Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
As newspapers shrink coverage and bleed talent, alternative forms of media pop up. Blogs like ours (“Wise and Balanced”), websites catering to the left and right, and even, occasionally, a responsible, informative and well-done news source like EdNC. EdNC is a daily online newspaper about education. That’s a short, clear and concise mission statement. Every…
With two strokes of the pen – Governor McCrory’s vetoes – Democrats in the legislature suddenly got leverage. McCrory has split Republicans in the legislature. Now Democrats may have the balance of power when the legislature tries to override. The clout goes beyond the two bills the Governor vetoed. Democrats can use their leverage there…
Just about every morning a group of MCO promoters (the Carolina Partnership for Reform) drop an email into legislators mailboxes and the other morning they gave legislators a list of 15 states and told them, Look. See. North Carolina spends more on Medicaid per enrollee than states that have MCOs. It looked logical. And sounded…
Give Governor McCrory credit. He did the right thing by vetoing the magistrates/same-sex marriage bill. And it’s good politics. This should be a wakeup call for Democrats who think he’ll be a pushover next year because he’s a doofus or because the legislature is too far right. Take it from me. An incumbent has a…
A powerful new Modern Science has crept into the world of political campaigns: The Mega-Database – where thirty-something whizzes and mathematicians collect data from the four corners of the digital universe to figure out what voters (and especially Independent voters) have on their minds. The other day sitting in a meeting, when one of the…
Could it be that losing Volvo to South Carolina had nothing to do with the Republican vs. Republican battle over incentives vs. tax cuts? Could it be that North Carolina is doomed to NEVER get an automotive plant? Could it be that North Carolina lost out because of its long-running war with the company that…
Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether Bad Bob Rucho is a Bull Moose or a bull in a china closet but there’s no doubt he sincerely loathes tax loopholes so it’s a shame in his enthusiasm to gore a corporate ‘incentive’ he crossed the line. When a bill landed in Rucho’s committee to kibosh a…
There are about 100 million reasons why Kay Hagan may be Democrats’ Senate candidate again next year. You see, $100 million is what the race cost last year. And it’s hard to imagine another candidate playing in that league. In a National Journal story, an anonymous Hagan donor from North Carolina made an apt seasonal…
Back when Democrats ran the legislature, Republicans swore that things would be different if they ever were in charge. No more high-handed rulings, no more procedural shenanigans and no more bosses using their gavels to ram through favored legislation. So much for that, says Boss Bob Rucho. Back when a Democrat was Governor, Pat McCrory…
Carter Wrenn and I are moving to Substack. That’s where you’ll find our blogs in the…
The political sniping began even as chaos still reigned at the White House Correspondents Dinner. My…
A new nationwide poll shows that, if they could run against each other in 2028, Barack…