North Carolina – Republicans
An Odd Fact
Whenever the question of how to improve education in North Carolina comes up the Democrats are a paragon of consistency: The solution, they say, is to spend more money. Now, right or wrong, the Democrats are dead serious and whenever Republicans (who have a different idea about solutions to problems) don’t spend more on…
Read MorePopcorn Politics Part Deux
**Gary is taking a break from blogging and he asked a few Tapsters to post a few blogs. Here is another one a Tapster sent in: The biggest day of the 2012 political calendar is August 10. No, that’s not the start of the much-ballyhooed and underfunded Democratic National Convention, nor is it…
Read MorePopcorn Politics
**Gary is taking a break from blogging and he asked a few Tapsters to post a few blogs. Here is one a Tapster sent in: The rankings of the allegedly most influential lobbyists were released last week by the NC Center for Public Policy Research. This biennial joke was greeted by the usual…
Read MoreA Hard Fight
It started four years ago as an uneven fight: Five rural County Commissioners against a multi-national conglomerate with plants from Iceland to Arabia – so, losing ground, the Commissioners who’re Republicans turned to the Democratic Governor for help and got it in an odd way: The Governor helped but, at the same time, her Department…
Read MoreBurr as Veep?
Maybe Senator Richard Burr sees himself as the best running mate for Mitt Romney. In an interview with WBT radio, he said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) could use “a little more experience.” He called Kelly Ayotte out of New Hampshire a “longshot.” And he had faint praise for former Minnesota Gov. Tim…
Read MoreRinging the School Bell
One of Walter Dalton’s biggest challenges is winning Independent women voters in the Charlotte media market. How does he do that? Take them to school. Dalton can go after on education Pat McCrory two ways. One, McCrory will rubber-stamp whatever the legislature does to the public schools. Senator Josh Stein did a…
Read MoreGrabby GOP
Republican legislators may be anti-government, but they’re obviously not anti-grabbing government goodies for themselves. Ex-Rep. Stephen LaRoque ran a program that received federal money. Now he faces federal charges of money laundering and theft from the program. Among those who got money from him are two Republican colleagues: former Senator Debbie Clary and Rep.…
Read MoreUnintended Consequences
Republicans in the state legislature cut Planned Parenthood’s state funding by $125,000 but, to give the devil its due, in the blink of an eye Planned Parenthood turned a cut into a three-fold blessing by persuading the Obama Administration to give it $426,000 – as one Republican legislator said, I guess we can thank our…
Read MoreOne, Two, Three
One: Representative Stephen LaRoque was indicted. Two: Speaker Thom Tillis advised LaRoque to resign. Three: LaRoque didn’t. Four: Tillis appointed a bi-partisan committee to investigate. Five: LaRoque resigned. One. Two. Three. No deals. No double-talk. No dodging. Scandal over.
Read MoreDueling Polls
The Republican (Civitas) poll says Pat McCrory leads Walter Dalton 47-37. The Democratic (N.C. Citizens for Progress) poll says McCrory’s lead, once 12 points, has been cut in half – from 46-34 in April to 45-39 in July. So what does this really tell us? First, McCrory’s five-year campaign has given him an…
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