Posts by Gary Pearce
Ghost of Gerrymanders Past
When I blogged last week that North Carolina Republicans are guilty of “the most extreme and egregious gerrymandering in American political history,” they responded: Democrats did it, too. No, they didn’t. Not like this. Democrats last drew maps after the 2000 census. The elections that followed were close, so close that one legislative session had…
Read MoreGerrymander-go-round
Donald Trump’s Big Lie is the father of today’s Republican gerrymandering in North Carolina. It’s the same authoritarian, democracy-denying DNA. Duke professor Jonathan Mattingly, who analyzed the Republicans’ new redistricting plan here, concluded, “The maps the legislature have proposed essentially negate the need to have elections for the U.S. House of Representatives.” Trump and MAGA…
Read MoreThe Final Nail
North Carolina Republicans have given Democrats our crowning issue for 2024: their cynical, corrupt, hyper-partisan gerrymandering of congressional and legislative districts. They’ve packed and cracked and sliced and diced a 50-50 state – the most closely divided state in the country, where fairly drawn districts produced a 7-7 congressional split – in a blatant effort…
Read MoreRepublicans Rip Robinson
Mark Robinson’s Republican opponents in the race for governor have raised fundamental questions about his honesty, trustworthiness and fitness for public office. First, State Treasurer Dale Folwell called the lieutenant governor’s much-hyped avowal of solidarity with Israel a “shameful publicity stunt,” adding: “As a person who has shamefully denied the Holocaust and whose history is…
Read MoreA Sign for the Speaker
N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore’s petty vengeance backfired. Moore exiled Rep. Terence Everitt, a Wake County Democrat, to a tiny office in the basement of the Legislative Building. Everitt posted this sign (photo) in his new office: “I asked prosecutors to open an investigation into credible allegations that Speaker Tim Moore used taxpayer money to…
Read MorePoliticizing Tragedy
North Carolina Republicans see this awful time in Israel and Gaza as a wonderful time for politics. Lt. Governor Mark Robinson proclaimed himself “Acting Governor” and proclaimed a Day of Prayer for Israel. Pesky reporters promptly hounded him on his history of anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying statements. State Rep. Erin Paré of Wake County attacked 12 House…
Read MoreA Whopper of a Lie
A student writing a paper on political fact-checking asked me about this statement by Lt. Governor Mark Robinson: “I’ve consistently supported our teachers, believing they deserve more respect, pay, and support.” A Whopper that big should be served at Burger King. Robinson, a Republican candidate for governor, is the most anti-teacher, anti-public-school politician in North…
Read MoreLosing Streak
If North Carolina Democrats want to become a governing party by 2030, we need to face up to harsh history. In 2016, Democrats had hope. We won back the governor’s office, held onto the attorney general’s office and won a majority on the Supreme Court. But it’s been downhill in the three elections since –…
Read MoreOffice Politics
Why are House Speakers from North Carolina obsessed with office size? N.C. Congressman Patrick McHenry, the Interim U.S. House Speaker with the big gavel and little bowtie, kicked former Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of her Capitol office. He was mad because Pelosi and the Democrats didn’t rescue House Republicans from their circular firing squad. In…
Read MoreTrump’s Trap
If Republicans nominate Donald Trump next year, they’ll make the fatal mistake of making the election about Trump, not the American people. Their best chance to win is to attack Biden on the economy. But if Trump’s the candidate, he’ll make it all about him: his trials, grievances and threats of retribution. A majority of…
Read More