Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Someone asked the obvious question: “Why do Democrats elect fools like David Parker and Randy Voller chairman?” It’s a “governance crisis,” said one thoughtful Democrat and former statewide candidate. “The chairman is selected by 600 people on the executive committee, most of whom know nothing about getting elected statewide.” There always has been…
In the world of Raleigh politics being appointed a Cabinet Secretary is somewhat akin to being a Grand Duke or a Marquis – you get power and respectability and folks you never heard of start singing your praises. But then, usually, just when a new Secretary is getting comfortably settled into his new office,…
Attention must be paid when the Republican legislator who wants to roll back ethics laws questions Speaker Tillis’ ethics. It could just be sour grapes. But someone needs to pursue Rep. Robert Brawley’s written statement about Tillis “slamming my office door shut, standing in front of me and stating that you have a business…
Republican legislators, for years, have stood up and spoken up for free markets. It’s part of their creed. They don’t like government picking ‘winners and losers.’ But when a group of Republican legislators in Raleigh decided to sponsor a bill to break the hospitals’ monopoly on outpatient surgeries and put the free market to work…
A good Democratic Party chairman would be blasting the McCrory administration’s budding ethics scandals. But that’s hard to do when you’re in Vegas putting $3,327 on the party’s American Express Business Gold Card. Michael Biesecker with AP reported that Randy Voller “said he believes a portion of the Vegas charges, including a $557 dinner…
There’re a lot of clever politicians and smart politicians but there’re not many politicians with the courage to take a stand they know is unpopular. The other day, baffled by the raft of tax reform plans floating around the State Legislature, I asked an economist to explain the virtues of ‘consumption taxes’ to me…
A veteran business lobbyist takes aim at both The N&O and the legislature – and makes a noteworthy point about how government in Raleigh today works – or doesn’t: “The N&O’s story last week about Blue Cross Blue Shield’s diminished influence at the General Assembly was badly reported, unfair to BCBS and confirmed that…
One word can say a lot. So it was with last week’s heated meeting between the Wake County commissioners and school board. Joe Bryan, chairman of the commissioners, told the N&O: “You’ve got some lingering tension over the victory we had in the Senate yesterday.” That “victory” was Senate passage of a bill…
A TAPster and long-time legislative lobbyist notes that, in politics, you must sometimes rise above principle: “A pair of current debates in the General Assembly – when studied together – demonstrate that lofty political principles and high-minded ideals are quickly abandoned when they conflict with the reality of local politics. “Tesla, the maker…
The political sniping began even as chaos still reigned at the White House Correspondents Dinner. My…
A new nationwide poll shows that, if they could run against each other in 2028, Barack…
Senator Phil Berger was out of touch with voters in his district – and suffered the…