North Carolina – Republicans
Recant or You’re Fired
Back in 1988, Floyd Brown’s Citizens United superpac ran an ad attacking Michael Dukakas for pardoning Willie Horton. The ad helped George H. W. Bush but Brown got a lot of heat for it. Fast forward forty-seven years: After Trump took over The Kennedy Center, Brown agreed to go to work at the center raising…
Read MoreHealing Wounds
Instead of going to college Joe Kent joined the army at 18; a Ranger, Green Beret, did 11 combat tours. Stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia he met Shannon Smith, also a soldier – they married, had two children. Five years later on a street in Syria an Isis terrorist walked toward four soldiers, ignited a…
Read MoreGood Start
Governor Josh Stein has changed the climate in Raleigh. And brighter days may be ahead for North Carolina – especially for public schools and teachers. At Stein’s encouragement, House Democrats voted last night – by 27-20 – to approve House Republicans’ proposed budget. The Governor believes the final budget that comes out of a House-Senate…
Read MoreOff-Year Elections
Chariots of Fire won the Best Picture Oscar…Joe Montana and the 49ers won the Super Bowl …Dallas was the top TV show…and, back in 1982, I ran head-on into my first off-year election. By then I’d worked in 3 campaigns – each ended well. In 1982, with Reagan in the White House, we set out…
Read MoreQuite a Day
Trump had quite a day yesterday. Qatar offered a posh new jet to replace Air Force 1 – Trump said it’d be ‘stupid’ to say no. Next Trump said we’d stopped a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. When he’d imposed tariffs, Trump whacked China. Got whacked back. Blinked. Yesterday announced he’d cut a big…
Read MoreRigged
Allison Riggs beat the election-riggers. She, her campaign and an army of allies – the Democratic Party, election attorneys and nonpartisan groups like Common Cause – fought a costly, arduous, six-month battle that finally prevailed over Jefferson Griffin and Republicans who were determined to overturn an election he lost. But it was a close call.…
Read MoreThis Sounds Screwy…
Trailing by 734 votes, losing his Supreme Court race to Democrat Allison Riggs, Jefferson Griffin headed to court, contesting the election. Nothing wrong with that. Fifty years ago Jack Hawke – who went on to become Republican Party Chairman – ran for Congress, lost by 900 votes, headed to court. Tom Ellis, his lawyer, later…
Read MoreRiggs v Griffin
The nearly six-month fight over the North Carolina Supreme Court election has proven one thing beyond reasonable doubt: Allison Riggs is supremely better qualified than Jefferson Davis Griffin. No, his middle name isn’t Davis. But it fits. At UNC, Griffin was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity and dressed up in a Confederate uniform for…
Read MoreTillis’ Fate
Senator Thom Tillis wants to have it both ways. He wants MAGA Republicans to think he’s a loyal Trump foot soldier. He wants swing voters to think he’s an effective, independent voice. But, no matter what he does, he can’t escape Trump. His political fate in 2026 is lashed to Trump’s like Ahab to the…
Read MoreChoking
At a hearing on the tariffs yesterday, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina demanded to know: “Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?” Tillis knows the answer. It’s Trump. Here’s the question for Tillis: Will you stand up and stop him? Or will you choke?
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