North Carolina – Democrats
‘People of Earth!’
What do Marco Rubio and Larry Hall have in common? They made the mistake of giving their party’s response to the State of the Union and State of the State speeches, respectively. Inevitably, this ends up looking like a hostage tape or the speech given by the leader of space aliens who just invaded…
Read MoreNot So Fast
The Economist newspaper says North Carolina has bid “farewell to purple.” But an article in The New York Times Magazine gives Democrats reason for optimism. The Economist notes: “North Carolina has a Republican governor, a conservative majority on the state Supreme Court and Republicans controlling both legislative chambers.” Plus, Republicans have nine of our…
Read MoreA Poster Child for Ineptitude
Cautiously holding their fingers to the wind most politicians avoid controversies like the plague – but State Auditor Beth Wood, a farm girl who put herself through East Carolina University, has a trait that’s all but extinct in politics: Grit. Last year, after Wood audited the state’s new Medicaid Processing Computer System, she blistered…
Read MoreThe Only Casualty
War’s broken out in Raleigh. The Republican County Commissioners launched a blitzkrieg, hiring a lobbyist (for $25,000) to get the Republican legislature to redraw the districts of the Democratic School Board members – then the Democratic School Board struck back (to keep their districts) by spending four times as much ($100,000) to hire their…
Read MoreSurprise, Surprise
Gary is taking a break from blogging. Our guest blog today is from a Tapster. Republicans won control of the NC General Assembly with a promise to create jobs and improve the state’s economy. So, where is the proposed legislation to do that? Of the 100 or so bills introduced in the…
Read MoreSisters: Defend Yourselves
Gary is taking a break from blogging. Our guest blogger is Joyce Fitzpatrick. The war on women continues. Cokie Roberts spoke Tuesday evening at the Kenan- Flagler School at UNC Chapel Hill about how inhospitable the Romney/Ryan ticket had been to women and immigrants. They responded in huge numbers to give President Obama…
Read MoreThe Next Generation
Gary is taking a break from blogging. Our guest Tapster today is Nation Hahn. It has been clear for several years that the NC Democratic Party has failed to build a deep bench of future leaders. It has become ever more clear during the Chairman race in recent weeks as people have tried to…
Read MoreA Simple Prayer
Gary is taking a break from blogging. Here’s one from another Tapster. When the legislature makes its biennial return to town, our usual tendency is to ridicule the members’ narrow mindedness, laugh at their lack of political sophistication and hold our collective breath that they won’t destroy the state. The gavel drops…
Read MoreA Train Wreck
The other day down at the News and Observer John Dresher wrote about the most enticing opening to an article I’ve seen in awhile. He wrote: “For their first date, Pat and Tiffany walk to a neighborhood diner for dinner. Pat orders Raisin Bran. Tiffany, perhaps already giving up on Pat, orders tea. They proceed…
Read MoreWanted: Perfect Party Chair
Our guest TAPster is Mark Ezzell, long time political observer and founder of Englewood Planning Group, a Raleigh-based public affairs firm: I love a good Barack Obama speech as much as the next Democrat, but I always cringed when he used the banal sounding line “we are the ones we’ve been looking for’.…
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