North Carolina – Democrats
Fair Warning
The other morning after she finished reading the obituaries my wife turned to the front page of the newspaper and frowned then declared, That is ridiculous. Buried in the sports page I muttered, What’s ridiculous? John Edwards says he can’t be prosecuted because the government didn’t give him ‘fair warning’ he was violating…
Read MoreSilent and Deadly
Direct mail is the Ninja assassin of politics. “An icepick to the forehead,” it was called by Dave Gold, who did our direct mail when Jim Hunt beat Jim Gardner in 1992. That year, we targeted 100,000 swing voters statewide. And bombarded them with a series of mailings about Gardner’s checkered business record. By…
Read MorePopish Politics
There is delicious irony in the juxtaposition of the New Yorker story about Art (“I am not an heir”) Pope and Tuesday’s election. The New Yorker critique of Pope is that he spent a lot of his money to support tough, negative, independent campaign attacks on Democrats – which helped Republicans win control of…
Read MoreDivisiveness Loses
A TAPster sees a factor in Tuesday’s elections apart from the party angle: “There’s an important lesson tucked in the outcome of Raleigh’s school board election Tuesday when voters kicked out the divisive school board chairman. “It’s not a lesson about Democrats vs. Republicans, even though the N&O and its political pundit Rob…
Read MoreWakeup Call
It was a rout. Democrats were fired up and ready to go. They were mad about more than the school board. They were mad about the 2010 elections, the Republican legislature, the Tea Party, even Art (“I am not an heir”) Pope. Incidentally, Tuesday’s results show that Pope’s power was exaggerated by the…
Read MoreAmbivalent Bev
Now we see why it took Governor Perdue so long to come out against the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. First, she was waiting to put it out Friday afternoon – in hopes nobody would notice. Not just any Friday afternoon, but the one right before the Columbus Day-fall break weekend. Second, it…
Read MoreHow to Win Friends Political Style (It Beats Dale Carnegie)
It didn’t work out too well when Congress went into the home loan business a couple of years ago – so it seems odd the Raleigh City Council wants to do the same thing. However, just about everyone in town seems to think passing a bond to borrow millions so the Council can make…
Read MoreHow to Make Friends the Political Way – Part II
The other borrowing the Raleigh City Council has put on the ballot is a Transportation Bond. Which sounds like the Council wants to borrow money to repair potholes and build new streets. Except the newspaper reported three-fourths of the money isn’t for roads. Almost everyone it seems is for this bond too. And if…
Read MoreStop Whining
The New Yorker article about Art Pope takes me back to the 1980s. Then, my fellow Democrats were whining about the money, power and evil influence of Jesse Helms’ Congressional Club. Now, they’re whining about the money, power and evil influence of Art Pope. Stop whining. Get to work. Find our Art Pope. …
Read MoreUnfair Hit?
Did Governor Perdue get jobbed by the AP jobs story: “Plant deal may enrich N.C. political donors”? A TAPster who works in private-sector economic development – and is no admirer of the Governor – says yes: “The land was assembled for this purpose and is in a catalog of sites available to prospective…
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