Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Gary is taking a break from blogging. Here is a post from a guest Tapster: We recently complained that the State Capitol Police wasted taxpayer money to install a radar gun in one of its cruisers. It seemed absurd that the Capitol Police need this capability when there are plenty of other police organizations…
Gary is taking a break from blogging. Here is a blog from a Tapster: We wonder if Speaker and Candidate Tillis thinks his opponent in the fall is the singer Sting: “Every step you take, every move you make, I’ll be watching you.” How can the speaker possibly govern effectively while campaigning for US Senate…
When you watch the evening news, you learn two things about people who watch the evening news. First, we vote, because we drown in political ads before elections. And, second, we have every disease and bad health condition known to medicine, especially the pharmaceutical industry. We’re at risk for diabetes, heart disease, high blood…
We were reviewing the Board of Elections’ schedule and making plans for the fall campaign. Then Brad Crone called to say Keith Crisco would concede this morning. Then we were sent reeling by the shock of Keith’s death. Suddenly, campaigns, vote counts and elections-board canvasses seemed not so important. I remembered meeting with…
Years ago a Democratic gnome sitting in a cloister pouring over reams of polls and demographics had a profound revelation: Most of the people who didn’t vote were Democrats. The word spread from gnome to pollster to politicians where it led to scads of mischief (all dressed in the trappings of government) as Democrats passed…
Political consultants are used to hearing – and ignoring – clients (and their friends and family) say: “People here don’t like negative ads. They don’t work.” But now there may be something to that argument in the Triangle media market. Exhibit A: The failure of the Republican attack strategy against Robin Hudson. Exhibit B:…
I’ve been in politics longer than Clay Aiken has been alive (38 years vs. 35), but he took me to school this week. Everything I’ve learned tells me that if (A) you’re massively outspent by your opponent and (B) he runs three or four ads to your one and (C) one of those is…
A group of politicians called Justice for All North Carolinians have had an ad on TV slamming liberal Judge Robin Hudson for ‘siding with child molesters’ in a Supreme Court decision. Now if that sounds like a little political fact twisting – it is. Here’s what happened: The state legislature passed new laws…
A reader notes the irony of Republicans rejecting Common Core because it’s from Washington, or “Big Government” or President Obama. The implication is that state- and local-level thinking is by definition better. He points out: “The irony is that the GOP resists Washington’s direction while its leaders in North Carolina warmly embrace the political…
Some progressives groaned when Governor Josh Stein announced a bipartisan “Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education”…
North Carolina voters don’t like either the Democratic or Republican parties. But Independent voters – who…
How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary…