North Carolina – Republicans
Crime Breaks Out
Like gas prices nationally, crime could be the surprise issue in the North Carolina governor’s race this year. The rolling gang fight at Triangle Towne Center last weekend gives Raleigh residents pause. Charlotteans wonder what took us so long. Break-ins – thought to be gang-related – plague even the best neighborhoods there. Pat McCrory has…
Read MoreBev Calls the Kettle Black
You’ve got to admit it. Bev Perdue’s got chutzpah. The N&O just reported she’s raised $376,293 from PACs to McCrory’s $62,257. What’s she doing? She’s blasting away at Pat McCrory – for raising money from PACs. Maybe McCrory ought to just throw up his hands and say, ‘Okay, Bev, let’s stop right here. I’ll gladly…
Read MoreBev and the Badgers
There aren’t too many surprises in the contribution reports from Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory. McCrory’s money is largely coming from Charlotte and the usual Republican suspects. Perdue’s money is largely coming from the East and the usual Democratic suspects. McCrory has Duke Energy, NASCAR and the Downtown Charlotte bank and brokerage boys. Perdue has…
Read MoreKay Hagan Rewrites a Little History
Sometimes you have to wonder what planet politicians come from. Everyone living on Planet Earth knows the North Carolina Senate isn’t anything like a summer camp of fellowship and bi-partisan comity. For a decade Democratic wheelhorse Marc Basnight has passed down orders and the boys have lined up like a cadre of linebackers and rolled…
Read MoreKay Hagan and the DSCC’s $6 Million
I don’t believe the DSCC is bluffing about spending $6 million-plus for Kay Hagan in North Carolina. The DSCC chairman, Senator Chuck Schumer, told one of Hillary Clinton’s top North Carolina supporters in March that he would put real money into the race. He probably had to make that commitment to entice Hagan to run.…
Read MoreDrill We Must?
Dick Morris can be slimy and smarmy, but he’s smart. This week he put his finger on an issue that Democrats need to think hard about: offshore – or, as the Republicans call it – “deep-sea” drilling for oil. Clearly the Republicans have drilled down on this issue with some heavy-duty polling. Almost simultaneously, John…
Read MoreThe Six-Million-Dollar Woman
I haven’t been on particularly warm terms with Bob and Elizabeth Dole since 1996, when I made a passel of negative ads for Steve Forbes during the Iowa Caucus attacking then-Senator Bob Dole – but New York Senator Charlie Schumer may be about to turn what happened in Iowa ten years ago into a glimmering…
Read MoreBeing a Republican in the State Legislature
If you’re a Republican in the minority in the House or Senate, the last few years have been one long, frustrating nightmare. The North Carolina legislature works on a winner-take-all system. The majority doesn’t rule. It dictates. There are no such things as filibusters or minority party rights. You lose the election and you have…
Read MoreSatanists and Mammon
The Democratic Satanists in Durham are going on trial: According to the first hearing they’ve been “channeling demons” and, naturally, met through the Internet. For those who deny the occult, the defense attorney has a different explanation. He says there are no evil spirits on the loose in Durham – just a few people practicing…
Read MoreGetting on the Same Sheet of Music
North Carolina Republicans have one bona fide, big league, blue chip campaign that has all the ingredients for success this year: Elizabeth Dole’s. Senator Dole has built the only major Republican campaign in North Carolina that is raising more money than her opponent. And she has polls. And effective ads. And her campaign team has…
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