Posts by Gary Pearce
Missing the Target
When you read breathless stories about sophisticated high-tech voter-turnout operations, be skeptical. I’ve been reading, with some concern, that Republicans are catching up with the vaunted Democratic ground operation. We’re told about canvassers fanning out 12 hours a day, seven days a week, armed with hand-held computers, linked in to a central brain that…
Read MoreShame and Hypocrisy
“Voter shaming” is new. Hypocrisy is as old as politics. The North Carolina Republican Party found a way to engage in both last week. A local voter received a card from the GOP with this warning: “The News and Observer reported last week that Barack Obama and Harry Reid’s operation plans to publish and…
Read MoreWhere’s Pat?
Governor McCrory is the Missing Man in Republican campaign ads. Thom Tillis campaigns with John McCain, Lindsay Graham and Mitt Romney. Wake County Republicans line up beside Sheriff Donnie Harrison. But no Pat. No “endorsed by Governor McCrory” boasts. Not many rallies featuring the Gov. The only ads about McCrory attack him on…
Read MoreWhat Judges Do
Don’t ever say campaign ads aren’t educational. We’ve learned a lot this year, for example, about what judges do. Judging (so to speak) from their ads, judges spend a lot of time reading things out of big books and copying them down on paper. They apparently must do this by hand, which seems laborious…
Read MoreBarefoot and Pregnant
Chad Barefoot must have asked his team: “What can we do that will so anger and offend women that they’ll vote AGAINST me?” They came up with an ad that has backfire potential approaching the “child molester” ad against Justice Robin Hudson. It portrays Sarah Crawford’s husband as a cigar-smoking lobbyist laughing about how his…
Read MoreDog Whistles
The term is new to me, but dog whistles are the oldest thing in Southern politics. This election, like all of them, comes down to race. In 1950, it was “White People Wake Up…Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and daughters in your mills and factories?” In 1984, it was…
Read MoreElon Poll Rx
If you’re tired of ads, tired of contradictory punditry and tired of conflicting, confusing and cooked-up polls, here’s a prescription for sanity: Take a dose of the Elon University poll. A warning about side effects: It will calm Democrats and give Republicans heartburn. (Hagan is up 45-41.)That aside, it gives you as clear, comprehensive…
Read MoreTillis Vs. Tillis
Thom Tillis faces a big obstacle as he tries to catch up in the final days: Thom Tillis. If you turn off the sound and just watch Tillis, you’ll see the problem he has swaying undecided voters, especially those Walmart (or Target) moms who haven’t made up their minds yet. Tillis can look…
Read MoreIrony or Hypocrisy?
An African-American minister proclaimed that a gay person should not be a judge. He also joined Rep. Skip Stam-and apparently 27 other House Republicans-in proclaiming that magistrates, who are officers of the court, should not have to carry out laws and court decisions they don’t like. Forty years ago, several magistrates in North Carolina…
Read MoreVoter App
The Republican effort to suppress votes at Appalachian State University may have backfired. More than 700 people voted yesterday at the Student Union polling place that the State Board of Elections tried to shut down. Now we know why the board didn’t want it. An App student said, “It sends a clear message…
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