North Carolina – Republicans
McCrory’s Big Week
Last week summed up the obstacles and opportunities that Governor McCrory faces as he governs in a purple state where politics is played for keeps. And he saw how hard it is, even for a Governor, to dictate the agenda. McCrory started the week trying to shed the Republican Party’s anti-teacher, anti-education label. He…
Read MoreJust Another Moral Monday
One protestor waved a sign calling for legalizing medical marijuana and another held up a sign “Stop the War on Women” and Reverend Barber looked out at the multitude of marchers, lifted his arms, and thundered into the microphone how he meant to save the school children and save the poor and see that everyone…
Read MoreFighting to Lose
Instead of exploiting the Tea Party’s war on Establishment Republicans, Randy Voller seems set on replicating it in the Democratic Party. Behind this week’s chaos is a history of hostilities between some party activists and what they see as the Establishment Enemy: elected officials in Raleigh and consultants who help elect them. It goes…
Read MoreTaking Them to School
Jim Hunt still drives Republicans crazy. Governor McCrory and GOP leaders scheduled their pay-raise rollout in Jamestown just as Hunt’s Emerging Issues Forum was starting in Raleigh. They wanted to steal the spotlight. But they just spotlighted their own shortcomings. Just as Hunt was saying ALL teachers should get a raise, McCrory & Co.…
Read MoreBig Casino
It sure seems like Wallace Cheeves down in Greenville, South Carolina has had his share of ups and downs. Right out of college, Cheeves went to work for the video ‘poker king’ of South Carolina. Then he went a step further and opened his own video poker company – which went out of business when…
Read MoreBlame the Press Secretary
It’s a sure sign a politician is in trouble: He gets a new press secretary, communications director or whatever you call it. So Governor McCrory shipped Kim Genardo to Commerce and replaced her with Josh Ellis. I know nothing about the inner workings of this Governor’s Office, nor about the performance of his communications office. I…
Read MoreTalking Impeachment
Is this a “Groundhog Day” sequel? Republicans talking about impeachment? Is it 1998 again? Dan Barkin had an intriguing article in the N&O about several Republican U.S. Senate candidates talking up impeaching President Obama. They fumed about Obama’s alleged high crimes and misdemeanors, not to mention being black, a Democrat and President anyway. Democrats…
Read MoreDown, Boy
Some Republicans probably would like to get Sen. Bill (Mad Dog) Rabon a rabies shot – or get him fixed, if you know what I mean. Rabon’s now-famous rant just shows that, in politics, the worst wounds are self-inflicted. Rabon diminished his own stature, put his bosses in an awkward spot and gave folks…
Read MoreSelective Openness
Don’t you suspect there’s an email to the effect of “Time for some voting problems for Democrats”? Why else would 13 Republican legislators try to quash subpoenas for any documents they have related to the “rationale, purpose and implementation” of the state’s new voter ID law? This, you recall, is the same crowd that promised…
Read MoreMcCrory 2.0
From a message point of view, the rollout of McCrory 2.0 was a mess – and a missed opportunity for the Governor. McCrory might have heeded his “mentor” Jim Hunt and called for a sustained three-year effort to raise teacher salaries to the national average. Instead, he vaguely promised some kind of pay raise…
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