GOP MVP

The Republican team’s best player this season is – the envelope please – Senator Phil Berger.   Now, this is a judgment about political skills, not philosophy. I disagree with Berger on probably every issue. But as I look at all the Republican players on the field this year – particularly compared to Governor McCrory…

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No Trust, No Peace

The powers-that-be at William Peace University need to learn the basic lesson of leadership: If you want people to trust you, you better tell them the truth.   Instead, three years of secrecy and closed-door decisions are putting the school’s future at risk.   Full disclosure: My PR partner Joyce Fitzpatrick and I have counseled…

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On the Air With DG

Carter and I taped “Who’s Talking” with D.G. Martin on WCHL FM 97.9 for this weekend. It is scheduled to run this Saturday and Sunday at 6am, 1 pm and 11pm.   You can also hear it at http://chapelboro.com/category/wchl/lifestyle-weekly/whos-talking/ .   We talked with D.G. about the legislature, the size of government, Moral Mondays and…

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Where’s Our Wendy?

Because it’s about a big electoral prize that Democrats dream about – and because it has some salience to North Carolina – this long article in Texas Monthly is worth a read for Democrats. (Sorry, Republicans, it’s banned for you.)   The article addresses this proposition: “Democrats once ruled Texas. Then came five decades of…

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Taxes, Jobs and Education

Thankful yet? You get a tax cut. And North Carolinians get more jobs. At least, that’s the theory.   Cary Republican Rep. Nelson Dollar called it the “jobs bill of a generation.”   Sen. Josh Stein, a Raleigh Democrat, called it “tax breaks for the wealthy and out-of-state corporations.”   Here’s the economic question: Will…

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Pat Pops Off

Governor McCrory has a bad habit: He says what he thinks will impress the person in front of him. That gets a politician in trouble. And it has him.   It’s why he’s breaking his promise on abortion. It’s why he made himself a punching bag over whether he was in a Moral Monday crowd.…

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Malicious Magic

The other day Thomas Edsall of the New York Times reported that a terrible thing has happened. Since the Voting Rights Act passed, the number of Black state legislators has grown from fewer than 5 to 313 – but at the same time, Black political power has diminished. The problem: Most Black legislators are Democrats…

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Zeb Alley

Zeb Alley was truly a happy warrior. He was a real warrior, a warrior wounded in combat in Korea. For the rest of his 84 years, he loved life, laughter, lobbying, the legislature, people, a party, a good meal, a good time and the Democratic Party.   For all my happy memories of Zeb, I…

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A Gift to Democrats

Nine times out of 10 in politics, what you think is a conspiracy is just incompetence. So it is with the Republicans and abortion.   Several TAP readers believe that all the GOP’s thrashing on abortion is a well-thought-out plan to pass new restrictions and avoid the political consequences.   They may achieve the first…

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A Quirk of Human Nature

The other morning there was a picture on the front page of the News and Observer of a hundred angry women, every one of them mad as blazes, carrying signs, shaking fists and chanting, ‘Shame, shame, shame’ at Republican Senators who’d just passed a new abortion bill (that required abortion centers to meet the same…

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