North Carolina – Republicans
Hell, yes! Let’s vote on HB2!
Democrats in the legislature should immediately embrace a statewide referendum on HB2. This issue is killing Republicans. A referendum will keep it alive all year. A cascade of national money will flow in to help Roy Cooper, Deborah Ross and Josh Stein. Pat McCrory’s “Carolina Comeback” will drown in a tide of ongoing news about…
Read MoreGrading teacher pay
Here’s another way the crowd in Raleigh today is hurting North Carolina. WRAL will broadcast a documentary at 7 pm tonight, “Grading Teacher Pay.” The station’s overview: “During the 1990’s Governor Jim Hunt worked with Republicans and Democrats in the legislature to raise the average salary for public school teachers to the national average in…
Read MoreThe great GOP crack-up
Like all Gaul, the Republican Party is divided into three parts, and all three seem to be at war with each, in North Carolina and nationally. In North Carolina, the Cultural Conservatives (Part I) who run the legislature have made HB2 – and the consequent economic damage – the big issue for 2016. That has…
Read MoreCivil War
North Carolina politics used to divide regionally: East vs. West. For much of the 20th Century, there was a tradition that a Governor from the West was succeeded by a Governor from the East. And each region had one U.S. Senator. Today, the civil war is City vs. Country. The ever-wise Ferrel Guillory, director of…
Read MorePhil flushes Pat
As Governor McCrory paddles furiously to stay afloat, it becomes clear that Senator Berger sold him down the HB2 river. This is a three-fer for Berger: (1) He makes his base happy; (2) he screws his enemies in the cities and (3) he punches a hole in McCrory’s reelection boat. Why does Berger want McCrory…
Read MoreMcCrory: “Oops”
After weeks of staunchly defending HB2 and slamming opponents as a “politically correct” mob of perverts, left-wingers, their allies in the media and their corporate lackeys, Governor McCrory rose from his sickbed – at least, via video and one careful interview – to waffle, wiggle and waver. As one wit said of McCrory’s executive order,…
Read MoreDoes McCrory have HB2-flu?
His staff says he has a “viral contagion.” Like the viral contagion of jobs, visitors, entertainers and businesses avoiding North Carolina like the plague. The Governor cancelled all his public appearances – and avoided all HB2 questions – this weekend. Monday, he summoned up the strength to announce his proposed health budget. But he still wasn’t up to…
Read MoreJob killers
With the PayPal pullout, HB2 has now officially killed more jobs than Obamacare. Maybe that’s the plan. See, Republicans are strong in rural areas, which are losing jobs and population. They’ve tried to reverse that since 2010, with no success. So now they figure it’s easier to stop the explosive growth in strong Democratic urban…
Read MorePlaying the bathroom card. Again
“Do you want Negroes using your toilet facilities?” Campaign flyer, Willis Smith for US Senate, 1950 Every time equal rights take a new step forward, opponents run for the bathroom. They’re doing it now with HB2. They’re scaring people with horror stories about predators attacking girls in bathrooms. In the 1970s, they claimed the Equal…
Read MoreMcCrory’s March Madness
If Pat McCrory loses in November, he’ll regret March. He came into the month like a lion. John Davis wrote that McCrory’s big primary win and passage of the Connect NC bonds positioned him well: “(His) seven terms as Mayor of the City of Charlotte seasoned him well to lead an urban dominant swing state.…
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