Posts Tagged ‘Roy Cooper’
HB2 courage
Governor Cooper and Democratic legislators showed something last week that is so rare in America today we hardly know it when we see it. Political courage. Political courage is when you do what you believe is right. Even if it disappoints your strongest supporters. Even if it could cost you an election. Name another politician…
Read MoreHB2 bracket busters
Predicting politics is like filling out NCAA brackets: Your predictions and your brackets will get busted. EG: Who predicted the Republican debacle on health care? Nobody. Which explains why Republicans and Democrats alike are thrashing on an HB2 compromise. Republicans already were wrong about it once. When they rushed it through last March, they thought…
Read MoreRoy vs Phil
Phil Berger can take away Roy Cooper’s powers. But he can’t take away his microphone. And he can’t match the Governor on TV. Democrats will happily take the contrast every day through the 2018 and 2020 elections. Last night, the Governor was smiling, positive and optimistic. The unshaven Senate boss was dark, negative and partisan.…
Read MoreFake compromise
Governor Cooper is right. The HB2 “compromise” is no compromise. It would make a bad deal even worse. The referendum provision sounds good. What’s wrong with letting people vote? Plenty. First is a matter of policy and principle. As the Governor said, we shouldn’t put minority rights up to a majority vote. That’s like putting…
Read MoreSecession? Hmm…
Given how things are going with Trump, maybe we shouldn’t dismiss this secession idea too hastily. Let Roy Cooper and Josh Stein steer the ship of state.
Read MoreCooper’s (familiar) challenge
Roy Cooper has seen this movie before. This time, he plays the lead. Thirty years ago, Cooper was a freshman House member. The Governor was a Republican. Democrats controlled the General Assembly. There were only 50 Republicans among the 170 House and Senate members. And the Governor didn’t have veto power. When Governor Jim Martin…
Read More$24.3 Million
That’s how much Governor Cooper’s campaign spent. $16.8 million. That’s how much Pat McCrory’s campaign spent. $7.5 million. That’s how much more Cooper’s campaign spent than McCrory’s. 44.6 percent. That’s how much more Cooper spent by percentage. Nearly half again what McCrory spent. These are astounding numbers. And they should give heart to Democrats looking…
Read MoreRoy’s strong and stormy start
At Friday night’s SnowBall, a young woman bemoaned all that had happened to Governor Cooper since the election two months ago: McCrory’s month-long refusal to concede, the legislature’s power grab and, now, a winter storm disrupting his inaugural. “Poor Roy,” she said. “He can’t catch a break.” Saturday morning, as I alternated between watching the…
Read MoreStorm warnings
The weather forecast this weekend is the Universe’s way of preparing North Carolina for the next four years: Big storms are coming, nobody can predict what will happen and there is maximum risk to life, limb and political futures. And, just to squeeze the last drops from this metaphor, any slip-ups can be fatal, only…
Read MorePetty Pat
Some pundits, clearly suffering from too much holiday cheer, have strained to say kind things about Pat McCrory in his final days. Not me. I’m taking one more shot on his way out. Earlier in his one (blessedly) term, McCrory took a stand against legislative overreach. The legislature’s appointments to a coal ash commission, in…
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