A TAPster who spent years working in economic development shares this: “The most astonishing news last week (other than the daily calamities at DHHS) was the invitation we received via email to attend a fundraiser in Raleigh for the governor of South Carolina. Yes, the head sandlapper is coming to Raleigh to raise money…
Read MoreMy blog below on the 1984 Senate race prompted a TAPster to note that the Martin Luther King holiday was a big issue that year. Jim Hunt led Jesse Helms in early polls, but Helms turned the race around in late 1983 when he filibustered on the Senate floor against a national holiday honoring…
Read MoreThom Tillis is walking the same tightrope that Jim Hunt walked in his U.S. Senate race 30 years ago. But Tillis’ balance is even more precarious. Tillis today, like Hunt then, has to appeal to the broad November electorate and also pacify an extreme faction in his own party. Hunt’s problems came from…
Read MoreThe newspaper reporter asked if North Carolina’s Senate Primary was going to be the next litmus test of the Tea Party’s political muscle – and as fast as he could Greg Brannon’s campaign spokesman said ‘Yes’ then added the Primary was just like Senator Rand Paul’s election in Kentucky in 2010 and Senator Ted Cruz’s…
Read MorePat McCrory looked this week like a man urgently pushing the reset button. Like a politician who desperately wants to change course before he goes off a cliff. So first he talked about teacher pay. Then he praised Jim Hunt. Then he was at the airport greeting President Obama, then in the audience listening…
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago the News & Observer published a story that got folks stirred up over how the head of the Raleigh Housing Authority was making $280,000 a year and wining and dining his board of directors for $3,000 at a Christmas banquet at Raleigh’s elegant Second Empire Restaurant – all paid for by taxpayers.…
Read MoreBack before Christmas when Congress struck its ‘big budget deal’ the newspapers were running stories left and right telling everyone how Round 2 of the Sequester was going to be aw-ful and terr-ible and croo-el. In one story a lady in Fayetteville told how the army was going to be so decimated by the…
Read MoreJim Hunt should respond swiftly and strongly to the base calumny that Pat McCrory has cast upon his reputation. Speaking this week at the Hunt Education Institute’s Holshouser Legislators Retreat, McCrory – according to the N&O – “praised former Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt as a valued adviser.” McCrory was quoted as saying: “Jim Hunt…
Read MoreFearless Forecast: Obamacare won’t be a decisive issue in 2014, but Chris Christie’s bridge-gate will be in 2016. That sounds backwards. After all, polls right here at home show that Obamacare is dragging down Senator Hagan. And the buzz is that Christie’s poll ratings are holding up and Republicans are rallying around him. …
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A legend in politics, with a sneaky streak but a kind heart, Paddy sat down in…
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