Posts by Gary Pearce
How Berger Won
Carter has done a couple of insightful (as always) blogs about Senator Phil Berger: that he’s a true-believer conservative and a small-town product, in contrast to the big-city moderates who are the second- and third-most powerful Republicans in North Carolina (respectively, Thom Tillis and Pat McCrory). It also looks like Berger was a lot…
Read MoreA Lesson From John Wilson
John Wilson went from teaching school in Raleigh to leading the NCAE and then the NEA. He went from leading teacher protests against Governor Hunt in 1984 to working with Hunt 10 years later to raise North Carolina’s teachers’ pay above the national average. He wrote a recent blog in Education Week (“The Most…
Read MoreD.G. and the GOP
D.G. Martin – TV-radio host, newspaper columnist and finalist for Most Interesting Man in the World – riled up the Republican Party with a recent column. State GOP Chair Claude Pope accused D.G. of comparing Republicans to Nazis. “Inexcusable, disgusting and shameful,” Pope fumed. He called on UNC-TV to suspend D.G.’s show “Book Watch,”…
Read MoreNew State Seal
Translation: “To be backward, rather than to seem backward.”
Read MoreMad Men
“You have a Republican majority that is doing exactly what they were elected to do.” – Claude Pope, state GOP chairman “They really messed up when they screwed with the mothers, the teachers and the women.” – Shannon Shanks, Wilmington teacher Well, in 2014 and 2016 we’ll find out who’s right. Republicans may…
Read MoreCookies, Governor?
The absurdly awkward photo says it all: Governor McCrory turning away from a stunned protester left holding his plate of cookies. Next time, Governor, give them hush puppies. In truth, McCrory didn’t want the abortion bill. He didn’t want to sign it. He certainly didn’t want this WRAL headline: “Abortion law breaks McCrory…
Read MoreIs McCrory Over His Head?
Maybe Kieran Shanahan quit because Governor McCrory still hadn’t learned his name. The Governor called him “Sharon” and “Karen” at a press conference. Whatever caused Shanahan’s abrupt and rumor-spawning resignation, it punctuates a rough start to McCrory’s administration. He claimed he got 20 of his 22 legislative priorities. But he clearly was the…
Read MoreA CEO on Jobs and Tax Cuts
A successful businessman – and Democrat – offers the view below on the tax-cut bill passed by the legislature and signed by Governor McCrory. The writer is Reid Overcash, who has been a business owner and CEO for four different companies. “There is no short-term successful strategy to creating jobs by reducing taxes. No…
Read MoreTime for Choosing
So is this the direction North Carolina wants? More restrictions on voting and on women’s health care – and fewer on trash-hauling, landfills and fracking? Less help for people out of work, less health care for the sickest and poorest – and more tax cuts for people on top of the pile? Most of…
Read MorePuffed Up
The N&O’s striking front-page photo of Speaker Thom Tillis looks like a caricature of a pompous, puffed-up politician. Now, all of us have been captured on film in less-than-flattering poses. But not on the front page. And not at a time and in a way that seems to capture all the things that people…
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