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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Emails

By Carter Wrenn April 7, 2008

Governor Easley’s charged right into the middle of the great email flap. The Governor says he’s not convinced two notes made by state public information officers mean his staff ordered emails destroyed. Here’s what one note said, verbatim: “Delete emails to/from governor’s office everyday.” But, according to the governor there’s another interpretation. He suspects his…

Poll Story Buried the Lead

By Gary Pearce April 7, 2008

The real news in The News & Observer/Charlotte Observer poll is that Hillary Clinton could pull an upset in North Carolina. You are forgiven if you missed it, because the N&O’s coverage obscured the head-to-head: Obama 32, Clinton 26 and undecided 39. The 22-paragraph story made only one mention – and that in the first…

Garin Takes the Helm

By Gary Pearce April 7, 2008

Speaking of polls, a pollster with North Carolina experience – Geoff Garin – is now one of two message czars for the Clinton campaign. Garin – with old Clinton hand Howard Wolfson – replaces the disgraced and conflicted Mark Penn Garin knows North Carolina. He goes back to Jim Hunt’s 1984 race against Jesse Helms,…

Bad News for the Fall

By Gary Pearce April 4, 2008

For Democrats, this is supposed to be our can’t-lose year – in North Carolina and nationally. But the bad news keeps piling up in Raleigh. You can just see the Republican ads this fall. First there was the mental-health debacle. Now it’s the probation system’s inability to keep up with dangerous criminals. We have the…

Sledgehammer Conspiracy?

By Gary Pearce April 3, 2008

The most ludicrous assertion made in Raleigh this week (no mean feat) was the suggestion by disgraced Rep. Thomas Wright’s attorney that avenging blogger Joe (the Sledgehammer) Sinsheimer targeted Wright because Wright fell “out of favor with the power structure in the North Carolina House.” Ludicrous because Sinsheimer’s crusade against corruption was about as welcome…

Bubbas or Blacks

By Gary Pearce April 3, 2008

Rob Christensen may be right that the Bubba vote – male and female – will decide North Carolina for Clinton or Obama. That’s why the two old Bubba Buddies from their days together as attorneys general – Bill Clinton and Rufus Edmisten – have been campaigning together (a thought that gives one pause). But black…

The Most Bungled Cover-Up in History

By Carter Wrenn April 2, 2008

When we last visited The Case of the Missing Emails it was a tangled web. It all started when The News and Observer reported the Department of Health had wasted $400 million – it was supposed to spend to provide health care to the mentally ill. Next, the Department of Health’s spokeswoman told The News…

Easley Versus N&O

By Gary Pearce April 2, 2008

Governor Easley doesn’t need – and can’t win – this fight with The News & Observer over whether PIOs were told to delete emails. The paper all but called the Governor’s lawyer a liar – on the front page and in a news story, not an editorial. The PIOs’ notes seem clear: “Public records request…

Longing for Jim Hunt

By Carter Wrenn April 2, 2008

When it comes to managing North Carolina’s state government, the Easley Administration is beginning to sound like the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. There’s been one mishap after another. The Department of Transportation wasted $30,000 on a ferry junket to watch the tall ships sail around Beaufort Harbor. The Department of Health and Human Service…

Obama 48-Trump 39

By Gary Pearce April 26, 2026

A new nationwide poll shows that, if they could run against each other in 2028, Barack…

“Conservative Successes”?

By Gary Pearce April 23, 2026

Senator Phil Berger was out of touch with voters in his district – and suffered the…

Rise and Fall

By Gary Pearce April 21, 2026

A reassuring lesson from our trip to Germany and Czechia is that dictators, despots and tyrants…