Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Some political pros believe that nothing in a campaign consumes more time and energy and produces less value than the announcement. But Roy Cooper showed Monday how a well-designed and well-executed announcement can launch a campaign on the right trajectory. Not least of all, Cooper got several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of free TV time…
Read MoreMandy Locke’s series in the N&O pretty well tells us Cherie Berry’s approach as Commissioner of Labor: She gets her name on elevators, and workers get the shaft.
Read MoreThe political powers that be up in Washington are telling everyone who’ll listen that Deborah Ross is too liberal to defeat Richard Burr but, still, Deborah Ross on a tear is a wonder to behold. Senator Richard Burr is steady as it goes. He’s genial and laid back and accommodating to a fault while Deborah…
Read MoreIt’s always an honor when the N&O quotes my blog. But it’s annoying when they put words I didn’t say in my mouth. I’m afraid that’s what Colin Campbell did today in his story “Did the ‘Drunktown’ campaign ads work?” Colin is an A-plus reporter, but I give him a D-minus here. His story focused…
Read MoreThrough the fog of over-analysis, misdiagnosis and total BS that comes after every election, one thing is clear about Raleigh’s vote Tuesday: the “Drunktown” ad didn’t work. Its main target, Mary-Ann Baldwin, led the at-large race. Why didn’t it work? Simple: voters didn’t believe it. They didn’t believe for a minute that a member of…
Read MoreExhibit A: The feds launch a grand jury investigation into no-bid, sweetheart contracts at DHHS. Exhibit B: Republicans ram through a law enabling politicians to raise unlimited money from unlimited special interests and spend it in unlimited ways. From the Grant Administration to Teapot Dome to Watergate to Jim Black, history teaches us where this…
Read MoreToday’s blog is written by Gene Upchurch, a retired Progress Energy executive who spent many a year as a legislative lobbyist: Videos of state senators throwing footballs and dancing on the Senate floor this week were certainly undignified, and prompted suggestions that it was the first activity on the Senate floor this year that didn’t…
Read MoreThis didn’t start when the Republicans took over the legislature in 2010. It dates back to the US Supreme Court decision outlawing segregated schools in 1954. Now, a toxic crew of racists, right-wingers and private-school profiteers smell victory. Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Governors, legislators and school boards across the South pulled out every…
Read MoreOle Ned Barnett, the Editorial-Writing-Chief down at the News and Observer, is a fine fellow though like many Editorial-Chiefs he’s a bone deep liberal who frets over the vices of sexism and the virtues of gay rights and seldom finds an encouraging word to say about Republicans. Which is fine. The N&O’s spending its own…
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