was now the youngest ex-governor in America.
Hubris – thinking you’re smarter than you are – is a deadly vice.
Republicans in North Carolina have now won two straight elections. They worked hard and won the legislature in 2010 then kept it and elected a Republican Governor in 2012 – and they wouldn’t be human if they didn’t hear the genie of pride whispering in their ears.
But has a new Republican era dawned in North Carolina?
The polls don’t seem to say so. There’re still more Democrats than Republicans. And voters don’t see eye to eye with Republican legislation on Unemployment Reform, the Medicaid Expansion, or Tax Reform.
There’s no doubt it can be a good thing to pass an unpopular bill. But it’s a mistake to tell yourself voters agree with you when they don’t. And it’s an even bigger mistake (I know, I made it in 1982) to assume the good times will roll on and on – in politics that’s when the Good Lord throws you a curveball and you land on your backside in the dust, eyes wide open to a new kind of wisdom that comes with humility.
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Gary Pearce posted on February 25, 2013 10:46
Kim Genardo of NBC-17 is following a well-trod path from capital reporter to Governor’s communications director. Most every governor hires a capital reporter to tame the savages. I made that switch from the N&O to then-Lt. Governor Hunt in January 1976 – 37 years ago! (As I recall, I was about 13 years old.)
Two issues arise here – one past and one prospective. First, the past: Was she talking to the Governor about the job when, as the N&O noted Saturday, “she did a one-on-one interview with McCrory for WNCN 10 days ago”? If she was, she shouldn’t have done the interview. It puts her coverage in question.
Second, looking ahead: Which master will she serve – Governor or media?
It’s a tricky task. Some Governors think that, since you were one of them, you should have some kind of mojo that insures positive media coverage. But some journalists think you’ve sold out and gone over to the dark side.
Some hacks-turned-flacks turn into media scourges. They block reporters’ access to the great man, yell and scream at reporters who write tough stories and thereby poison the relationship.
I made my share of mistakes, but learned one big lesson: Your job is, in fact, to serve two masters. Yes, you work for the Governor, but your paycheck comes from the taxpayers of North Carolina and you have a unique responsibility to serve the public.
So you have to respect the role journalists play in getting information to the public, even if your boss and the people around him get mad. You have to help both sides: help the governor tell his story and help the reporters write their stories.
Fortunately, I had a boss who understood the role of the media, liked to read newspapers and watch the news and – most of all – didn’t hold a grudge. Oh, he got mad about stories. But he vented his anger with me, not them, and he was willing to talk to the reporter again. After all, there will be another paper and another broadcast tomorrow.
Governor Hunt also found that reporters’ questions alerted him to problems his own people wouldn’t tell him about. Never in history has a gubernatorial appointee volunteered: “Governor, you know that assignment you gave us? Well, we have made a total hash of it.”
So good luck, Kim. All you need is a cool head, a thick skin and a sense of humor.
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Gary Pearce posted on February 20, 2013 08:47
What do Marco Rubio and Larry Hall have in common? They made the mistake of giving their party’s response to the State of the Union and State of the State speeches, respectively.
Inevitably, this ends up looking like a hostage tape or the speech given by the leader of space aliens who just invaded our planet: “PEOPLE OF EARTH, we come in peace….”
Both Senator Rubio and Rep. Hall did as well as they could under the circumstances. Their messages were perfectly fine and well-written.
It’s just that they were doing something that nobody – repeat, nobody – can do: Stare into a camera for 10 or 15 minutes (it seems longer) and keep the audience’s interest.
Listen to me again: Nobody does that. Do you watch television? Do you see anybody ever doing that? Not even the most polished entertainer would try it.
Plus, you’re in that artificial setting right after the audience watched the President or Governor performing in a live arena, surrounded by people who are clapping, frowning and otherwise acting like human beings.
It’s a lose-lose deal.
Worse, like Rubio, you end up being remembered only for wiping away sweat and awkwardly reaching for water while fixedly staring at the camera.
(When Governor McCrory reached over for a stack of papers Monday night, somebody tweeted: “I thought he was going for water.”)
