Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
For three days running this week, The News & Observer ran stories about the latest Elon University poll. As did other newspapers and TV stations across the state. The poll got widespread coverage because the issues were timely: the federal stimulus bill, Obama’s popularity, ratings of Congress and state issues including taxes, budget cuts, smoking…
Read MoreThere comes a moment in a political campaign – if you’re fortunate – when for one moment the stars align and you can see with almost clairvoyant certainty exactly what the campaign is all about and how to win – that moment came for us in December of 1983: We knew Jesse’s campaign was about…
Read MoreBlame James Carville. Twenty years ago, the then-unknown Ragin’ Cajun got Democrat Wallace Wilkinson elected governor of Kentucky with a new campaign gimmick: an education lottery. The very next year, he got Zig-Zag Zell Miller elected Governor of George the same way. Miller used the lottery proceeds to create HOPE scholarships, which sends Georgia students…
Read MoreWhen you start a campaign 25 points behind but have a lot of money you start running ads early and we did – 20 months before the election. Now the folks who worked at the Congressional Club were ideologues. True believers. We saw the world in black and white. Us versus Them. Light versus Darkness.…
Read MoreJim Hunt raised eyebrows during the campaign when he said Bev Perdue would be better at being governor than she was at being a candidate. It sounded like faint praise at the time. Now it seems prescient. Raleigh is amazed by Perdue’s deft performance since taking office. She is poised and comfortable in public appearances.…
Read MoreEverybody agrees that North Carolina’s educational-governance system is dysfunctional. June Atkinson wants the legislature to give her real power. Some legislators want to do away with her job. Governor Perdue bypassed the whole byzantine system by creating her own schools CEO. You can’t blame Atkinson. She has been elected superintendent of public instruction twice.…
Read MoreNobody ever accused Jesse Helms of being naïve but he made a pretty serious misjudgment when it came to running against Jim Hunt â Jesse didnât think running against Hunt would be a cakewalk but he had the idea he was as popular (or more popular) than the governor and on top of that he…
Read MoreLike Billy Flynn in a Chicago courtroom Obama’s speech to Congress was all razzle-dazzle. It takes a silver tongue to spend a trillion dollars then say you’re against big government and get away with it. I don’t know who else could have done it. Surely not Bobby Jindal. Politics is pretty discouraging these days –…
Read MoreOnce upon a time North Carolina was considered the most anti-union state in the country; back then, nobody ever heard of a Democrat like Jim Hunt or Bob Scott supporting legislation to create more unions – but that’s exactly what Senator Kay Hagan is doing. So, what changed? It’s simple: Today Democratic voters see corporations…
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Does a message about “workers,” “working families” and “working-class voters” really work for Democrats? Or does…
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I’ve resisted the temptation to rail every day about Trump’s cruelty, corruption and incompetence – and…
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Jeanette Hyde went from Miss Yadkin County to Madam Ambassador. Hyde, who died Monday at age…
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