Posts by Gary Pearce
Days of Rage, Rays of Hope
Moral Mondays show there is still passion on the Democratic side of North Carolina’s political wars. Away from the headlines, there are more strong signs for a Democratic comeback. There’s a long, deep bench of future candidates. In no order, and no doubt leaving out many good ones, there are Roy Cooper, Janet Cowell,…
Read MoreSqueal Like a Pig
Thirty-four years ago, in 1979, I tagged along on Governor Jim Hunt’s trade mission to China – the first for a North Carolina governor. The goal: get the Chinese to buy more North Carolina products, like pork. Now, we’re selling them more than pork; we’re selling them Smithfield Foods. “We’ve gone whole-hog,” Ferrel Guillory…
Read MoreIt’s the Education, Stupid
In today’s superheated politics, a bit of understatement can be a powerful thing. Exaggeration and overstatement get you headlines, but they don’t necessarily win the hearts and minds of swing voters. Democrats might remember that as they rail at the Republican-run state government. Crying wolf at every outrage – and there’s a new one every…
Read MoreDemocratic Dysfunction
Someone asked the obvious question: “Why do Democrats elect fools like David Parker and Randy Voller chairman?” It’s a “governance crisis,” said one thoughtful Democrat and former statewide candidate. “The chairman is selected by 600 people on the executive committee, most of whom know nothing about getting elected statewide.” There always has been…
Read MoreGOP Ethics
Attention must be paid when the Republican legislator who wants to roll back ethics laws questions Speaker Tillis’ ethics. It could just be sour grapes. But someone needs to pursue Rep. Robert Brawley’s written statement about Tillis “slamming my office door shut, standing in front of me and stating that you have a business…
Read MoreWhat Happens in Vegas…
A good Democratic Party chairman would be blasting the McCrory administration’s budding ethics scandals. But that’s hard to do when you’re in Vegas putting $3,327 on the party’s American Express Business Gold Card. Michael Biesecker with AP reported that Randy Voller “said he believes a portion of the Vegas charges, including a $557 dinner…
Read MoreBS on BCBS
A veteran business lobbyist takes aim at both The N&O and the legislature – and makes a noteworthy point about how government in Raleigh today works – or doesn’t: “The N&O’s story last week about Blue Cross Blue Shield’s diminished influence at the General Assembly was badly reported, unfair to BCBS and confirmed that…
Read MoreWhose Victory?
One word can say a lot. So it was with last week’s heated meeting between the Wake County commissioners and school board. Joe Bryan, chairman of the commissioners, told the N&O: “You’ve got some lingering tension over the victory we had in the Senate yesterday.” That “victory” was Senate passage of a bill…
Read MoreOn Jones Street
A TAPster and long-time legislative lobbyist notes that, in politics, you must sometimes rise above principle: “A pair of current debates in the General Assembly – when studied together – demonstrate that lofty political principles and high-minded ideals are quickly abandoned when they conflict with the reality of local politics. “Tesla, the maker…
Read MoreReal Trouble
You can easily flick aside a Republican witch hunt on Benghazi. After all, they’ve been at it since Mitt Romney popped off the first day. You can manage a controversy about the IRS targeting Tea Party groups – so long as, unlike Nixon, the White House wasn’t involved. But your Justice Department subpoenaed…
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