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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Good Luck, Bad Luck

By Carter Wrenn December 5, 2014

Talk about a fellow being star-crossed – after the election as everyone took a deep breath and settled back peacefully for Thanksgiving the Governor, without a lot of hoopla,  quietly launched his reelection campaign, blanketing the Internet with a nice pleasant new video – then, the next day, an environmental group announced it had found…

Helping Hand

By Carter Wrenn December 4, 2014

  About two decades ago, WRAL and WTVD ran a story about a young woman, Beverly Jones, who’d donated one of her kidneys to her husband whose kidneys had failed.   Now usually, kidney donors have to be blood relatives – but not always and Beverly was the first unrelated kidney donor ever accepted by…

Hagan Vs. Obama

By Gary Pearce December 4, 2014

Senator Kay Hagan ran a strong campaign, but her post-defeat critique of President Obama is weak.   Hagan told McClatchy’s Renee Schoof that Obama hurt Senate Democrats by not trumpeting the economy more loudly: “The president hasn’t used the bully pulpit to get that message out in a way that resonates with people. And I…

Toe Stepping

By Gary Pearce December 3, 2014

There you go again, Governor. “Stepping on toes.”   Some people think leadership is about getting people to work together, or inspiring them to put the common good ahead of self-interest or even, as Harry Truman once said, “persuading people to do what they ought to have enough damn sense to do on their own.”…

First in Their Class

By Gary Pearce December 2, 2014

A TAPster points out that my blog yesterday about Young Dems didn’t take note that two young Dems (“young” being broadly defined as younger than me) already are making their mark in statewide office.   I wrote that Senator Josh Stein could be “the first in his class” of young Democrats to be elected to…

Young Dems

By Gary Pearce December 1, 2014

Democrats looking to the future should look today to the swearing-in of four new Wake County Commissioners.   They are a large part of why I told the AP’s Bill Barrow that the key to the party’s success in 2016 and beyond “will have to come from younger Democrats in the cities.” Huffington Post picked…

Black and White

By Gary Pearce November 28, 2014

Bowater is a wise old soul with a unique way of looking at the world. He’s an older white gentleman who grew up in Northeastern North Carolina but grew out of the political views that his peers espouse over coffee at Bojangles. I wanted his take on Ferguson.   He smiled. “Well, I must be…

The Best and Worst Days

By Gary Pearce November 26, 2014

Thanksgiving is the best. Black Friday is the worst.   Thanksgiving is the best of all holidays. It’s family, food and football. It requires no angst and anxiety about giving and getting presents. It does require a lot of cooking, so a big thank-you to all who are spending today in the kitchen. Those of…

Democrats and Education

By Gary Pearce November 24, 2014

One thing Democrats did right this year was push education onto the public agenda. But will it last? And the key question: Where do they take it now?   The Hagan campaign came close largely because they almost turned a United States Senate race into a school board election.   The same thing was true…

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…