North Carolina – Republicans
The Bonehead Budget Award
Linda Hayes, the secretary of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, is this monthâs winner of the Thom Tillis Bonehead Budget Award. Speaker Tillis, you recall, put state government on a diet, then gave his staff fat raises. Hayes wins for complaining about budget cuts and then, according to a TAPster, âclosing a couple…
Read MoreSmart ALECs
A TAPster takes strong issue with the N&O’s reporting on the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is meeting this weekend in New Orleans. “The N&O’s Under the Dome blog reached a distressing new low in public affairs reporting with its story on the American Legislative Exchange Council. The blog reports on allegations by a liberal…
Read MoreGOP Joblessness
Are Democrats asleep? Below are two news reports that ran a week ago. They are rich fodder for North Carolina Democrats to use against Republicans. But I haven’t seen them do it: “State cuts push up NC jobless rate – North Carolina’s jobless rate rose to 9.9 percent in June, the highest level since…
Read MoreExecutive Power Outage
President Obama and Governor Perdue may have gained political yardage by contrasting themselves to unreasonable, extremist Republicans. But – in light of what has happened to both of them in recent days – they may lose even more ground by looking weak. Weakness is a flaw voters will not forgive in an executive. President…
Read MoreRx for Raleigh
Tom Fetzer must feel like the baseball scout who discovered Derek Jeter. Randall Williams looks like a consultant’s dream candidate for mayor of Raleigh. He’s an ob-gyn who’s done humanitarian work in Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti. He’s a fresh face and a fiscal conservative. He has no political baggage (or, judging from the N&O…
Read MoreCarter and the Holding Co.
With George Holding’s name, money and prosecutorial profile – plus Carter’s brain – he has to be the odds-on favorite to win the Republican 13th District nomination. News of which makes AG Roy Cooper the happiest man in Raleigh today. But bad news for Senator Berger’s son and the other aspirants – including…
Read MoreRedistricting and Ruin
You can draw a straight line connecting the big political stories in Raleigh and Washington this week: redistricting in Raleigh and the debt stalemate in Washington. Itâs a cliché â but itâs nonetheless true â that under todayâs redistricting system voters donât pick their politicians; politicians pick their voters. And, yes, both Democrats and…
Read MoreOverriding Politics
This is going to be fun. North Carolina joins the states that have “veto override sessions.” It’s uncharted territory. Nobody here has much experience with this kind of thing. We’ll learn fast. And move fast if, as Speaker Tillis promised, the session lasts only four days. Last I saw, Governor Perdue had…
Read MoreThe Republican Years?
Seeing the Republicans’ gerrymandered redistricting scheme reminds me of the rueful comment made by a wise old Democrat right after the 2010 elections: “We picked a bad year to have a meltdown.” If this was a “normal” year – i.e., not a redistricting year – Democrats could be confident the Republicans blew their chance.…
Read MoreTillis’ Talking Points
Speaker Thom Tillis was a successful management consultant, but he’s having less success at message management. When he met with the Asheville Citizen-Times editorial board recently, the Republican Speaker and his well-paid staff probably anticipated a headline something like “Tillis touts lean budget, efficient session.” Instead, they got this: “N.C. Speaker defends staff…
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