Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Has public opinion – and politicians – ever shifted so fast on an issue as on gay marriage? A year ago, 60 percent of North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Yesterday, a U.S. Senator in a tough reelection fight endorsed gay marriage. Yes, Kay Hagan is one of a…
When President Gerald Ford nixed financial aid for New York City back in the 1970s, the front page of a brassy Big Apple tabloid blared: “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” Which brings us to the Republican bill undoing the Dix deal. Which brings us to two GOP Senators from Wake County who cut and…
As if Senator Kay Hagan needed Michael Bloomberg sticking his Gotham billionaire gun-control nose in her race. Hagan already has a tough reelection fight. She’s one of the Obama Class of 2008 Senators. And a President’s second mid-term election historically is bad for his party. (Not always, though. Republicans thought they would be…
There’s nothing political folks like better than a good Civil War – whether you happen to be a Republican or a Democrat it’s hard to find a pogrom more satisfying than purging the heretics in your own party, which is not necessarily an unproductive experience: After all, Reagan’s victory in 1980 was the result of…
A pair of ‘grassroots organizers,’ Jessica Laurenz and Sean Kosofsky, took a poll, found three issues, and wrote a plan. Neither had ever run a major statewide campaign and they lacked money and a voice but they had passion and zeal and sailed into uncharted waters to breathe life back into the moribund Democratic Party…
The vote is a powerful thing. In less than a year, it has taken immigrants from pariah to power in American politics. This week, Tea Party centerfold Rand Paul softened his position on immigration. (Remember when Mitt Romney called for “self-deportation”?) Paul’s 2016 rival Marco Rubio – and other Republicans – had already beat…
Bowater, as his friends call him, is a local Democrat – and an incurable optimist. While Republican preen and strut with power and Democrats wring their hands with worry, Bowater remain serenely sanguine. One friend finally reached his limit – with the Republicans and with Bowater’s rosy view. He demanded, “What makes you so…
Half-way through her plan Jessica Laurenz started to make a list of the building blocks she would need to build a campaign. She ticked off, ‘A brain trust, research, relentless media, year-round voter registration, a vibrant multi-racial organizing infrastructure and statewide field organizing.’ But, then, she missed a piece: Obama. Four years ago,…
Opponents of fracking in North Carolina may have two powerful allies: the free market and politics. John Murawski wrote in The News & Observer that “booming shale gas production in the Northeast” could give energy developers one less reason “to take financial risks to explore North Carolina’s virgin gas deposits in Lee, Moore and…
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…