Carter is a Republican. Gary is a Democrat.

They met in 1984, during the epic U.S. Senate battle between Jesse Helms and Jim Hunt. Carter worked for Helms and Gary, for Hunt.

Years later, they became friends. They even worked together on some nonpolitical clients.

They enjoy talking about politics. So they started this blog in 2005.

They’re still talking. And they invite you to join the conversation.

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Carter Wrenn

Gary Pearce 2024

Gary Pearce

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A Bombshell

By Carter Wrenn August 29, 2018

Yesterday, I was going to write about the election but, then, Federal Judge James Wynn dropped a bombshell – by ruling the current Congressional Districts are unconstitutional. The districts, he said, are a ‘partisan gerrymander.’ And have to be redrawn. Campaigns, in a way, are simple – they have one over-arching goal: To talk with…

Legislative wrecking crew

By Gary Pearce August 29, 2018

There’s nothing this legislature can’t screw up. The Constitution, redistricting, congressional elections, judicial elections – and that’s just this week. A TAPster noted, “If you had to return to your auto mechanic to correct his screwups as often as our legislators return to fix theirs, you’d get a new mechanic.” Congressional elections are in chaos,…

McCready and McCain

By Gary Pearce August 28, 2018

Listening to Dan McCready got me thinking about John McCain. Right after I posted yesterday’s blog, McCain and Trump, I went to a lunch for McCready. He’s running for Congress in the 9th District. When you hear 9th District, you probably think Charlotte. But the district stretches east to Robeson and Bladen counties. McCready had…

Blue Moon Elections: Who Votes

By Carter Wrenn August 27, 2018

Two years ago, just before the election, when early voting started, a surprising trend appeared out of thin air. Fewer African-American Democrats were voting than had voted in the 2012 Presidential election. And the impact was profound. Before the 2016 election polls showed Richard Burr running even with, or a couple points ahead of, Democrat…

McCain and Trump

By Gary Pearce August 27, 2018

Both were part of the Vietnam generation. One served; the other didn’t. One was shot down over North Vietnam, imprisoned for over five years and tortured so brutally he couldn’t even comb his hair. The other had five draft deferments and bone spurs. And spends a lot of time combing his hair. One dedicated his…

Blue Moon

By Carter Wrenn August 27, 2018

The first time I ever laid eyes on a ‘blue-moon’ election was thirty-six years ago, after Ronald Reagan was elected. What’s a blue moon election? It’s the first election after a new President takes office, when there’s not a Senator or Governor on the ballot running statewide. Back in 1982, Jesse Helms’ political organization had…

Don’t impeach!

By Gary Pearce August 23, 2018

Democrats: Don’t impeach Trump. Don’t talk about it. Don’t even think about it. Think this through. We want every Republican officeholder and candidate to spend every day of the next 27 months, all the way through Election Day 2020, defending, rationalizing, apologizing for, agonizing over and tiptoeing around Trump. When a Democrat in Congress gets…

“Beyond a reasonable doubt”

By Gary Pearce August 22, 2018

Do Republicans realize how big a club they’re giving Governor Cooper to beat them with this fall? Here is the most telling sentence in Tuesday’s decision by two members of the three-judge panel who reviewed the proposed constitutional amendments on separation of powers and judicial appointments:  “…A majority of this panel concludes beyond a reasonable…

“Both sides”-ism at the N&O

By Gary Pearce August 21, 2018

No, Colin Campbell, “both sides” do not “share in the blame” over “the last-minute legal tussle between Gov. Roy Cooper and the legislature over proposed constitutional amendments.” And the N&O fails its readers and its history by running Campbell’s “both sides” column where the newspaper’s editorial voice once rang clear, loud and true. No, both…

Obama 48-Trump 39

By Gary Pearce April 26, 2026

A new nationwide poll shows that, if they could run against each other in 2028, Barack…

“Conservative Successes”?

By Gary Pearce April 23, 2026

Senator Phil Berger was out of touch with voters in his district – and suffered the…

Rise and Fall

By Gary Pearce April 21, 2026

A reassuring lesson from our trip to Germany and Czechia is that dictators, despots and tyrants…