Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Check out this new website for political junkies: ncpol.com. It’s run by Raleigh lawyer Hart Miles. Its greatest virtue is that it’s fun. Its greatest drawback is an interview with me. But you can also see a terrific video with a dead-on Dick Vitale impersonator, Gerry Jacobs of Raleigh. Watch “Dickie V” break…
A gun store in eastern North Carolina uses its electronic billboard to run a mix of hard-right political messages and gun-sale pitches. One message reads: “Work harder. Millions on welfare depend on you.” When it comes to health care, the billboard could read: “Work harder. Millions without insurance depend on you.” But therein lies…
Carter and I were doing our dog-and-pony show for a real-estate group – telling them what happens inside campaigns, taking potshots at each other and generally trying to lighten up a crowd that had just endured speeches from the gubernatorial candidates. During the Q&A, we got a familiar question: “Why can’t candidates be positive…
Back in 1976 when Ronald Reagan was running in the North Carolina Primary, Arthur Finkelstein (Reagan’s pollster) hammered into my head the importance of time in campaigns, saying a hundred times, Campaigns have three resources: People, money and time. You can hire more people and raise more money but you can’t make one second more…
The ads from George Holding’s campaign and super-PAC make it clear: He wants to cut federal spending, cut federal spending and then cut federal spending again. Just for the record: How much did Holding’s Ahab-like pursuit of John Edwards and Mike Easley cost taxpayers? And want to bet on whether you’ll see those…
Nothing explodes on Twitter like a real or perceived gaffe. Just yesterday, we had Mitt Romney’s Etch-a-Sketch, the John Locke Foundation’s controversial image of President Obama and Walter Jones’ “Uncle Chang.” “Uncle Chang” did have the ring of offensiveness. It was also baffling. So I had to see what the notoriously unpredictable maverick congressman…
When Paul Coble, Bill Randall and George Holding debated at the Civitas Debate, when Paul Coble finished describing his conservative record Bill Randall shot back, In 2009 when Barack Obama, President Obama, came to Raleigh, North Carolina, Randall Williams, a Republican physician, was welcoming President Obama to promote Obama-care. Paul Coble endorsed Randall Williams for…
For years Paul Coble’s been your easy going, hail fellow well met County Commissioner, going along with the other local politicians when they wanted to raise the county’s debt, pass budgets with unfunded liabilities and spend Obama Stimulus Money. But, now, suddenly, Coble’s turned into an anti-establishment ball of fire. No one can…
This is the debate North Carolina Democrats want: Did the Republican budget cut jobs? It’s the debate we want going hot and heavy when federal funds dry up and school districts across the state lay off teachers next fall, right before the election. And it’s a debate challenge Governor Perdue should accept. Take…
How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary…
Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote…
Exactly 80 years ago, in 1946, Republicans took control of Congress with a simple message: “Had…