Raleigh
The 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 MoreGot Tickets?
A long-time Raleigh lobbyist recalls the days when legislators helped themselves to ACC tournament tickets – courtesy of lobbyists and special interests. Every year about this time, the demand was so strong that lobbyists felt like Ticketmaster or StubHub. One mountain legislator – a Democrat, I should add – was especially insistent. He…
Read MoreA Good Read
If you want to know how local and state politics, TV news and Raleigh’s whole media/political world got to be the way it is, here’s the book for you. It’s “I Never Promised Not to Tell,” a tell-almost-all by Grady Jefferys, a veteran writer-ad man-journalist-consultant who was there, as he says, “When Television and…
Read MoreLocal Politics
Two years ago, Republicans controlled the County Commissioners and the School Board and were happy. Then Democrats won the next School Board election – so they were happy and the Republican County Commissioners were unhappy. Next the Republican Commissioners decided to redraw the Democratic School Board members’ Districts to get them out of…
Read MoreThe Only Casualty
War’s broken out in Raleigh. The Republican County Commissioners launched a blitzkrieg, hiring a lobbyist (for $25,000) to get the Republican legislature to redraw the districts of the Democratic School Board members – then the Democratic School Board struck back (to keep their districts) by spending four times as much ($100,000) to hire their…
Read MoreA Simple Prayer
Gary is taking a break from blogging. Here’s one from another Tapster. When the legislature makes its biennial return to town, our usual tendency is to ridicule the members’ narrow mindedness, laugh at their lack of political sophistication and hold our collective breath that they won’t destroy the state. The gavel drops…
Read MoreWhere’s the Party?
As Carter notes in his blog below, the boom in outside political groups is eclipsing the traditional parties. You can see three recent examples in Raleigh. The big event Inaugural weekend wasn’t the traditional Junior League Ball or a Republican Party event. It was the Foundation for North Carolina (“F”-NC) fundraiser. Last week,…
Read MoreGame Time
Raleigh was electric Saturday. The crowd was huge and enthusiastic. The stars outdid all their fans’ hopes. Not the inaugural. The State-Duke game. (Go Pack!) Governor McCrory’s early-season performance is like a basketball team that makes a brilliant play on one end, then commits a bonehead turnover. His speech and its “Main Street”…
Read MoreCities and Republicans
The biggest demographic problem for the Republican Party may not be Hispanics, but cities – and increasing urbanization. In 2012, Democrats won in cities, and Republicans won outside the cities. The more urban a state’s population, the more likely it voted for Obama. Unfortunately for Republicans – in North Carolina and nationally –…
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