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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Hagan, Dole and the 90s

By Gary Pearce August 29, 2014

WRAL’s Mark Binker says the claim that Senator Kay Hagan votes with President Obama 95 percent of the time is “something of karmic payback for Hagan, who benefited from a similar claim leveled against then-Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008.”   There is a little-noted back story to the Dole ad: It wasn’t really about voting…

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

By Gary Pearce August 27, 2014

Before a hurricane brushed the coast, Governor McCrory warned us not to put on our “stupid hats.” Then Hillary Clinton criticized President Obama’s foreign policy for not being more visionary than “don’t do stupid stuff.”   Well, call me stupid, but I’m so confused by the world today that “don’t do stupid stuff” sounds pretty…

The Next Big Issue?

By Carter Wrenn August 27, 2014

When the pollster asked voters, Who should pay for the coal ash cleanup, Duke Energy or consumers? the answer came back loud and clear: Voters had no doubt. Almost to a man they said Duke Energy.   Now that didn’t mean that was the right – or fair – answer.   But it did mean…

GOP Tsunami Watch

By Gary Pearce August 26, 2014

It’s refreshing to see real brains working on the other side of the political aisle, rather than just mouths mouthing talking points. (In fact, it’s refreshing to see that on your own side.)   So this “Tsunami Watch” memo by my Republican pollster friend John McLaughlin and his brother Jim caught my eye. The subhead…

Obama’s Summer Bummer

By Gary Pearce August 25, 2014

Ten years ago this month, Barack Obama first streaked across the political skies with a rousing Democratic Convention speech in which he famously proclaimed there wasn’t a red America and a blue America, only one United States of America.   Today President Obama presides over an America bitterly divided between red and blue. He doesn’t…

The First 1 Million

By Gary Pearce August 22, 2014

You had to be here in the 1950s to appreciate how much Raleigh and Wake County have changed on the way to one million people. And, to this old-timer, it’s a much better place today.   We were poor, provincial, rural and racist to the core. Today we’re affluent, global in outlook, urban and suburban,…

Senate Ads Are Working

By Gary Pearce August 20, 2014

As much as I respect Rob Christensen and the political experts he talked with in today’s column, I disagree with their conclusion that the money spent in the U.S. Senate race has had “little effect.”   In fact, I think the ads by Senator Hagan – and on her behalf – have painted Thom Tillis…

Thin Ice

By Carter Wrenn August 20, 2014

According to the Census Bureau, back in the fall of 2011 without knowing it we crossed a kind of Rubicon.   Back then – during the last quarter of 2011 – 101,716,000 people had full time jobs while 108,592,000 people were receiving payments from welfare programs and, if that sounds like skating across thin ice,…

The Peculiar Issue Isn’t…

By Carter Wrenn August 19, 2014

About one minute after sitting down Sean launched off into a tirade saying the border children ought to all be shipped home – then he stopped and was asked, Suppose one of those children fled El Salvador (or wherever) because she’d been repeatedly gang-raped – would you send her home too?   He said, Absolutely.…

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…