North Carolina – Republicans
Whip It
Thanks to a TAPster who remembers the 1980s for this one: “(North Carolina Congressman) Patrick McHenry is listed as an organizer of a new joint fundraising committee named – drum roll – Whip It Good PAC. At first I thought it was a joke, but apparently not.” For those not familiar…
Read MorePolitics As Usual
Sometimes in politics you have to rise above principle. Republicans vow to resist fight President Obama’s “redistributionist” economic policies. Then GOP legislators plot to redistribute sales tax revenues from urban (Democratic) to rural (Republican) counties. Senator Ted Cruz vows to repeal Obamacare. Then he signs up for insurance under Obamacare. Governor McCrory…
Read MorePat and Phil
Pat and Phil don’t gee and haw. Awhile back, after the Coal Ash Spill, Pat went to work cleaning up the mess, then Phil passed a bill to have a Commission take over the job – which got Pat’s hackles up. Pat said the Constitution was written in black and white and no…
Read MoreWaking Up
Yes, the Republicans’ Wake County power grab is raw, cynical politics. But it could help Democrats win legislative seats, the Governor’s Office, the U.S. Senate race and even a U.S. Senate majority and the Presidency next year. Wake is the biggest-voting county and the biggest swing-vote county in a big state that could decide…
Read MoreTwo Sides of a Coin
There’re two sides to every coin. Last year, when the State Senate took away Governor McCrory’s appointments to the Board of Review, the Governor vetoed the bill. Then the Senate overrode his veto. Then the Governor sued the Senate. Then, this year, as soon as the Senate got back to town it passed another…
Read MoreThe Job Chase
A TAPster who spent many years as a private-sector economic developer offers this: The myopic, confused and naïve approach of North Carolina Republicans to the state’s business recruitment efforts continues to baffle experts who toil daily to bring good jobs here. Our Republicans are opposed to incentives as “corporate welfare,” and they don’t…
Read MoreSecond Fiddle to South Carolina
This is about as good a tale of conniving as I’ve heard: I can’t remember why but forty years ago back in 1976 the state legislature moved our Presidential primary up from May to March – then the unexpected struck and Ronald Reagan whipped Gerald Ford. It was the first time Reagan won a…
Read MoreCalling More Less
It rang a little jarring to open the newspaper and read, Stam Introduces First Bill of New Session – To Limit Eminent Domain. No doubt Representative Skip Stam was right but it was a little like watching a knight errant tilting at a windmill – because, after all, Eminent Domain isn’t one of the…
Read MoreTata on Ice
The saga of Tony (Thriller) Tata continues. You can just hear that guy who does the movie trailers: “By day, he’s the powerful commander of DOT. At night, he’s A.J. Tata, mild-mannered novelist.” Tata’s two roles collided last week when icy roads caused thousands of accidents back home while Thriller was in Chicago flogging…
Read MoreShuttering the Center
The fur’s flying over in Chapel Hill – Dean Boger (at the Law School) along with a cohort of professors have lit into the Board of Governors saying closing the Law School’s Anti-Poverty Center leaves them with only one conclusion: The Board is for poverty. The Dean lamented the Board was guilty of every…
Read More