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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Politics in the pipeline

By Gary Pearce February 22, 2018

A veteran Raleigh hand speculates about what’s behind the Republican shenanigans on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline mitigation fund: “The kerfuffle over the natural gas pipeline fund proves once again that nobody in Raleigh knows what they’re doing. Or does it? “On the surface, the Governor and his team appeared seriously naïve to think the mitigation…

Ready, aim…vote

By Gary Pearce February 21, 2018

Hooray for the high school students in Florida and North Carolina who are mobilizing, marching and pushing politicians to stop mass school shootings. These teenagers need to be in it for the long haul. They already see politicians ducking the debate and offering up stupid ideas like arming school teachers. The outspoken survivors in Florida…

They’re Back

By Carter Wrenn February 20, 2018

Hallelujah. The Russians are back. I know that sounds odd to say. Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, for forty years Russian villains plotted to crush us until the Berlin Wall fell then, for thirty years, no more villains. Now, they’re back. But there’s a silver lining in every cloud: Seeing a Russian villain on his doorstep sobers…

Rethinking Trump

By Gary Pearce February 14, 2018

I just got around to reading Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” and my reaction was different from what I heard when the book came out. Then the Rob Porter spouse-abuse scandal erupted – and highlighted what I took from Wolff: Trump is a total, bumbling, ignorant, incompetent fool. He is…

A Cloud to Keep Your Eye On

By Carter Wrenn February 12, 2018

For years – for decades – I’ve expected ‘The National Debt’ to the sink the economy but the crash never came; it defies common sense but, somehow, no matter how much the politicians spent the chickens never came to roost. Hardly a soul even noticed when President Trump didn’t mention the debt in his State…

Pipeline politics

By Gary Pearce February 12, 2018

Power turns some politicians into bullies. Especially when they’re running scared. So it was with Republican legislators who embarrassed themselves trying to embarrass Governor Cooper’s new legislative liaison last week. They turned what could be a useful policy debate into a typical political sideshow. Typical. The ostensible issue was a $58 million mitigation fund the…

Promise Us, Joe: Don’t Run

By Gary Pearce February 9, 2018

Joe Biden’s book, “Promise Me, Dad,” is pure Biden: warm, heart-wrenching and, though short, pure-Biden windy. It reminds you what a great human being Uncle Joe is, what a great Vice President he was – and why he shouldn’t run for President. There’s something of a Biden boom now, especially among my old white male…

The FISA Memos

By Carter Wrenn February 7, 2018

When you watch the politicians arguing on CNN and FOX about the FISA Memos you can’t make heads or tails of what’s going on. To Republicans their Memo proves the FBI used political research paid for by Democrats to get a warrant to wiretap the Trump campaign – or one-time Trump advisor, Carter Page –…

Steve Bannon’s Three Temptations

By Carter Wrenn February 6, 2018

The main character in Michael Wolff’s book isn’t Donald Trump it’s Steve Bannon: The book begins with Bannon having dinner with Roger Ailes and ends with Bannon standing on the steps in front of the Breitbart townhouse in Washington explaining the next move in his war on ‘The Swamp.’ Bannon’s story twists and turns: A…

Getting the News

By Gary Pearce March 13, 2026

How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary…

MAGA-gator

By Gary Pearce March 12, 2026

Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote…

Enough is Enough

By Gary Pearce March 11, 2026

Exactly 80 years ago, in 1946, Republicans took control of Congress with a simple message: “Had…