North Carolina – Democrats
Time to Panic?
Is Senator Kay Hagan overreacting on Obamacare, or should Democrats rush to the lifeboats and abandon ship? If you go by the N&O website’s headline – “Hagan calls for probe of healthcare website as political support drops” – you’d panic. After all, she had a conference call with reporters to call for investigations of…
Read MoreJob Killers?
Governor McCrory and legislative Republicans have a theory: Cut taxes and regulations, and jobs will flow in. What if they’re wrong – not only on the economics, but also on the politics? What if their theory leads to North Carolina becoming a more Democratic state? The question arises from two recent conversations: one…
Read MoreBoone on the Rise
It’s one town and one election, but it was one hell of a shot in the arm for an old Democratic war horse like me. A dedicated, sleep-deprived, over-caffeinated crew of young organizers and Appalachian State students helped sweep the Boone Town Council races for a slate of progressive, forward-looking candidates, including Andy Ball…
Read MoreElection Takeaways
The Republican civil war takes off, Obamacare takes a hit, Virginia is still purple, a big GOP personality wins big in blue New Jersey, public pollsters lose big and a new generation of Democratic leaders rises across North Carolina. Let’s run it all down. GOP civil war: The skirmishes are over, and the real…
Read MoreThe Barber Factor
Some Democrats fear – and Carter sincerely hopes – that the Rev. William Barber will become the face of the Democratic Party. But ponder this: If Barber can inspire thousands of people to protest on “Moral Mondays” – and 900 of them to get arrested – how many people can he inspire to the polls…
Read MoreIt’s the Character, Stupid
If Democrats want to come back in North Carolina, they need to avoid their usual mistake of thinking it’s all about the issues. It’s in Democrats’ DNA to do that. We’re issues people. We care a lot about things like Medicaid expansion, Common Core curriculum, growth strategies and infrastructure. It’s not that voters…
Read MoreTrouble Ahead
What’s the over/under on how many bad headlines and headaches will come from Governor McCrory’s plan to shift job recruitment from the N.C. Department of Commerce to a new “public-private nonprofit corporation”? The N&O’s Rob Christensen reported that similar partnerships across the country have been criticized for “misuse of taxpayer money, conflicts of interest,…
Read MoreThe Target was Democrats
The judge, after I asked about Eric Holder’s lawsuit, grunted and said, Whatever gave you the idea that law and justice are the same thing – the law can be a darn peculiar beast. Not long ago the Attorney General of the whole United States sued the whole state of North Carolina to put…
Read MorePatronage Shocker
We all are shocked – shocked, I say – that Governor McCrory and the Republican Party are putting political cronies in state jobs. Like that has never happened before. I’m reminded of the Jim Hunt supporter who wanted to get a state job for a local boy. The Governor’s patronage chief, Joe Pell, asked,…
Read MoreCooped Up
Roy Cooper has made strong moves to clear the 2016 Democratic primary field for Governor. But he also may be putting a big obstacle in his path. The AG is adamant that he can go into court and defend Republican-supported laws on voter identification and same-sex marriage, even though he adamantly opposes those laws.…
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