Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
The more you hang around, the more things come back around. Like controversial Dix land transfers and privatizing the Department of Commerce. At the dedication of N.C. State’s new Hunt Library last week, one visitor took note of a Duane Powell cartoon in Governor Hunt’s office. It poked fun at his hotly debated plan…
Read MoreFerrel Guillory & Co. at UNC J-School’s Program on Public Life have taken a discerning deep dive into the 2012 election results – and show why last year reversed the results of 2008 and what lies ahead. The most interesting finding in the latest DataNet report is how Governor McCrory outperformed Mitt Romney among…
Read MoreYou can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. You can rationalize doing what you said you’d never do, but it’s still hypocrisy. To wit, this from Bruce Siceloff in Under the Dome: “During his first campaign for governor in 2008, Republican Pat McCrory hammered his opponent, Bev Perdue, on…
Read MoreA TAPster and Jones Street veteran urges us to remain calm: “Democrats and other doomsayers who believe our state is on the brink of a GOP-led apocalypse should be reassured by encouraging signs from Jones Street. “House leaders used good judgment by making it clear that legislation to establish a state religion was…
Read MoreI admired Roy Parker Jr. so much I almost moved to Fayetteville. Roy, who died this week, was one of North Carolina’s great reporters and editors. He was founding editor of the Fayetteville Times. Back in the 1960s, he was a political reporter at The News & Observer – and a classic newsroom character.…
Read MoreLost in the desert, North Carolina Democrats should learn from scripture and history that you need a Moses to lead you to the Promised Land. In 1948, Kerr Scott led the farmers’ revolt against the bankers and utilities executives who ran things. In 1960, Terry Sanford mobilized the WWII vets against Luther Hodges’ conservatives…
Read MoreA TAPster offers these observations on “the nasty civil war between the legislature and cities, now manifesting itself in high-profile fisticuffs over the Charlotte airport authority and the fate of the Dix property in Raleigh,” as follows: “First, there have been other disputes like this over the years. Charlotte leaders (including the former mayor…
Read MoreNot once, not twice, but three times now, Governor McCrory has given money to charity that his campaign took from people facing criminal charges related to sweepstakes cafes. That’s $18,000 so far, AP reports. Which raises the question: Why did he take all that money in the first place? Surely his campaign…
Read MoreGovernor McCrory desperately wants to look moderate. He wants to distance himself from the right-wing red-hots in the legislature. If he doesn’t, he’s on the road to one term. So he went to great lengths to soften his budget proposal. The News & Observer editorialized: “State employees, teachers, Democrats and others unnerved by…
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