Higher Taxes for Raleigh

Well, the City Council has gotten serious about raising ‘impact’ fees – taxes on new homes and buildings – and there’s bad news for churches, schools, and people buying houses in Raleigh. For instance, The News and Observer reports the new tax increase will cost Wake Cross Roads Baptist church $20,256 – when it expands.…

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Enter Rev. Wright

After being in the room with the boys during Senator Jesse Helms campaign in 1990, when the much ballyhooed (or infamous) ‘white hands’ ad was written, I’ve been telling myself, ‘Don’t you touch Reverend Jeremiah Wright with a ten foot pole.’ But, anyway, here goes. For several months I’ve been saying there’ll only be one…

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Debate Lurkers?

We warn our kids to beware of who their online chat friends really are. Maybe the same caveat should apply to politics. Ryan Teague Beckwith writes in the N&O today about North Carolina’s first online debate – between Bev Perdue and Richard Moore. It’s sponsored by the BlueNC blog. Question: How do we know it’s…

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YDs Are Hot Again

The Young Democrats haven’t been this hot in North Carolina for 30 years. Long ago, being in the YDs was a logical step into politics. Both Terry Sanford and Jim Hunt were state YD presidents – and used the office as stepping stones. But, with the decline of grassroots politics, the importance of the YDs…

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Getting Personal

You know a campaign is getting rough when the consultants start attacking each other. As part of its effort to stop the NEA ads for Bev Perdue, the Moore campaign sent out emails with N&O clips linking the NEA to disgraced lottery-lobbyist Kevin Geddings and to Perdue adviser Mac McCorkle. The NEA helped pay for…

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When a Tree Falls…

How much is the presidential primary overwhelming other races? Here’s a sign: Who would have guessed that an openly gay candidate for United States Senate in North Carolina would go virtually unnoticed? But that’s the case for Jim Neal in his race against Kay Hagan. That a U.S. Senate race is basically being treated as…

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Ad Wars. Tuition?

What Hillary Clinton called the “fun part” has started in the Governor’s race. Richard Moore and Bev Perdue are going at each other full-bore on TV. Over college tuition, of all things. Who guessed that would be the burning issue this year? Why? Because tuition sums up a host of middle-class economic anxieties. And it’s…

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Electability Doesn’t Elect

A campaign that plays the electability card is by definition a campaign that is losing. Voters never elect a candidate because they think he or she is more electable in the fall than their opponent. There is a logical disconnect: The candidate who is losing usually argues electability. Voters don’t see how the loser can…

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Debbie Sunshine?

Perhaps someone can shine the light of open-government on this question. Debbie Crane, former PIO at Health and Human Services, is being praised as a paragon of open government. She spoke at the Sunshine Week program at Elon University. Yet Crane says she told ex-Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom NOT to talk to The News &…

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So?

That is what Vice President Cheney said when asked about the American people’s opposition to the Iraq War. Funny, that’s exactly what I think about anything Cheney says or believes. So? The Democrats’ strategy has to be to ask the American people if they want four more years of Bush-Cheney-McCain. Click Here to discuss and…

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