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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GOP Debacle

By Gary Pearce October 15, 2013

  For Republicans, the shutdown turned into a slapdown and the default into their fault.  The GOP lost the debate, lost the battle for public opinion and put itself in a deep, deep hole for the 2014 elections. Governor McCrory’s DHHS debacle, $87,000 salaries and $230,000 bathrooms pale in significance. The issues in the shutdown-default…

A Sign?

By Carter Wrenn October 15, 2013

In the 2006 election voters gave Republicans the boot.   In 2010 they turned around and gave Democrats the boot.   Now, according to a new poll, 60% of voters would vote to remove all the politicians in Congress. Democrats and Republicans.   A sign of sanity?  

Can the Potty Jokes

By Gary Pearce October 14, 2013

Spend $230,000 in taxpayers’ money fixing up the private bathrooms at the Executive Mansion? You could hear howls across the state when that news leaked. (Get it? “Leaked”?)   OK, time out. No more potty humor. This has already been a headline-writer’s dream: “Flushed,” “in loo of,” “down the drain,” “taxpayers take bath.” Let’s deal…

A Calm Explanation

By Carter Wrenn October 14, 2013

There’s been a lot of screeching and howling coming out of Washington about who shut down the government. Respected economist Thomas Sowell lays out his opinion pretty calmly below:   Who Shut Down the Government? By Thomas Sowell   Even when it comes to something as basic, and apparently as simple and straightforward, as the…

Anarchist Alert

By Gary Pearce October 11, 2013

The legislature’s gendarmes were searching in all the wrong places.   General Assembly Police Chief Jeff Weaver revealed this week that his 18-officer department is collecting intel on “anarchists,” including Moral Monday protestors. The Chief and his sleuths are on alert for people who are “against government.”   Here’s a clue, Inspector Clouseau: You’ll find…

A Poker Game

By Carter Wrenn October 10, 2013

A government shutdown’s turned out to be a peculiar sort of beast.   First, before a shutdown, every politician – in both parties – declares the government shutting will be terrible. Awful. Armageddon. And every politician swears they want the government to stay open.   Then the government shuts down.   Next one group of…

Et Tu, Tommy?

By Gary Pearce October 10, 2013

A Republican legislator did a fine job of stating the case against Governor McCrory and the Republican legislature: “It makes it awfully difficult…to hear from teachers making $30,000 a year and not receiving raises in five years, and you hire someone one year out of college with an English degree and pay him $85,000.”  …

Doctor My Eyes

By Gary Pearce October 9, 2013

So all the DHHS scandals are based on a report that was doctored to mislead legislators and taxpayers.  The $87,000 salaries for young campaign aides, lucrative contracts for political allies, eyebrow-raising sudden exits by top department officials and sweet severance payouts.   All that is based on the McCrory’s administration claim that it inherited a…

Overconfident?

By Gary Pearce October 8, 2013

What if Obamacare flops? What if the public has sticker shock? What if voters blame both sides for the shutdown?   From the White House down, Democrats seem awfully confident the shutdown-Obamacare standoff will end well for them.   Plus, they say, Americans will love Obamacare once they get to know it. But suppose all…

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…

MAGA-gator

By Gary Pearce March 12, 2026

Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote…