North Carolina – Republicans
Two North Carolinas
Shades of John Edwards and “Two Americas!” The state Senate seemed to channel the former Senator in the debate over how to help the state’s stagnating rural areas keep up with booming urban areas. One Senator said we need to “level the playing field.” There is a political angle to this, of course.…
Read MoreBOMs Away!
Democrats and progressives routinely decry Big Outside Money (BOM). Maybe they should recalculate. BOM has fundamentally reshaped the U.S. Senate race – in favor of Senator Hagan and against Speaker Tillis. A flood of ads sponsored by pro-Hagan groups like the Senate Majority PAC have painted Tillis as the friend of CEOs, yacht-owners and…
Read MoreIf Dan Blue…
As soon as Conor the Jessecrat sat down at our regular political dinner he unfolded a newspaper, pointed, and said, There’s a headline to strike terror in every Congressman’s heart. I read ‘Judge Orders Districts Redrawn’ and thought about the half-a-dozen lawsuits in North Carolina about redistricting but it turned out this lawsuit was in…
Read MoreState for Sale. Cheap!
Art Pope’s critics often accuse him of “buying the State of North Carolina.” If he did, he got it cheap. The Washington Post this weekend published its obligatory profile about the mild-mannered retail magnate who became the Superman ruling over North Carolina’s budget, politics and university system. Two numbers catch your eye. …
Read More64 and 48
They’re not highway numbers, or ages. They are the two big numbers driving North Carolina’s education debate this year. When you take an eight-miles-high view of the legislature, setting aside the partisan debates and vitriol, the most striking thing is that Republicans are arguing this year over whether to raise teacher pay 5-6 per…
Read MoreWe Report, You Decide
New Yorker magazine, as I recall, once had a department called: “Which newspaper do you read?” It juxtaposed totally opposite headlines about the same story. To wit this week: “Clay Aiken outpaces GOP candidate in 2nd quarter fundraising” (Sandhills Tribune). “Rep. Ellmers ahead of Aiken in fundraising in 2nd Congressional District” (Fayetteville Observer).…
Read MorePhil Cantor Jr.?
Republican primaries are the best entertainment you can find this summer. First Eric Cantor loses in a monumental upset. Then black Democrats save Thad Cochrane’s hide. Then two former Democrats running for Wake County DA fight over who’s the best Republican. And now Phil Berger Jr. loses big despite outspending his opponent big, plus…
Read MoreLibertyValance
The Old Bull Mooses walked into a meeting with the House to wrangle over the state budget but before they could fire a shot the House’s lead wrangler, Nelson Dollar, threw them a curve ball: He announced he was calling half a dozen school superintendents to testify at the hearing. The Bull Mooses had…
Read MorePat Versus Phil
This increasingly looks like a political death match – with one survivor in the end. I’m betting on Phil Berger. Yesterday Governor McCrory compared Senator Berger & Co. to Marc Basnight, Tony Rand and – yes – Harry Reid. Ouch. Them’s fighting words. Imagine Jim Hunt comparing a Democratic House Speaker in the…
Read MoreUncertainties
Locked in a wrestling match with the Governor over Medicaid (and how much it will go over budget) the Old Bull Mooses invited Art Pope (the Budget Czar) over to the Senate for a cordial visit then added if he didn’t come along peacefully they’d send him a subpoena. Pope, responding like a gentleman,…
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