Issues
Recycled Issues
The more you hang around, the more things come back around. Like controversial Dix land transfers and privatizing the Department of Commerce. At the dedication of N.C. State’s new Hunt Library last week, one visitor took note of a Duane Powell cartoon in Governor Hunt’s office. It poked fun at his hotly debated plan…
Read MoreLegislature vs. Cities
A TAPster offers these observations on “the nasty civil war between the legislature and cities, now manifesting itself in high-profile fisticuffs over the Charlotte airport authority and the fate of the Dix property in Raleigh,” as follows: “First, there have been other disputes like this over the years. Charlotte leaders (including the former mayor…
Read MoreFast Forward
Has public opinion – and politicians – ever shifted so fast on an issue as on gay marriage? A year ago, 60 percent of North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Yesterday, a U.S. Senator in a tough reelection fight endorsed gay marriage. Yes, Kay Hagan is one of a…
Read MoreIn the Crosshairs
As if Senator Kay Hagan needed Michael Bloomberg sticking his Gotham billionaire gun-control nose in her race. Hagan already has a tough reelection fight. She’s one of the Obama Class of 2008 Senators. And a President’s second mid-term election historically is bad for his party. (Not always, though. Republicans thought they would be…
Read MoreFighting Fracking
Opponents of fracking in North Carolina may have two powerful allies: the free market and politics. John Murawski wrote in The News & Observer that “booming shale gas production in the Northeast” could give energy developers one less reason “to take financial risks to explore North Carolina’s virgin gas deposits in Lee, Moore and…
Read MoreWhite House Tours
President Obama just announced the Sequester spending cuts are so terrible he has no choice but to cancel White House tours;—that upset House Speaker John Boehner who immediately cried foul, saying Obama was grandstanding and he (Boehner) had kept the Capitol tours running and Obama could have done the same thing – which is no…
Read MoreIncentivized
Governor McCrory and Republican legislators were against incentives before they were for them. McCrory is clearly for them when he can bask in the announcement of 2,600 new jobs by MetLife. (Hello, Snoopy!) Or maybe he’s for them when they are negotiated by Moore & Van Allen, his old law firm. But…
Read MoreA Tale of Two States
While Governor McCrory prepares a “very, very tight budget” and blocks Medicaid expansion, the Republican governor of another purple Southern state is going in the opposite direction. Governor Rick Scott of Florida was a Tea Party poster boy when he got elected in 2010. Now a Miami Tea Party leader has sent the governor…
Read MoreCut Spending Now?
With Carter’s help, George Holding had a simple message last fall that boiled down the Republican mantra: “Cut spending now.” It’s the one message that unites Republicans as they splinter over immigration, gay marriage and guns in the wake of Mitt Romney’s loss. Here’s the challenge for Democrats: What’s your alternative? House…
Read MoreEarth to Buck
“I really don’t see it as an issue,” said Senator Buck Newton. “If it went from County A to County B, I’m not sure why County B would have a major objection to that.” “It” is waste brines and toxins from fracking, which – John Murawski reports in the N&O – could end up…
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