Direct mail is the Ninja assassin of politics. “An icepick to the forehead,” it was called by Dave Gold, who did our direct mail when Jim Hunt beat Jim Gardner in 1992. That year, we targeted 100,000 swing voters statewide. And bombarded them with a series of mailings about Gardner’s checkered business record. By…
Read MoreThere is delicious irony in the juxtaposition of the New Yorker story about Art (“I am not an heir”) Pope and Tuesday’s election. The New Yorker critique of Pope is that he spent a lot of his money to support tough, negative, independent campaign attacks on Democrats – which helped Republicans win control of…
Read MoreThere’s been an outbreak of populism on – of all places on earth – Wall Street. It started when a hardy band of protesters camped out in a small park near the Stock Exchange, waving anti-Obama, anti-Republican, anti-Democrat and anti-Wall Street greed signs. For a while no one paid attention. Then, suddenly, the protesters became…
Read MoreA TAPster sees a factor in Tuesday’s elections apart from the party angle: “There’s an important lesson tucked in the outcome of Raleigh’s school board election Tuesday when voters kicked out the divisive school board chairman. “It’s not a lesson about Democrats vs. Republicans, even though the N&O and its political pundit Rob…
Read MoreIt was a rout. Democrats were fired up and ready to go. They were mad about more than the school board. They were mad about the 2010 elections, the Republican legislature, the Tea Party, even Art (“I am not an heir”) Pope. Incidentally, Tuesday’s results show that Pope’s power was exaggerated by the…
Read MoreNow we see why it took Governor Perdue so long to come out against the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. First, she was waiting to put it out Friday afternoon – in hopes nobody would notice. Not just any Friday afternoon, but the one right before the Columbus Day-fall break weekend. Second, it…
Read MoreDr. Randall Williams’ brief political career is liable to end in today’s election. Which I regret, because he could give Raleigh politics a refreshing – and recurring – regimen of: “What’s with that?” Like his haircut. (Click here.) What’s with that? Then there’s the odd, full-page ad in The N&O today. What’s with…
Read MoreIt didn’t work out too well when Congress went into the home loan business a couple of years ago – so it seems odd the Raleigh City Council wants to do the same thing. However, just about everyone in town seems to think passing a bond to borrow millions so the Council can make…
Read MoreThe other borrowing the Raleigh City Council has put on the ballot is a Transportation Bond. Which sounds like the Council wants to borrow money to repair potholes and build new streets. Except the newspaper reported three-fourths of the money isn’t for roads. Almost everyone it seems is for this bond too. And if…
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