North Carolina – Republicans
Straw Polls
When it comes to straw polls, from cradle to grave, there’s a whiff of deception in the air. Hardly anything is what it seems. For instance, political groups don’t take straw polls to measure voters’ opinions or candidates’ strengths – they take them to gin-up attendance for meetings. By telling a cash-strapped candidate, We’re…
Read MoreIs Good Money Bad Too?
This is a story about how even “good” money – that is, money spent for candidates and causes I like – can be bad. It’s a story about how outside donors and independent campaigns, not candidates and office-holders, are setting the political agenda. You can walk, and run, but money talks. Most every…
Read MoreThe Cape and not the Bull
Long ago and far away, in bygone days, during Jim Hunt’s first incarnation as Governor, we (Jesse Helms’ political organization) lit on what we thought was a grand idea: We ’d do a TV ad attacking Governor Hunt for giving AFL-CIO boss Wilber Hobby government CETA grants. We made the ad, tore into Wilbur…
Read MoreThe Law of Unintended Consequences
A doctor is a simple creature. He measures achievement by a straightforward standard – the Hippocratic Oath. A businessman also measures success by a simple standard – money, income and outgo. But a bureaucrat has the misfortune of breathing and walking in the murky world of insider politics. Which is like no other…
Read MoreGot Something to Hide?
It’s amazing how fast politicians go from being all for openness and transparency to all-out for keeping public information from the public. Take the Republican legislators’ fight to keep secret their emails about redistricting. Hmmm, wonder what they might be hiding there? Then take DENR. Last Friday at about 5 pm, the department…
Read MoreCoal Ash
I don’t know why but I’ve become absorbed by the machinations of bureaucrats – it’s a bit like watching Alice in Wonderland: Down is up, and up is down. Take hard work. Businessmen work hard to get ahead. Students work hard for better grades. But who joins a bureaucracy to work…
Read MoreGreen Paint Balls
About a month ago Greg Brannon, dead-set on getting elected to the Senate, was trying to build momentum and gain ground on front-runner Thom Tillis then, out of a clear blue sky, two investors sued Brannon for flamoozling them out of $250,000 and a jury ruled he had to repay the money. That opened…
Read MoreAddicted to Koch
Thomas Mills at PoliticsNC riled up some Democrats when he questioned the strategy of going after the Koch brothers. I have the same question. Is this a classic case of chasing the cape and missing the matador? A national poll this week showed that half of all Americans don’t even know who the…
Read MoreA Better Way
Charlotte minister Mark Harris, who’s running for Senate, hit a rough patch when he released a poll showing him trailing Thom Tillis by 11 points – an inconvenient fact his political aide, Tom Perdue, brushed aside by saying, “The fact that we are down actually means we are way up.” Saying down is up…
Read MoreWake Up
You couldn’t design a more perfect Democratic candidate for Wake County in 2014 than Sarah Crawford. Proven success in a professional career and in community service – check. Attended public schools and college here – check. Young mother with children in public schools – check. Energy, smarts, savvy and a fiendishly hard worker – check,…
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