North Carolina – Democrats
Picture of Coleman, Picture of Holding
Linda Coleman isn’t well known – her Favorable is 18% and her Unfavorable is 16%. Some Democrats know and like her but most voters don’t know who she is or where she stands on the issues they care about. In June and July, when George Holding ran ads comparing his stand for workfare and for…
Read MoreTwo Super PACs: A Negative Ad and a Positive Ad
In a fallen world the ‘negative’ (the bad thing) has great power, especially in an election where voters are choosing between two candidates they dislike. For example, six years ago, President Obama didn’t win by running ads praising Obama’s accomplishments – he defeated Romney by telling voters Romney was ‘an out-of-touch billionaire.’ And remember ‘Crooked…
Read MoreThree Kinds of Elections
Well, today, I’m back to writing about George Holding’s election – which now may or may not be in November and, may or may not be in a new district. I guess we may know sometime next week. All that said, assuming wiser (legal) heads prevail and George Holding will be running in the current…
Read MoreA Bombshell
Yesterday, I was going to write about the election but, then, Federal Judge James Wynn dropped a bombshell – by ruling the current Congressional Districts are unconstitutional. The districts, he said, are a ‘partisan gerrymander.’ And have to be redrawn. Campaigns, in a way, are simple – they have one over-arching goal: To talk with…
Read MoreLegislative wrecking crew
There’s nothing this legislature can’t screw up. The Constitution, redistricting, congressional elections, judicial elections – and that’s just this week. A TAPster noted, “If you had to return to your auto mechanic to correct his screwups as often as our legislators return to fix theirs, you’d get a new mechanic.” Congressional elections are in chaos,…
Read MoreMcCready and McCain
Listening to Dan McCready got me thinking about John McCain. Right after I posted yesterday’s blog, McCain and Trump, I went to a lunch for McCready. He’s running for Congress in the 9th District. When you hear 9th District, you probably think Charlotte. But the district stretches east to Robeson and Bladen counties. McCready had…
Read MoreBlue Moon Elections: Who Votes
Two years ago, just before the election, when early voting started, a surprising trend appeared out of thin air. Fewer African-American Democrats were voting than had voted in the 2012 Presidential election. And the impact was profound. Before the 2016 election polls showed Richard Burr running even with, or a couple points ahead of, Democrat…
Read MoreBlue Moon
The first time I ever laid eyes on a ‘blue-moon’ election was thirty-six years ago, after Ronald Reagan was elected. What’s a blue moon election? It’s the first election after a new President takes office, when there’s not a Senator or Governor on the ballot running statewide. Back in 1982, Jesse Helms’ political organization had…
Read More“Beyond a reasonable doubt”
Do Republicans realize how big a club they’re giving Governor Cooper to beat them with this fall? Here is the most telling sentence in Tuesday’s decision by two members of the three-judge panel who reviewed the proposed constitutional amendments on separation of powers and judicial appointments: “…A majority of this panel concludes beyond a reasonable…
Read More“Both sides”-ism at the N&O
No, Colin Campbell, “both sides” do not “share in the blame” over “the last-minute legal tussle between Gov. Roy Cooper and the legislature over proposed constitutional amendments.” And the N&O fails its readers and its history by running Campbell’s “both sides” column where the newspaper’s editorial voice once rang clear, loud and true. No, both…
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