North Carolina – Republicans
The Optimist
Bowater, as his friends call him, is a local Democrat – and an incurable optimist. While Republican preen and strut with power and Democrats wring their hands with worry, Bowater remain serenely sanguine. One friend finally reached his limit – with the Republicans and with Bowater’s rosy view. He demanded, “What makes you so…
Read MoreThe Leaked Plan – Part III
Half-way through her plan Jessica Laurenz started to make a list of the building blocks she would need to build a campaign. She ticked off, ‘A brain trust, research, relentless media, year-round voter registration, a vibrant multi-racial organizing infrastructure and statewide field organizing.’ But, then, she missed a piece: Obama. Four years ago,…
Read MoreThe Leaked Plan – Part II
The poll young Sean Kosofsky and Jessica Laurenz took told them three stories: That President Obama’s mantra – ‘Democrats are for middle class families while Republicans are for the rich’ – had permeated the political atmosphere across North Carolina. That President Obama’s plan to expand Medicaid – the plan Republicans in the state legislature just…
Read MoreThe Singer or the Song
Senator Phil Berger says national Republicans have a messenger problem, not a message problem. Democrats might well hope he believes that. After attending CPAC – the right-wing Woodstock – Berger told Travis Fain at the Greensboro News & Record: “It’s not just a communication problem. Sometimes it’s the individual messengers … (and) some folks…
Read MoreThe Leaked Plan – Part I
In his novel Intruder in the Dust, William Faulkner wrote if you have something outside the ordinary to do and it’s got to be done quickly, don’t waste time on the men – go get the women and children. Thirty-seven years ago, here in North Carolina, we built Ronald Reagan’s first Presidential campaign around women…
Read MoreUndo and Recycle
A TAPster and veteran of the Raleigh scene says “undoing” and “recycling” are the GOP trademarks thus far. Last week, he noted: “The GOP focused on un-doing the deal on the Dix property, un-doing the state’s renewable energy policy and un-doing other done deals like the death penalty moratorium. “In their zeal to…
Read MoreFast and Mean
Two months in, two things are striking about the Republican regime in Raleigh: how fast they move and how mean they seem. This is a recipe for a Democratic revival, if – and it’s a big if – Democrats get their act together. Too many politicos – Democrats and Republicans – assume that…
Read MoreIncentivized
Governor McCrory and Republican legislators were against incentives before they were for them. McCrory is clearly for them when he can bask in the announcement of 2,600 new jobs by MetLife. (Hello, Snoopy!) Or maybe he’s for them when they are negotiated by Moore & Van Allen, his old law firm. But…
Read MoreA Tale of Two States
While Governor McCrory prepares a “very, very tight budget” and blocks Medicaid expansion, the Republican governor of another purple Southern state is going in the opposite direction. Governor Rick Scott of Florida was a Tea Party poster boy when he got elected in 2010. Now a Miami Tea Party leader has sent the governor…
Read MoreCut Spending Now?
With Carter’s help, George Holding had a simple message last fall that boiled down the Republican mantra: “Cut spending now.” It’s the one message that unites Republicans as they splinter over immigration, gay marriage and guns in the wake of Mitt Romney’s loss. Here’s the challenge for Democrats: What’s your alternative? House…
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