Politicians, of course, have an ego that convinces them that the people of earth – or at least America or North Carolina – are eager to hear what they say. No. People change the channel, except for the people who either love you or hate you. You’re not going to win over the people who hate you, and you’re only going to embarrass the people who love you.
If you feel compelled to respond, sit down with an interviewer, answer their questions and look and sound like an actual human being.
And stop staring at me through the camera. You’re making me uncomfortable.
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Gary Pearce posted on February 18, 2013 10:27
The Economist notes: “North Carolina has a Republican governor, a conservative majority on the state Supreme Court and Republicans controlling both legislative chambers.” Plus, Republicans have nine of our 13 congressional seats. Plus, “It seems that Mr. McCrory, like his state, is turning right.” Witness his “bashing Agenda 21” and deriding “the educational elite.” Plus the rightward rush of the legislature.
But here’s the good news.
The Times magazine focused on the digital “obsolescence” of the Romney campaign and national Republicans. It quotes digital-minded young Republicans who believe “Democrats have overwhelmed Republicans with their technological superiority.”
They remind me of 1980s Democrats who thought we were losing just because Reagan and Republicans were masters of TV. It was much more than that, and so it is today. The digital divide, in fact, reflects a cultural divide that is rooted in Republicans’ image.
What’s that image? According to voters in their 20s: “Corporate greed, old, middle-aged white men, rich, religious, conservative, hypocritical, military retirees, narrow-minded, rigid, not progressive, polarizing, stuck in their ways, farmers.”
That explains why, as the Republicans operatives noted, “1.25 million more young people supported Obama in 2012 over 2008.” That also perfectly describes North Carolina Republicans today.
Yes, North Carolina Democrats have a long way to go. But they have a lot to work with.
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Carter Wrenn posted on February 15, 2013 11:11
Cautiously holding their fingers to the wind most politicians avoid controversies like the plague – but State Auditor Beth Wood, a farm girl who put herself through East Carolina University, has a trait that’s all but extinct in politics: Grit.
Last year, after Wood audited the state’s new Medicaid Processing Computer System, she blistered fellow Democrat Beverly Perdue, saying Perdue had turned a $250 million project into a $500 million boondoggle that was two years behind schedule and hadn’t processed a single Medicaid claim.
Last week, she held a press conference with Governor McCrory, reporting her latest audit: This time she’d found the State Medicaid Department had spent $1.4 billion more than its budget over the last three years and has overhead costs that are $180,000 higher than the same costs in other states our size.
A long trail of wreckage (beginning with the benign neglect of Governor Mike Easley and compounded by Governor Perdue’s decision to appoint a lobbyist head of the Department of Health and Human Services) winds back across a decade to those two audits.
Lanier Cansler, the lobbyist, served as a Republican legislator from Asheville in the 1990’s, then, in 2001, Governor Easley appointed him Deputy Secretary of the DHHS; a couple of years later Cansler left government to become a lobbyist and one of his first clients was a company bidding for the biggest contract in state government – the State Medicaid Claims Processing Contract.
Cansler’s client won the contract but the new computer system never got off the drawing board – two years later (and twenty million dollars poorer) the state cancelled it. Then Cansler began to lobby for another company that was bidding to get the next version of the same contract and succeeded again. The state awarded his client the $250 million contract.
Then Governor Perdue appointed Cansler head of the DHHS and three years later, when Wood did her first audit, Cansler’s former client was two years behind schedule and $200 million over budget – which Cansler explained to legislators by saying, Yes, there was a problem – but on the other hand the federal government was paying 90% of the costs so the problem wasn’t as bad as it seems.
For years, Cansler had also praised another DHHS project, Community Care of North Carolina, calling it a paradigm of efficiency and a money saver. But, according to Wood’s latest audit, that was another illusion: She reported, “North Carolina’s Medicaid cost per eligible (person) is higher than any other state in Region IV and is higher than the national average. The question should arise, if Community Care of North Carolina saves significantly on Medicaid expenditures, why does North Carolina spend so much more on Medicaid than comparable states?”
