Posts by Gary Pearce
Achin’ for Clay
Carter said a “celebrity” campaign was different. Now I get it. Working with Clay Aiken is unlike any campaign I’ve seen. Aiken starts with the most valuable quality a candidate can have today. He is a genuine political outsider in a time when voters are disgusted with politics. And he has near-universal name recognition.…
Read MoreGot Something to Hide?
It’s amazing how fast politicians go from being all for openness and transparency to all-out for keeping public information from the public. Take the Republican legislators’ fight to keep secret their emails about redistricting. Hmmm, wonder what they might be hiding there? Then take DENR. Last Friday at about 5 pm, the department…
Read MoreThe Future Is Now
“A change is coming, and it’s blue.” That’s the conclusion of an op-ed that looked at why more young Americans are voting Democratic. And it was my conclusion after several hours at the College Democrats/Young Democrats convention in Greenville Saturday. I found an impressive group of smart, dedicated and determined Democrats who are getting…
Read MoreMove On
Is our long national Obamacare binge winding down? A veteran Raleigh operative said this week that the folks at home are getting tired of hearing about it. Coincidentally, a Kaiser Health Tracking Poll found that “just over half the public (53 percent) say they’re tired of hearing about the debate over the ACA and…
Read MoreAddicted to Koch
Thomas Mills at PoliticsNC riled up some Democrats when he questioned the strategy of going after the Koch brothers. I have the same question. Is this a classic case of chasing the cape and missing the matador? A national poll this week showed that half of all Americans don’t even know who the…
Read MoreWake Up
You couldn’t design a more perfect Democratic candidate for Wake County in 2014 than Sarah Crawford. Proven success in a professional career and in community service – check. Attended public schools and college here – check. Young mother with children in public schools – check. Energy, smarts, savvy and a fiendishly hard worker – check,…
Read MoreDuking It Out
Duke Energy and Duke basketball had a bad March. Duke basketball probably will come back sooner than Duke Energy. Duke Energy knows it has a problem. The utility took out full-page newspaper ads Sunday – the classic corporate PR response. It was a waste of money. A paid ad persuades no one…
Read MoreFracking, Drilling and Spilling
A federal criminal investigation. A massive, destructive spill. Deliberate pumping of bad stuff into water that people drink. Is this a description of the current Duke Energy debacle? Or a preview of hydraulic fracking for natural gas in North Carolina? The Duke mess is a huge – and perhaps fatal – problem for…
Read MoreA Mayor for Governor?
Maybe it’ll be Charles Meeker. Or Nancy McFarlane. Or one of their successors. Whoever, a mayor of Raleigh will be Governor. And soon. The Raleigh media market is huge, reaching maybe as much as 40 percent of the Democratic primary vote and close to a third of the general election vote. A mayor who…
Read MoreDuke Up the River
Duke Energy badly fumbled the political/PR ball on the coal-ash spill. Duke should have quickly rolled out a clear plan to clean up the Dan River and to deal with long-term management of ash ponds. All we heard was the CEO saying ratepayers would pay. Politicians filled the void with preaching, posturing and their…
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