North Carolina – Republicans

When Thom Tillis started his campaign his prospects looked promising. Obama wasn’t just unpopular, his unpopularity was a plumb line cutting through the electorate – you were either for Obama or against him and Kay Hagan was on the wrong side of the line.   Tillis, himself, back then wasn’t too well known but he…

When I saw Kay Hagan’s first ad saying Thom Tillis was supported by the Tea-Party-leaning-Koch-Brothers I thought, Now, that’s odd – after all, the Koch Brothers weren’t on the ballot and no one cared a hoot who they supported.   But I was dead wrong.   Because it wasn’t the Koch Brothers who mattered –…

Some perspective on the breathless reports that the National Republican Senatorial Committee is pumping another $6.5 million into Thom Tillis’ campaign: What does that buy, and what does it get you with still-undecided voters?   On the buy, it gets you about half what it would get you if you had bought the time weeks…

The after-debate on who won is more interesting than the debates themselves.   You can rely on the partisans to declare victory. The media focuses on substance, issues and fact checks, none of which anybody is interested in. The stories are predictable: Candidates “clashed…traded jabs… repeated talking points…didn’t say anything new…etc.”   This year the…

Here’re the three tartest comments I heard about the Ellmers-Aiken debate.   “He has the silliest pompadour since Jim Hunt.”   “She was catty.”   “The person on stage most qualified to serve in Congress was David Crabtree.”