North Carolina – Democrats

Beverly Perdue has trotted out one of the oldest and tiredest campaign proposals there is: a bipartisan commission to find savings in the state budget. What’s worse, the idea could hurt her in the Democratic primary. This retread comes back up every few years – usually from a conservative or a Republican. It’s total bull.…

Martin Lancaster’s last act may be his best. Lancaster is retiring next year as president of North Carolina’s community college system. He used to be a legislator and a congressman before he lost to Walter Jones in the 1994 landslide. But this is his finest hour. Lancaster is another rare politician who has the guts…

I’m going to start a “heated up” watch. “Heated up” is the most overused lead in political news coverage. It’s a cliché reporters resort to all too often when candidates attack. So I’m going to call out any uses of “heated up” I see in political coverage. The latest sinner is an excellent reporter, Mark…

The pre-Thanksgiving flap over a Republican judge’s comments about redistricting is a classic case of a politician committing a sin by speaking the truth. The truth is that the 2008 and 2010 elections are critical to the long-term political future of North Carolina. Whichever party controls redistricting – in the legislature and in the courts…

A long-time friend of Governor Mike Easley once told me that – whatever else you say about him – Easley is a master of messaging. Senator Dole learned that this week. Easley dropped a well-timed bomb on Dole. He hit her on the Navy’s planned Outlying Landing Field with this quote: “It is time for…

Bill Graham, the trial lawyer running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, has a loose grasp of North Carolina political history. Of course, why would a good trial lawyer let the facts keep him from scaring the GOP jury with the Hillary Clinton bogeywoman? Graham wrote in recent fundraising letter: “Mark my words. Hillary Clinton is…

You can call it the Land Transfer Tax. You can call it the Home Tax. Or you can just call it a dead duck. When an idea gets overwhelmingly rejected in 16 counties, as the home-sale tax did last Tuesday, its time clearly has not come. And won’t anytime soon. Realtors and Homebuilders spent $800,000…

When you’re in a hole, the first rule is: Stop digging. But Beverly Perdue’s campaign is digging a deeper hole every week. I sound like a broken record about this. But her campaign looks broken. The News & Observer found that her fundraising report failed to provide the occupations and employers for more than 300…