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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Jerry Brown is Not Pusillanimous

By Gary Pearce January 8, 2015

At 76, the California governor is still young at heart, bold of vision and quick of wit.   Brown was sworn into his fourth term this week, and he’s off with a bang. He wants to attack global warming by reducing California’s energy consumption over the next 15 years, slashing gas consumption by cars and…

Electronic Walls?

By Carter Wrenn January 8, 2015

A poor boy of seventeen Jomah joined ISIS for money then landed in a class to train children to be soldiers; the morning he received his first lesson teachers holding not guns but knives led in three captured soldiers and after the lesson the circle of boys passed around the severed heads.   Ismail, also…

They Walk the Line

By Gary Pearce January 7, 2015

John Boehner, Jeb Bush and Pat McCrory took their first steps this week along a Republican Party fault line that offers peril for each of them – and peril for Democrats if they succeed.   Boehner had to fend off a conservative challenge to his reelection as Speaker. Two dozen right-wing Republicans abandoned him. Lucky…

Rumors and Fictions

By Carter Wrenn January 7, 2015

In a realm filled with rumors in the blink of an eye fictions take root in fertile soil and blossom adopting the image of spoken truth like this one you’ve heard a hundred times: ‘Romney lost because he shifted too far to the right during the primaries.’   In fact, the polls told a completely…

Give ’em Hell, Harry!

By Gary Pearce January 6, 2015

You’ve got to love Harry Reid, especially since Republicans hate him so bad.   The Harry-haters were hee-hawing and high-fiving last week after Reid hurt himself exercising. One wrote, “It Couldn’t Happen to a Nastier Guy.” Another speculated that Reid is into kinky sex.   Here’s hoping that Harry will get well and keep giving…

2015 Questions

By Gary Pearce January 5, 2015

No predictions or resolutions! Instead let’s ask the big questions for 2015 for the state’s big three political forces: Governor McCrory, Republican legislators and Democrats.   For Governor McCrory, will 2015 be about policy and politics, or about personal ethics? As we tuned out for the holidays, he was eyeball-to-eyeball with the capital media, AP…

Respect

By Carter Wrenn January 2, 2015

The President, unhappy with North Korea, announced he was going to ‘proportionately’ respond and the next day North Korea’s Internet went black which possibly is a coincidence but may also be proportionate.   Now, to be clear, getting hacked by North Korea is a little like getting bitten on the ankle by a small varmint.…

A Little Nuance

By Carter Wrenn December 31, 2014

A reporter at The Hill newspaper up in Washington let Jeb Bush have it right between the eyes, reporting there’s ‘no love lost’ between Bush and the Republican base and that in Iowa the Tea Party activists are torching Bush’s conservative credentials.   “Jeb Bush,” he quoted a radio talk show host as saying, “is…

Happy New Year!

By Gary Pearce December 31, 2014

2015 will mark the 10th year Carter and I have been doing this blog, as best I can tell from my records. The first posts I could unearth were in late 2005.   If memory serves, this was Carter’s idea. He and I worked together with a (non-partisan) client, and we traveled around the state…

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…