North Carolina – Democrats
Primary Meddling?
Democrats are no doubt playing in the GOP Senate primary, but some of the parallels being drawn may be exaggerated. Rob Christensen compared Democrats’ strategy against Thom Tillis to what Democrats did in Missouri in 2012 to help re-elect Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri. There, Republicans nominated a Tea Party nut who promptly…
Read MoreTeacher Exodus
When hundreds of teachers leave in the middle of the school year – in one of the nation’s best places to live and one of its best school systems – we have a crisis. But Republicans are in denial, and Democrats have a winning issue for this fall. About one out of every 15…
Read MoreTeachers and Taxes
While Governor McCrory and his patrons at the John Locke Foundation were bragging about tax cuts on Tax Day, Republicans in the Legislative Building were digging an even deeper teacher-pay hole for themselves and McCrory. The N&O’s page one headline said: “Broad teacher raises unlikely.” McCrory proclaimed, “we’re leaving a little extra money in…
Read MoreDeadly Politics
Misery loves company and right here, in Raleigh, it’s led to a pretty strange alliance. Governor McCrory’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources and President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency have joined arms. To whip the ‘coal ash’ problem. According to the newspaper reports the Governor is “pleased” but, so far, the EPA hasn’t…
Read MoreIs Good Money Bad Too?
This is a story about how even “good” money – that is, money spent for candidates and causes I like – can be bad. It’s a story about how outside donors and independent campaigns, not candidates and office-holders, are setting the political agenda. You can walk, and run, but money talks. Most every…
Read MoreThe Cape and not the Bull
Long ago and far away, in bygone days, during Jim Hunt’s first incarnation as Governor, we (Jesse Helms’ political organization) lit on what we thought was a grand idea: We ’d do a TV ad attacking Governor Hunt for giving AFL-CIO boss Wilber Hobby government CETA grants. We made the ad, tore into Wilbur…
Read MoreRethinking Koch
Maybe the attack-Koch strategy is a good idea after all. I had questions, but I’m coming around. Every story needs a villain. That lesson is as old as the Bible. (See: the Serpent, Garden of Eden.) Just as Republicans here want to make William Barber of the NAACP the face of the Democratic…
Read MoreAchin’ for Clay
Carter said a “celebrity” campaign was different. Now I get it. Working with Clay Aiken is unlike any campaign I’ve seen. Aiken starts with the most valuable quality a candidate can have today. He is a genuine political outsider in a time when voters are disgusted with politics. And he has near-universal name recognition.…
Read MoreThe Law of Unintended Consequences
A doctor is a simple creature. He measures achievement by a straightforward standard – the Hippocratic Oath. A businessman also measures success by a simple standard – money, income and outgo. But a bureaucrat has the misfortune of breathing and walking in the murky world of insider politics. Which is like no other…
Read MoreCoal Ash
I don’t know why but I’ve become absorbed by the machinations of bureaucrats – it’s a bit like watching Alice in Wonderland: Down is up, and up is down. Take hard work. Businessmen work hard to get ahead. Students work hard for better grades. But who joins a bureaucracy to work…
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