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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Schooling Democrats

By Gary Pearce May 7, 2015

On Monday, I wondered (“Why is School Out?”) whether Democrats in the legislature have retreated from the education battlefield. On Tuesday – coincidentally, I’m sure – the NC Democratic Party put out a news release: “Teacher Appreciation Week draws attention to consequences of McCrory education cuts: NC approaches massive teacher shortage as class sizes rise,…

A Misunderstanding, Chapter 1

By Carter Wrenn May 6, 2015

The Governor’s biggest challenge, a Republican consultant explained to the newspaper, is coming up with a way to overhaul Medicaid and stopping its persistent cost overruns – if the Governor can do that, the consultant said, it “practically will insure his reelection.” Which sounds fine – except for a misunderstanding. Six years ago, back in…

In Sambisa Forest

By Carter Wrenn May 5, 2015

The soldiers slaughtered her husband, dragged her away from her children, then took her to their stronghold in Sambisa Forest. In their camp, when they learned she was pregnant, they told her that a week after her child was born she would be married to one of their commanders – one of the men who’d…

Why is School Out?

By Gary Pearce May 4, 2015

  Republican legislators keep undermining public schools. Education goes all but unmentioned in Governor McCrory’s agenda. But Democrats seem to have retreated from the battlefield.  In the 2014 campaign, education was the top issue for North Carolina Democrats – in races for county commissioner, the legislature and even U.S. Senate. National issues and President Obama’s…

A Strange Wickedness

By Carter Wrenn May 4, 2015

We don’t know much about her. She was a nun around thirty years old who taught English and lived in a convent in Qaraqosh near the ruins of ancient Nineveh. When ISIS attacked the town, soldiers from nearby Kurdistan beat back the first assault then ISIS cut Qaraqosh’s water supply and, the night the Kurdish…

Barney Frank Vs. Liberals

By Gary Pearce April 30, 2015

As a congressman, Barney Frank was a happy warrior and joyful scourge of Republicans and conservatives. In his excellent memoir, “Frank,” he applies the scourge to his fellow Democrats and liberals. Most tellingly, he dismisses the way Democrats dismiss white working-class males’ hostility as “a manifestation of excessive religiosity, a gun fetish, or homophobia.” Nor…

Wake Effect

By Gary Pearce April 29, 2015

First the legislature retreated on RFRA. Then on Dix. Take a bow, Wake County. And take note of what this portends for 2016. The Republican juggernaut slowed, if only briefly, because Republicans realized they better not push Wake County much farther. Education cuts, tax increases and commissioner-gerrymandering have mobilized Democrats in the county and alienated…

Alvin York

By Carter Wrenn April 28, 2015

I didn’t see much sense in making a lady in Indiana (or anywhere else) cater a gay wedding if she didn’t want to, so I said the Religious Freedom Act sounded like a fine idea – which turned out to be like lighting the fuse to a stick of dynamite. Before I knew it I’d…

False Equivalence

By Gary Pearce April 28, 2015

John Drescher of the N&O called foul on Governor McCrory’s public-records stonewalling. But will the media referees let McCrory manufacture a counterpunch against Roy Cooper? It’s called “false equivalence.” It’s a favorite media-manipulation trick. Let’s say your candidate has a big, fat negative. Like you haven’t fulfilled a public-records request dating back to last July.…

Another School Study? Yes.

By Gary Pearce March 19, 2026

Some progressives groaned when Governor Josh Stein announced a bipartisan “Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education”…

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…