North Carolina – Republicans
Who’s Our Competition?
Pat McCrory and Walter Dalton are debating whether North Carolina lost its competitive edge. The question is: Who are we competing with? And is competition just about taxes? Rob Christensen’s N&O story Sunday asked whether we’re still a “Dixie Dynamo.” But some people who work in economic development think that’s too narrow. We’re not…
Read MoreThe Missing Cash
The Democrats’ treasure chest has vanished. Year after year in elections, Democrats like Jim Hunt and Marc Basnight had war chests brimming with cash. Bev Perdue defeated Pat McCrory last election by outspending him by $7 million. But now the Democrats’ larder is empty. Phil Berger’s outraising Martin Nesbit (Basnight’s Senate heir) seventeen to one…
Read MoreOver the Cliff
Given the fiscal cliff facing states, maybe it’s not a bad time for Democrats to let Republicans own Raleigh. Speaker Thom Tillis says Republicans already “own” North Carolina’s economy. If Pat McCrory wins and they keep the House and Senate, they’ll have sole ownership of the state budget. The State Budget Crisis Task…
Read MoreBru Cashes In
Sometimes Iâm naïve. I didnât get why Rep. Harold Brubaker was resigning in the middle of his House term. Heâs been in the legislature since Governor O. Max Gardnerâs administration â or something like that. He was Speaker in the 90s. He is one of the most powerful members of the House. His party…
Read MoreThe Second Most Watched Race…
The most watched campaign in North Carolina this fall will be the Presidential race but the second most watched race may not be the Governor’s race – it may be the race between Paul Newby and Sam Ervin for the lone Supreme Court seat. The way Republicans see it, sooner or later, the Democrats’…
Read MorePartisanship
North Carolina’s most famous Democrat, Jim Hunt, ran for statewide office six times and each time gave the liberal Democrat running for President a wide berth – and so did Mike Easley when he ran in 2000 (Al Gore) and 2004 (John Kerry). And no one thought much of it. But now two Democratic…
Read MoreHow Politics Works
It probably seemed like a good idea at the time: A group of people building a swimming complex in Cary hired an architect, Kenn Gardner, who was also a County Commissioner, who as Commissioner had been advocating for a government subsidy for their complex. But, in the end, it didn’t work out well at…
Read MoreThe Master of the Deal
In 2010 Governor Perdue steered Democrats to defeat, in 2011 the Republicans in the Legislature pounded her, and in 2012 she announced she was not running for reelection. Speaker Thom Tillis has had his own problems: Two of his aides had affairs with lobbyists, Tillis declared nothing untoward (beyond adultery) was going on, then…
Read MoreOwning it All
It happens on Wall Street: A tycoon calls an eager young executive into his office and hands him a job to do (like selling Facebook stock) and says, This is your responsibility – you ‘own’ it. Three years into the ‘Great Recession’ no politician in his right mind wants to ‘own the economy.’ It…
Read MoreHow Government Works
When Dr. Craigon Gray headed Medicaid in North Carolina he didn’t care much for home health care – he would tell anyone who’d listen how home health care was riddled with fraud. Now a lot of folks suspected Dr. Gray’s animus towards home care (and his preference for sending elderly people to nursing homes)…
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