North Carolina – Republicans
The Traits of Anony-mices
A while back two meandering tribes of ‘anony-mices’ – as Ms. Joan Troy once called them – set up camp over on the Talking About Politics Forum and, for the past year, these diminutive creatures have made war on one another and just about anyone else they lay eyes on – which brings us to…
Read MoreRevisiting 1994
Fred Heineman’s death takes us back to the Republican tidal year of 1994, when a titanic health-care battle led to a Democratic debacle so huge Heineman temporarily unseated David Price. The big difference this year: Obama succeeded where the Clintons failed. It takes three ingredients to make an electoral revolution: (1) One side…
Read MoreMuzzling Margiotta
It is becoming clear how to fight back against Ron (Archie Bunker) Margiotta over the future of WakeCounty schools. Let him talk. Fresh after calling people at a public hearing “animals,” Ron/Archie opined recently – at a Republican Party meeting, no less – than the Wake schools should be split into smaller districts.…
Read MoreWounding Words
The worst injuries in politics are often self-inflicted. Two examples are in the news today. First, the war of words between Ron Margiotta and William Barber. Margiotta called his opponents at a WakeCounty school board “animals.” Barber took offense, then compared the board majority to the Mafia. Margiotta and John Tedesco took offense. Then…
Read More‘The Voice of Onslow County’
As far as political shenanigans go this isn’t in the league with John Edwards’ goings on but it’s pretty strange. Down in Onslow County, after twenty-four years in the State House my old friend Robert Grady decided not to seek re-election and to run for Clerk of Court instead. Now what you have to…
Read MoreFiling In
The candidate filings show where the energy is this year. And it’s not encouraging for Democrats. Republicans fielded candidates in all 50 state Senate races and nearly all the state House races. There are 40-plus Republicans running in congressional primaries. We may be seeing the three ingredients required to make a landslide: One…
Read MoreFlights of Fancy
The State Democratic Party gets an A+ for rapid response this week. I blogged last week that the N&O overplayed Tom Fetzer’s questions about Governor Perdue’s campaign flights. The research rats at Democratic HQ then turned up questions about Pat McCrory’s campaign flights. That led to an N&O headline – the same size…
Read MoreOverplayed
Since when does an obviously political and apparently unsupported charge by the state Republican Party chairman rate a screaming, streaming headline across Page B1 in The News & Observer? The third graf of the story said: ‘The head of the state elections board said Wednesday that officials are reviewing how all gubernatorial campaigns…
Read MoreWhat’s Up? Obama!
Every day I read how badly things are going for President Obama. Democrats and Republicans, the mainstream media and the bloggers all alike trash him, his staff, his health care strategy, his jobs plan, his position on the banks, on and on. Then I read a poll – commissioned by the Civitas Institute,…
Read MoreThe Golden Rule
Last fall’s Wake County school board elections followed The Golden Rule of Politics: Them that has the gold rules. Bob Luddy and Art Pope – two of the biggest opponents of public schools – were the biggest contributors to school board candidates. Their side, according to The News & Observer, outspent the other…
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