Posts by Gary Pearce
Hackney Steps Up
After I posted my blog yesterday calling on Speaker Joe Hackney to clean the House of Thomas Wright, the Speaker did the right thing. (I don’t have any illusion that my blog is responsible, by the way.) By speaking out quickly – calling for an ethics investigation and a special session – Hackney met the…
Read MoreWhen Campaigns Change Direction
In a campaign, the first rule when you change strategy is: Don’t admit you’re changing strategy. But when a campaign dramatically changes what it’s saying, it’s changing strategy. Witness John Edwards and Beverly Perdue this week. Edwards introduced a new stump speech in Iowa: “America Rising.” It’s a return to the positive, optimistic Edwards who…
Read MoreThe Sledgehammer Falls Again
Whenever I’m asked about the impact of bloggers on politics, I point to Joe (The Sledgehammer) Sinsheimer. This week, largely because of Sinsheimer, another protruding legislative nail got pounded. A Wake County grand jury indicted state Rep. Thomas E. Wright, a Democrat, on five felony charges of swindling banks, corporations and campaign contributors out of…
Read MoreSenate Democrats
A political constant for years in Raleigh has been Democratic dominance of the state Senate. Maybe not so much now. Marc Basnight’s hold on the Senate has relied on a number of old Democratic bulls who kept their seats in tough districts. Now, one of them has announced he won’t run again: John Kerr. And…
Read MoreStart and Stop on School Reform
Just before he left office, former Governor Jim Hunt wrote (with a little bit of help from me, I’m proud to say) a book about education. He said in it that North Carolina’s education-reform efforts had been hampered for decades by a start-and-stop approach. The state would start a good initiative, then lose interest and…
Read MorePresidential Firing Line
Mike Huckabee is learning the inexorable rule of presidential campaigns – one that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani learned the hard way: Whoever stands out gets shot at. Huckabee, the self-proclaimed Christian Leader, finds himself in the crosshairs now that he’s jumped up in polls in Iowa, South Carolina and nationally.…
Read MoreNo-Class Paul Stam
Here was the churlish response of state Rep. Paul Stam, a Wake County Republican, to news that N.C. State University wants to name its new library for former Governor Jim Hunt: “Normally to get your name on a government building, you have to be dead. But I’m not on a crusade about this.” Good thing…
Read MorePerdue’s Budget Bust
Beverly Perdue has trotted out one of the oldest and tiredest campaign proposals there is: a bipartisan commission to find savings in the state budget. What’s worse, the idea could hurt her in the Democratic primary. This retread comes back up every few years – usually from a conservative or a Republican. It’s total bull.…
Read MoreLancaster’s Got Guts, Too
Martin Lancaster’s last act may be his best. Lancaster is retiring next year as president of North Carolina’s community college system. He used to be a legislator and a congressman before he lost to Walter Jones in the 1994 landslide. But this is his finest hour. Lancaster is another rare politician who has the guts…
Read MorePolitical Guts on Immigration
In their defense, Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue could be right: It may be political suicide to support letting illegal immigrants get educated at North Carolina’s community colleges. After all, even the sainted Terry Sanford lied in 1960. To beat segregationist Beverly Lake, Sanford had to say he supported desegregated schools. And, to her credit,…
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