Posts by Carter Wrenn
18,000 Teachers
For two years Governor Perdue’s been face to face battling an enemy (let’s name her enemy ‘Problems’ – meaning she’s been fighting with faceless abstractions like deficits, unemployment and recessions rather than flesh and blood people) and she’s been losing at every turn. But now she’s face to face with a new enemy: Republicans. And…
Read MoreNot Set in Stone…
Last election President Obama’s Job Approval Rating defined how people voted – if you thought Obama was doing just fine (or sort of fine) you voted Democratic, if you didn’t think he was doing so fine you voted Republican (unless you were an independent or Democrat who’d voted for Obama in 2008 – then, most…
Read MoreLafayette Park
Osama’s dead and let’s hope Al Qaeda passes with him (or at least falls apart without him) but there’s one bit of grit in the gears that says maybe we paid a price for his villainy we hadn’t reckoned on. It’s the celebrating. The way we – especially our young people – seem…
Read MoreIt’s Not a Tax…
Today’s new breed of politicians are a lot more versatile than the old-timers most of us grew up with. In the old days when Democratic politicians raised ‘fees’ – like the fee you pay for your car registration – they’d argue stubbornly it was not a tax increase and Republican politicians would argue back,…
Read MoreFollow the Money
Well, Gary, at least no one can say we’ve gotten more close minded as we’ve gotten older: Here you are (Putting Pocketbooks First – below) saying Republican Representative and lawyer Leo Daughtry voted against ‘Med-Mal Caps’ to protect his own legal fees and here I am saying, Hold on – you’re following the wrong money…
Read MorePolitics to Make the Gilded Age Proud
Republican House Leader Skip Stam, according to the newspaper, has introduced a new law limiting how much corporations with state contracts can give to politicians who grant the contracts. Surely a step in the right direction. But, that said, while Representative Stam’s limiting donations to the Democratic Governor and folks in the Executive Branch…
Read More$4.1 Million
For years auto insurers have locked horns with Insurance Commissioners over raising car insurance premiums, but, now, Republican legislators are about to solve their problem – by getting the Insurance Commission out of the auto-insurers hair – a move the Commissioner says is dead certain sure to bring higher car insurance premiums. The newspaper,…
Read MoreA Breath of Fresh Air
For the last ten years – girding their loins for this year’s redistricting battle – over in the State Legislature Republicans have been telling anyone who’ll listen that the Democrats should set up an ‘Independent Commission’ to draw new House and Senate districts. What they had in mind was simple: They didn’t want Democrats to…
Read MoreDavy Jones’ Locker
In theory state law says the maximum contribution you or I or anyone else can give a State House or Senate candidate is $4,000 per election – but it turns out legislators left a loophole in the law. Say a group – like the Medical Society – gives Senator Louis Pate $4,000. Then…
Read MorePolice Envy…
Of all things there’s another ‘concealed carry’ bill over at the legislature…this time Speaker Thom Tillis’ Chief of Staff, Charles Thomas, and State Senate Kingpin Tom Apodaca want to allow the Sergeants-at-Arms in the legislature to carry concealed pistols. Supporting the bill, Thomas explained to the Senate Rules Committee that arming the Sergeants-at-Arms will…
Read More