North Carolina – Democrats
Memo to McCrory: Keep Your Manager
Dear Pat: Victoria Smith is doing a fine job as your campaign manager. Don’t let her go. You’re the Democrats’ biggest worry in the Governor’s race. You’re the only Republican who is moderate enough to give us a run in November. North Carolinians may elect Senators in the mold of Jesse Helms (Fred Smith) or…
Read MoreSpeaking of Smart Start
Now Beverly Perdue’s new TV ad talks about her support for Smart Start. I take great pride in this. Not that I had anything to do with Governor Hunt developing the program. But I did come up with the name. I didn’t steal it from the cereal. Our Smart Start came first. In fact, I’m…
Read MorePerdue 3 Moore 0
All I know about the Moore-Perdue debate is what I read in the N&O. And I see three points for Perdue: At first her attack on Moore for the Randy Parton-Local Government Commission looked like a reach. The N&O wrote that it was an overreach. But this dog may bite. At the least, anybody who…
Read MoreWalter “The Dodger” Dalton?
Some free advice for State Senator Walter Dalton, Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor: Don’t dodge debates. Don’t give your opponents that club to beat you with. Dalton is saying he won’t participate in debates matching the Democratic candidates. So one opponent, Hampton Dellinger, is riding Dalton hard about it. Dalton needs to wake up, smell…
Read MoreHucka-Dean
Mike Huckabee is to this presidential race as Howard Dean was to 2004: Both were small-start Governors with modest records. Both started out as minor candidates. Both catapulted to the front by capturing a bloc of voters who were leaderless: the Democratic antiwar left and the Republican Christian right. Both turned out to have a…
Read MorePassing the Buck to Parton
The City Fathers up in Roanoke Rapids are giving Randy Parton a good old-fashioned drubbing. He’s been accused, one way or another, of everything from drunkenness to negligence to mismanagement. But, after all, who’s really to blame? The City Fathers, not Parton, decided to borrow $21.5 million to go into the country music business –…
Read MoreHackney Steps Up
After I posted my blog yesterday calling on Speaker Joe Hackney to clean the House of Thomas Wright, the Speaker did the right thing. (I don’t have any illusion that my blog is responsible, by the way.) By speaking out quickly – calling for an ethics investigation and a special session – Hackney met the…
Read MoreWhen Campaigns Change Direction
In a campaign, the first rule when you change strategy is: Don’t admit you’re changing strategy. But when a campaign dramatically changes what it’s saying, it’s changing strategy. Witness John Edwards and Beverly Perdue this week. Edwards introduced a new stump speech in Iowa: “America Rising.” It’s a return to the positive, optimistic Edwards who…
Read MoreThe Sledgehammer Falls Again
Whenever I’m asked about the impact of bloggers on politics, I point to Joe (The Sledgehammer) Sinsheimer. This week, largely because of Sinsheimer, another protruding legislative nail got pounded. A Wake County grand jury indicted state Rep. Thomas E. Wright, a Democrat, on five felony charges of swindling banks, corporations and campaign contributors out of…
Read MoreSenate Democrats
A political constant for years in Raleigh has been Democratic dominance of the state Senate. Maybe not so much now. Marc Basnight’s hold on the Senate has relied on a number of old Democratic bulls who kept their seats in tough districts. Now, one of them has announced he won’t run again: John Kerr. And…
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