Now Governor Pat McCrory has to figure out how to plug a $1.4 billion three-year old hole in the Medicaid budget, and figure out how to do the impossible: Turn a brother-in-law contract into an overnight success.
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Carter Wrenn posted on February 12, 2013 09:54
War’s broken out in Raleigh.
The Republican County Commissioners launched a blitzkrieg, hiring a lobbyist (for $25,000) to get the Republican legislature to redraw the districts of the Democratic School Board members – then the Democratic School Board struck back (to keep their districts) by spending four times as much ($100,000) to hire their own lobbyist.
Politically, it’s an all-out war. But, so far, the only casualties are taxpayers.
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Tapster posted on February 04, 2013 08:10
Gary is taking a break from blogging. Our guest blog today is from a Tapster.
Republicans won control of the NC General Assembly with a promise to create jobs and improve the state’s economy.
So, where is the proposed legislation to do that?
Of the 100 or so bills introduced in the early days of session, virtually none has anything to do with job creation or economic growth. The notable exception is HB4 dealing with the unemployment insurance mess in North Carolina, and this doesn’t really count because the state must confront this matter.
Instead, bills were filed to add new specialized license plates, outlaw naked nipples in public and allow church buses to have permanent license plates. Good gracious.
To add to the incongruity and hypocrisy, Republicans who ostensibly want less government and lower taxes filed bills to increase government oversight of tanning beds and mopeds and triple (yes,
triple) license fees for locksmiths.
It’s hard to believe – but not surprising – that a GOP crowd who waited breathlessly for 200 years to control the legislature is already bogged down in minutiae that fixes none of the problems they vowed to fix.
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Joyce Fitzpatrick posted on February 01, 2013 16:07
Gary is taking a break from blogging. Our guest blogger is Joyce Fitzpatrick.
The war on women continues.
Cokie Roberts spoke Tuesday evening at the Kenan- Flagler School at UNC Chapel Hill about how inhospitable the Romney/Ryan ticket had been to women and immigrants. They responded in huge numbers to give President Obama his November victory. When the smoke cleared, there were 20 women in the US Senate and 80 in the House.
In North Carolina, women have endured a week when things ratcheted up as the NC General Assembly convened and almost immediately bills targeting women flew. Threats to Medicaid, unemployment benefits and education were first up.
Governor McCrory slammed gender studies, “If you want to take gender studies that’s fine, go to a private school and take it.” But, his sharp language did not stop there, as he went on to rail against “butts in seats not butts in jobs” and then to question why women make up a majority of community college students. Earth to McCrory. Do not bite the hand that feeds you. In today’s News and Observer, Rick Martinez doubles down: “Has the scholarship in (women’s studies) progressed beyond the perpetuation of victimhood?” Please.
At the Lillian’s List legislative breakfast on Wednesday morning, Rep. Deborah Ross proclaimed, “Sixty-five percent of the North Carolinians who don’t have photo IDs are female seniors. Why don’t they want Grandma to vote?” The newly elected and incumbent pro-choice women in the NC General Assembly ended the breakfast with a raucous Fired Up. Ready to Go chant. Watch out boys, you best not mess with mothers and grandmothers.
And, adding insult to injury, Rep. Rayne Brown, a Republican from Lexington and Rep. Tim Moffitt, a Republican from Asheville introduced House Bill 34 which would make it illegal for women to bare their nipples in public. Time for a topless revolt.
It is a war out there. Good thing Raleigh’s new police chief is a woman. We might need some help keeping the peace on Jones Street.
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Nation Hahn posted on January 31, 2013 10:27
Gary is taking a break from blogging. Our guest Tapster today is Nation Hahn.
It has been clear for several years that the NC Democratic Party has failed to build a deep bench of future leaders. It has become ever more clear during the Chairman race in recent weeks as people have tried to find a candidate who could rebuild our Party.
One of the points that Eric Mansfield made over and over again during his bid for Chair was that while Chair he would speak out on issues that mattered, but that we must have teachers to speak out on education, rural leaders to speak out on farming, while he spoke out as a Doctor on health issues as an example. The lack of a bench in recent years made this a salient point as we have been forced to turn to the same spokespeople regardless of issue.
