North Carolina – Democrats

North Carolinians need look no further than Wednesday’s action by a state House Committee to confirm that the representatives are clueless about public dissatisfaction with the legislature. – Winston-Salem Journal May 21, 2007 Last week the State Board of Elections said Representative Thomas Wright had failed to report $220,000 in campaign donations. And that he…

The stables badly need cleaning in the North Carolina House of Representatives. And Speaker Joe Hackney needs to step up to the job. So far, he hasn’t. It’s past time he did. In a way, the situation is unfair to Hackney. He spent decades building a reputation as a clean, hard-working legislator. He finally achieved…

First, State Treasurer Richard Moore hired Quellos money management to help him invest state pension funds, then he paid them hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, then he solicited their executives for contributions to his campaigns. Now the Charlotte Observer reports Quellos has some problems of its own. It has been sued for violating…

Whenever a Democrat asks me about beating Liddy Dole next year, I ask this trivia question: Who was the last Democrat from North Carolina to win a U.S. Senate seat in a presidential election year? The answer: Sam Ervin. 1968. Almost 40 years ago. And Ervin won not as the Watergate folk hero – that…

Democratic State Representative Linda Coleman has sponsored legislation to take control of the State Pension Fund away from Treasurer Richard Moore and give it to a fourteen member Board of Trustees. Democratic Representative Bill Faison of Hillsborough and two Republicans – including Rep. Nelson Dollar of Cary – have joined Coleman has co-sponsors of the…

Are the Republicans in Raleigh intent on ending the corruption in state government? It’s impossible to say. Because by and large they have been silent. The latest scandal involving Richard Moore is an example. Just as Jim Black was leaving office and Democrats were praying they would never hear the words ‘pay to play’ again,…

The storm flags are flying again for State Treasurer and would-be Governor Richard Moore. Now it’s a report by David Ingram in The Charlotte Observer that: “The employees who manage the $70 billion N.C. public pension fund are traveling out of North Carolina on official business more than twice as often as they did just…

From the time Joe Sinsheimer first called for ex-Speaker Jim Black to step down, people asked me who I thought was paying Joe. Having known Joe for many years, I said: nobody. He’s much more dangerous than a paid operative. He’s driven by his conscience. And he has three qualities that are rare in politics:…

Governor Mike Easley’s the leader of the Democratic Party, which has a proud heritage of empathy for the poor, downtrodden and for working people. That’s why the Governor’s new lottery proposal sounds unusual. Governor Easley wants to spend more on prizes to entice people – primarily the poor and downtrodden – into buying more lottery…