North Carolina – Democrats
Fire in the Eyes
I dropped in on a wise old Democrat who has been through the political wars, winning more than he lost. I found him undaunted by 2014 and fired up for 2016. He chided me for chiding Senator Hagan for chiding President Obama over the November results: “You were too tough on her. The President…
Read MoreHagan and Obama, Part II
You know it was a bad story when somebody says at breakfast, “Did Senator Hagan know she was being quoted when she said that about Obama?” We don’t know. But we do know that Hagan’s interview with a McClatchy reporter threw gas on a fire burning in the Democratic Party – and probably burned…
Read MoreHagan Vs. Obama
Senator Kay Hagan ran a strong campaign, but her post-defeat critique of President Obama is weak. Hagan told McClatchy’s Renee Schoof that Obama hurt Senate Democrats by not trumpeting the economy more loudly: “The president hasn’t used the bully pulpit to get that message out in a way that resonates with people. And I…
Read MoreFirst in Their Class
A TAPster points out that my blog yesterday about Young Dems didn’t take note that two young Dems (“young” being broadly defined as younger than me) already are making their mark in statewide office. I wrote that Senator Josh Stein could be “the first in his class” of young Democrats to be elected to…
Read MoreDemocrats and Education
One thing Democrats did right this year was push education onto the public agenda. But will it last? And the key question: Where do they take it now? The Hagan campaign came close largely because they almost turned a United States Senate race into a school board election. The same thing was true…
Read MoreDid Pat Pick Right Fight?
Governor McCrory’s political instinct is right, but his choice of battlefield is puzzling. The Governor seems to understand that the best way to get reelected is to pick a fight with the legislature. Governors are always more popular than legislatures. McCrory’s approval ratings are twice as high as this legislature. But why not…
Read MoreThree Wise Men
Some two-score years ago, I started going to the National Governors Association winter meetings in Washington. These were at the time great bipartisan policy wonk-fests, three days of earnest discussions about issues, ideas and innovations, with plenty of after-hours barroom political gossip. Three young governors stood out at the time (during the day sessions,…
Read MoreTherapy for Democrats
After last Tuesday, Democrats need a psychiatrist as much as a political strategist. Here’s helpful advice from my old friend and pollster extraordinaire Harrison Hickman, titled “Top 10 Least Helpful Democratic Excuses.” Harrison, an NC native and CEO of Hickman Analytics, Inc. in Washington, says, “To learn from our landslide defeat, Democrats should avoid…
Read MoreWhat Happened
“Anybody who says they knew this was coming – Democrat or Republican, pundit or pollster – is lying,” a veteran campaign operative said Wednesday The polls all missed it. Close races turned into routs. Narrow Democratic wins turned into Republican wins. Turnout models missed the mark, Early-voting hype was misleading. Tillis consultant Paul…
Read MoreStep Away From the Ledge
North Carolina Democrats should push the pause, not panic, button. It was, as George Bush famously said after the 2006 midterm, “a thumpin’.” It hurts like hell, especially when the other team spikes the ball and strikes a pose in the end zone. The temptation is to form up the circular firing squad and…
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