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.

CarterWrenn200x271

Carter Wrenn

Gary Pearce 2024

Gary Pearce

Archives

Categories

Is Hillary Toast?

By Gary Pearce February 20, 2008

The Clinton campaign may not be dead, but it’s on life support. She could change the momentum by winning Texas and Ohio in two weeks. But it’s hard to change the delegate math. She would have to win 70 percent of the vote in the primaries left – including North Carolina. Who would have thunk…

The Charlotte Curse

By Gary Pearce February 19, 2008

People from Charlotte are obsessed with the so-called Charlotte Curse: the repeated failures of Charlotte mayors to be elected to statewide office: Eddie Knox, Harvey Gantt, Sue Myrick and Richard Vinroot. There is no curse – at least among voters. Poll after poll has shown they don’t mind a candidate from Charlotte. But there is…

Is Moore Less?

By Gary Pearce February 18, 2008

Richard Moore’s ad strategy doesn’t add up. Last week, his campaign pulled their ads off the air – after one public poll showed Beverly Perdue increasing her lead. The Moore campaign said the ads were pulled because the presidential campaign may soon dominate the air wars. That makes no sense. If that were so, wouldn’t…

The Media Primary

By Gary Pearce February 15, 2008

Hillary Clinton’s biggest constituency problem isn’t black voters or young voters or any other demographic group. It’s the media. She’s overwhelmingly losing the media primary. In fact, if you listen to the talking cableheads, you’d think her campaign is in total meltdown. Every primary, every caucus, every finance report, every change in her campaign, every…

What is Easley running for?

By Gary Pearce February 13, 2008

Governor Easley apparently gave an impressive speech to the Emerging Issues Forum this week. He talked about making North Carolina a leader in developing an advanced generation of electric cars. Energy was his topic, but it was his own energy that grabbed reporters’ attention. Jack Betts blogged about it. One capital reporter called around asking…

Mayor Crowder

By Carter Wrenn February 13, 2008

Raleigh’s realtors and homebuilders, unless they wake up politically, are about to get another does of castor oil from the City Council. After trouncing ‘developers’ in the last two elections the Mayor’s got a Council that’s more anti-growth – than, well, Charles Meeker. In fact, once the Council’s new ringleader, Thomas Crowder, gets through bashing…

Cooking the Math

By Carter Wrenn February 12, 2008

Fox News has a new pundit: Karl Rove. After Super Tuesday, whipping out a white chalkboard, writing columns of numbers, he made his first prognostication on Hannity and Colmes, declaring Mike Huckabee is kaput. Rove said – according to the math – Huckabee must win 83% of remaining delegates – an impossibility. In his words…

How North Carolina Can be ‘The Decider’

By Gary Pearce February 12, 2008

The Clinton-Obama race is about two things: delegates and momentum. On both counts, North Carolina’s primary election counts. Here’s why. After today’s Potomac Primary – with 238 delegates – five big primaries are left: Wisconsin, next Tuesday, 92 delegates Ohio, March 4, 161 delegates Texas, also March 4, 228 delegates Pennsylvania, April 22, 188 delegates…

Where is Obama When We Need Him?

By Carter Wrenn February 12, 2008

The monster is back. Last year the federal government, which will waste money on almost anything, refused to fund Lite-Rail for the Triangle because it was too wasteful. Humbled, Mayor Meeker and other Lite-Rail boosters appointed a study commission and they’ve given us a seminar on how government shouldn’t work. The commission studied the problem.…

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…