Posts by Gary Pearce
We’re on WRAL
Carter and I taped WRAL’s “On the Record” today for airing Saturday night at 7 p.m. Or you can watch it on the station’s website. We were with anchor Bill Leslie and WUNC radio’s Laura Leslie (no relation to Bill). The topic, of course, was Tuesday’s runoffs and the November elections.
Read MoreNot From Here
Raleigh is reviving an old Southern trait: We don’t cotton to outside agitators invading paradise and stirring up folks. First my old friend Grady Jefferys wrote a provocative piece in the N&O complaining about “big city” ideas ruining old Raleigh. This week, after losing his Republican congressional primary, Bernie Reeves lamented that we’re…
Read MoreWhy We Like Women
Women are winning everywhere: Elaine Marshall, Nikki Haley, Blanche Lincoln, Carly Fiorina, Meg Whitman. North Carolina leads the way. Marshall would make two female Senators. A female governor. As Thomas Mills with the Marshall campaign pointed out, seven of ten statewide winners in 2008 were women. And women are moving up in the legislature…
Read MoreMarshall Arts
There’s a simple explanation for Elaine Marshall’s victory: Thomas Mills. Her homegrown campaign manager outwitted Cal Cunningham’s bigger-name team, defied the DSCC and disproved the doubters. Maybe one time in 10 the candidate with less money wins. This was one, and that’s a big win in politics. As Secretary of State, Marshall…
Read MoreMore With D.G.
D.G. Martin again has generously shared his radio time on WCHL (1360AM) with me. He did two more lengthy interviews about my book on Jim Hunt, which will be published in November. The final part of the program airs tonight at 6 pm. (Another segment aired last night.) Or you can listen on…
Read MoreNaked Confidence
Elaine Marshall’s campaign has shown a striking level of confidence about today’s runoff. She said the only way she could lose would be to walk down the street naked. Yep, that would do it. And her campaign apparently sent out a communication that sounded like an early declaration of victory. They…
Read MoreThe Penniless Primary
Campaign-finance reformers take heed: the Democratic U.S. Senate primary is what politics would look like without money. Unexciting, uninspiring and virtually invisible. Plus, virtually no voters. A campaign without TV ads is essentially a campaign that doesn’t exist. Yes, I know the importance of online communications. But TV is still the most powerful…
Read MoreClueless
Editorial writers are sometimes accused of occupying an ivory tower. This one from the Greensboro News & Record must live in a soundproof padded cell. Here’s what he or she wrote yesterday about Bob Etheridge’s video: “For now, his relatively unknown opponent, Renee Ellmers of Dunn, says she’s not going to take advantage…
Read MoreNuts
Republicans are determined to save Democrats from electoral disaster this year. With any luck, the GOP will nominate Tea Partier Bill Randall to run against Brad Miller. Randall distinguished himself this week by speculating that the Gulf Oil spill is a conspiracy between Washington and BP. Did anybody ask him if 9/11 was…
Read MoreNo Governor
President Obama rolled out his biggest weapon yet in his battle to get on top of his spreading oil-slick political crisis: his own oratorical power – and the Oval Office. He’s making progress, but he’s still in catch-up mode. Things might have been different if Obama had been a governor instead of a…
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