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 blogger’s confession

By Gary Pearce March 9, 2016

My name is Gary, and I’m addicted to blogging about Donald Trump. Lord knows, I’ve tried to stop. Every week, I tell myself: Stop writing about Trump. Ignore him. Blog about redistricting or the Democratic primaries or Cooper-McCrory or why Thomas Mills lost his mind and is running for Congress. But I can’t stop. It’s…

GOP convention: a big deal?

By Gary Pearce March 9, 2016

Conventional wisdom seems to be that only a “brokered convention” can stop Donald Trump. Presumably, the party elders and wise men (no females allowed) would brush aside the results of these pesky primaries and caucuses and select one of their own as the candidate. A Romney, Ryan or McConnell. Really? Would delegates chosen in primaries…

Location, location, location

By Gary Pearce March 8, 2016

Where candidates go can tell you as much as what they say. Take the Clinton, Cruz and Trump campaigns in North Carolina this week. President Bill Clinton was in Raleigh Monday, at the City Market downtown. That’s the epicenter of the North Carolina Democratic Party today. It’s the gathering place for lawyers, new-economy entrepreneurs, urban…

A Reckoning

By Carter Wrenn March 8, 2016

I’m not sure why Donald Trump’s supporters loathe Washington Politicians;—Peggy Noonan says what’s going on is a struggle between people with power (Washington politicians and millionaires) and people without power: That sitting in penthouses and townhomes the powerful have been doing just fine through recessions and hard times while the people without power have been…

Super history

By Gary Pearce March 4, 2016

Super Tuesday and Superdelegates are coming through big for Hillary Clinton. For that she owes a big thanks to 1980s Southern Democrats, including Jim Hunt and Terry Sanford. Both “supers” were hatched in the ‘80s by the kind of moderate white Democrats, often from rural areas and small towns, who are scarce today. A Southern…

Signs

By Carter Wrenn March 3, 2016

Old people watch for signs: Pains shooting down a man’s arm, a hardly discernible lump in a woman’s breast, all either portents of disaster or false alarms and in politics there’re signs too: Like Roy out-raising Pat by $1.2 million. $5.1 million to $3.9 million. A portent? Or a hiccup? Roy raising more money than…

Dems: Clinton redux

By Gary Pearce March 3, 2016

Obscured by the Republican bloodletting, Hillary Clinton not only is winning primaries, but beginning to look like a winner in November. Her message and her delivery on Super Tuesday night showed how far she has come as a candidate – and how well she responded to the challenge of Bernie Sanders and the rise of…

GOP: failure to staunch

By Gary Pearce March 2, 2016

Staunch, vt., to check the flow of (blood, etc.) – Webster’s Republicans in our neighboring swing state of Virginia threw all they had behind Marco Rubio to stop Donald Trump. But there was no Marcomentum on Super Tuesday. Now the GOP seems stuck between Trump and Ted Cruz, who may be even more unelectable in…

Making sense of nonsense

By Gary Pearce February 29, 2016

On the eve of what could be the decisive day in the presidential primaries, let’s ponder why politics seems illogical, irrational and just plain insane. If you read this blog and other political punditry and journalism, you think of yourself as a reasonable, rational, thoughtful person. So you’re oft perplexed by how irrational people can…

Independents Turn Against GOP

By Gary Pearce March 17, 2026

North Carolina voters don’t like either the Democratic or Republican parties. But Independent voters – who…

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…