North Carolina – Democrats
Voter ID Deal?
A lobbyist friend suspects that the legislature will try to override the Governor’s veto of the voter ID bill this week. Then we may learn whether some Democrats agreed to vote for the override in exchange for the gay-marriage amendment being on the ballot in May, instead of November. Stay tuned.
Read MorePut Jim Hunt in Office
No, he’s not running again. (It’s amazing how the rumor keeps coming up.) We’re talking about his personal office in the new James B. Hunt, Jr. Library on Centennial Campus at N.C. State University. The Jim Hunt Alumni Association is raising $100,000 for naming rights to the office. Who are Jim Hunt…
Read MoreThe New North Carolina
There’s a direct line betweenRob Christensen’s Page 1 story today about why President Obama loves North Carolina and John Frank’s story yesterday about John and Ann Campbell’s role in the Wake school board race. Long, long ago, before some of you were born, North Carolina had three industries: textiles, furniture and tobacco. In the…
Read MoreDems Have $$, Too
Now Republicans are whining about elections being for sale. A couple of weeks ago, Democrats were whining about Art Pope “buying” North Carolina. I suggested they stop whining and start winning by finding their own deep pockets. It looks like the deep pockets found them. John Frank reports in the N&O that…
Read MoreCy Lynn
The Hunt Alumni lost one of our friends last week. Cy Lynn died. Here’s the N&O obit. Cy was public affairs director at DOT in Hunt I and II. He handled paid media in Hunt’s 1980 reelection campaign. He went on to work for the community colleges and then the Chamber of Commerce in…
Read MoreFrom China With Love
Governor Perdue reached across the Pacific to Washington last week to make a point that signals her 2012 strategy: Republicans are hurting education. While she was in China, her office sent a letter to Senators Hagan and Burr endorsing “The Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act.” She wrote that the bill,…
Read MoreThe Vanishing Cuts
If Bev Perdue had a few more Cabinet Secretaries like Lanier Cansler she’d never have to cut spending a penny – no matter what Republican legislators said. Last summer the Republicans told Cansler to cut the state’s $12.9 billion Medicaid budget by $350 million. The other day a team of legislators came back to…
Read MoreA Democratic Pope?
A Republican TAPster sends along this N&O blog with the observation: “Looks like the Democrats might have found their version of an Art Pope.” Keung Hui, in a blog headed, “Dean Debnam’s group gives Common Sense Matters another $25,000,” wrote: “It looks like we should expect another flurry of mailers from Common Sense…
Read MoreSmiling Democrats
There’s fall in the air and, suddenly, there’s spring in the step of Democrats. Part of it was last week’s elections, especially the prospect of capturing the Wake school board. Part of it is the natural joy Democrats feel when Obama pillories Republicans and big, bad bankers. Part of it is seeing Herman Cain…
Read MoreBeating Around the Bush
Back in the old days hardly anyone noticed when a Governor took a stand. But times have changed. Just look at the newspaper headline: Perdue Announces She Will Take a Stand. From there the process gets more puzzling. Before she would announce whether she was for or against the Constitutional Amendment banning gay…
Read More