North Carolina – Republicans
Negative, Positive and Accurate
Bev Perdue’s campaign manager is filling Internet Inboxes with messages from people praising Perdue, pounding her on the back, for renouncing negative ads. In one email he quotes Priscilla and Kathy and Donna as gushing, “Way to go… you very well may have earned my vote… Mr. Moore’s negative ads have totally turned me off.”…
Read MoreI Told You So
You could see this train wreck coming. Less than a week after Bev Perdue promised a positive campaign, the N&O headline says: “Mailer contradicts Perdue’s message.” It turns out the National Education Association “had already sent 10,000 glossy attacks on Moore to retired educators in North Carolina.” So Moore is holding a news conference this…
Read MorePerdue Gets In a Huff
Well, Beverly Perdue has had enough of negative ads. She’s pulling hers. In an e-mail – unless it’s a hoax – she’s announced for the good of the state she’s pulling her negative ads and it’s all hearts and flowers from now on. Richard Moore must be counting his lucky stars. Maybe Mrs. Perdue had…
Read MoreThe Art of the Grab
Like many small towns in rural counties Albemarle is not exactly a boomtown. But a local banker and a Stanly County Commissioner have come up with a political grab that makes government funding of the Randy Parton Theatre look like a small-time sideshow. The hydro-electric plant is a modern marvel. Hydro-electric plants create electricity and…
Read MoreLonging for Jim Hunt
When it comes to managing North Carolina’s state government, the Easley Administration is beginning to sound like the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. There’s been one mishap after another. The Department of Transportation wasted $30,000 on a ferry junket to watch the tall ships sail around Beaufort Harbor. The Department of Health and Human Service…
Read MoreNo More Stumbling
It looked for awhile like Fred Smith was doing some adroit foot work in the Republican primary, moving to Pat McCrory’s right. (Or, conversely, and more lethally, moving Mayor McCrory to the left). But, now, McCrory is doing some footwork of his own – moving just where Smith doesn’t want him on an issue Smith…
Read MoreAd Wars. Tuition?
What Hillary Clinton called the “fun part” has started in the Governor’s race. Richard Moore and Bev Perdue are going at each other full-bore on TV. Over college tuition, of all things. Who guessed that would be the burning issue this year? Why? Because tuition sums up a host of middle-class economic anxieties. And it’s…
Read MoreSwinging Polls
Richard Moore’s campaign has taken heart from the new Public Policy Polling survey that shows him trailing Bev Perdue only 44-34. Skepticism is in order given the wild swing from PPP’s last poll, which had Moore behind by 27 points. PPP attributed the change to Moore’s new ad. But one ad, not long on the…
Read MoreA Strange Definition of Republican
When former House Speaker Richard Morgan filed to run for Superintendent of Public Instruction, Republican Ed Kennedy reared back and hurled a mud ball at him, then someone posted it here on Talking About Politics. To call Mr. Kennedy’s letter to Mr. Morgan mean-of-spirit understates his eruption. He had an arm-waving tantrum. Calling Richard Morgan…
Read MoreMcCrory and the Basketball Arena
Watching Fred Smith zing Pat McCrory in the governor’s campaign is getting to be entertaining. At a debate last Saturday, railing against illegal immigration, GOP frontrunner McCrory said the federal government should build a $150 million prison in Charlotte to lock the rascals up. Then he added that there are so many illegal immigrants in…
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