The good news is that the next generation is here, if we only pay attention to them.
Andy Ball of Boone is running for 3rd Vice Chair and a talent worth noticing. He is a powerful speaker, he genuinely cares and he has a record to be proud of as a City Councilor. Zeb Smathers and Justin Conley are equally talented and remarkable. Zeb will likely make a career for himself out of building coalitions around shared values and getting things done regardless of party label.
Sam Spencer, President of the Young Democrats, Aisha Dew, and Tori Taylor are all associated with Charlotte and each bring unique skills to the table. Tori is one of the hardest working people that I know. Aisha has done a masterful job leading the Party in Mecklenburg. Sam has brought the Young Democrats back to a place of respectability.
Ryan Butler ought to be a future District Judge from Greensboro and his work as President of the LGBT Democrats has been tremendous.
In the Triangle, Zack Hawkins has been 2nd Vice Chair for one year and has a passion for public service. Matt Hughes, the young Chair of the Orange County Democrats, has built a fan club for himself over the last two years and is clearly a rising star.
We also know the names of young legislators, or would be legislators, that ought to be mentioned for Governor or Senator or another office in 2016. Eric Mansfield, Jennifer Weiss, Cal Cunningham, Deb Butler, Josh Stein and Deborah Ross among them.
I could go on, but I think you see the point.
We must begin to invest earlier than ever in recruiting and training candidates. We must develop leadership academies that teach people the essential skills of leadership. We have to provide the resources to move people into positions to make a difference and that includes our senior leadership beginning to make room at the table for young candidates, consultants, policy advisors and more.
If we are going to develop an agenda that can win today then we must move past tired ideas and the status quo. We have to figure out an agenda that builds the public will for education in age of choice. We must offer tax reform ideas that address the problems without falling inordinately on the poor and middle class. We have to invest in advanced manufacturing and the liberal arts.
The other key is that we must develop a Party that is not absolutist. President Obama was referencing Congressional Republicans and the DC crowd when he said, “We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.”
He could well have been speaking to all of us who are meeting in Durham on Saturday for the State Executive Committee meeting.
In order to build the next generation of leaders we must retreat from absolutism, focus on getting the work of the people done and encourage reasoned debate.
Eric Mansfield would tell folks as he traveled the state that he judged a vote by three characteristics — people, policy and politics. A vote could be good for the people that you represent, in fact it should absolutely serve your constituents needs. A vote could be sound policy, even if it is unpopular, and those stands of principle must be regarded. Or, in the purely bad column, a vote could be just about politics. A vote that is cast only for politics should rightly be criticized, but we can’t be absolutists on the first two.
If we we are to build a new generation of leadership we must focus on shared values, even though we’ll occasionally disagree. We must accomplish work for the people of North Carolina, rather than fall victim to spectacles alone, and we can have debates that do not descend to name calling.
In order to figure out a new vision, a narrative that will work in the 21st Century and a path back to our progressive tradition we are all going to have work together. That is one lesson of leadership that the older generations can offer all of us, if only we’ll pay attention.
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Tapster posted on January 29, 2013 18:04
Gary is taking a break from blogging. Here's one from another Tapster.
When the legislature makes its biennial return to town, our usual tendency is to ridicule the members’ narrow mindedness, laugh at their lack of political sophistication and hold our collective breath that they won’t destroy the state.
The gavel drops again in Raleigh Wednesday. Instead of our usual cynicism and derision, this year we offer a more sincere and – hopefully -- meaningful send-off to the members of the General Assembly.
It comes in an excerpt from a prayer offered by a good ole South Carolina preacher at Nikki Haley’s gubernatorial inauguration a few years ago. Its simple eloquence speaks to the wish we all share for our elected leaders:
"We are honored and humbled to stand in honor of a long line of individuals, some of whom are present this day, who with their keen vision, sacrificial effort, sound judgment, and personal passion have served this state and our nation well. Keep our new leaders faithful in the days ahead so that their actions, and ours, may preserve the best of the traditions we have received and expand their benefits to generations yet unborn."
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