Walter Dalton got good news this week: Public Policy Polling showed he had narrowed the gap with Pat McCrory. That’s the natural result of his primary-winning TV ads and the spotlight that comes with victory. Then Dalton got bad news: A big Republican Governors Association TV buy attacking him. But Dalton’s gun is…
Read MoreAwhile back, like incubi of old, mischievous Anony-mices descended on the News and Observer’s website and set up camp; giving themselves colorful names (the way wrestlers on TV do) like Tarheel Crusher, Yosephus and Agent Pierce (who describes himself as Agent Pierce, News Personality, Legendary Cyber Commando) they set about tormenting any hapless victim who…
Read MoreIf President Obama doesn’t carry North Carolina in November, he can look back to two days on a weekend in May. On Saturday came the David Parker disaster. Remember: the worst wounds in politics are self-inflicted. Sunday, at the 3,000-member Upper Room Church of God in Christ, a black Pentecostal church in Raleigh,…
Read MoreAll kidding aside, here’s why Democrats fear the David Parker fiasco could sink the party this year: Parker promised the party’s gubernatorial nominee he would step down. Then he didn’t. So people in Washington who decide how much national campaign money flows through the Democratic Party to North Carolina ask a simple question:…
Read MoreBack in 2010 instead of giving a million dollars to candidates the Democratic Party decided to give the money to local party officials to spend; it didn’t work out too well as the Democrats lost control of both the State House and Senate but it was popular with local officials who then elected bow-tied David…
Read MoreA frustrated TAPster vents at both parties: “The ‘check engine’ light is flashing on the dashboard of North Carolina politics, and a quick look under the hood shows the problem is more than a bad tank of gas. “We are emerging (hopefully) from a generation of incompetent political leaders. Governor Perdue’s mindless comparison…
Read MoreAfter I posted my blog on the Democratic Executive Committee’s meeting being a plot hatched by Art (“I Am Not An Heir”) Pope, a TAPster emailed me: “You’re being facetious, right?” Surprised, I replied: “Of course.” She wrote back: “I figured, but you’d be amazed how many of my rabidly Dem friends are posting…
Read MoreLike almost everything else in modern times politics has changed – in odd ways. In the old days when Jesse would run for Senate the Republican parties scattered across counties across the state had one mission: They figured their job was to elect Republican candidates. A lot of times what they could do was limited…
Read MoreThere is only one logical explanation for what happened at the Democratic Party Executive Committee meeting: It was a vast right-wing conspiracy masterminded by the Dr. Evil of North Carolina politics, Art (“I Am Not An Heir”) Pope. Here’s how the nefarious scheme worked: Years ago, Pope saw that David Parker had run…
Read More