Political Guts on Immigration

In their defense, Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue could be right: It may be political suicide to support letting illegal immigrants get educated at North Carolina’s community colleges. After all, even the sainted Terry Sanford lied in 1960. To beat segregationist Beverly Lake, Sanford had to say he supported desegregated schools. And, to her credit,…

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“Heated Up” Is Heating Up

I’m going to start a “heated up” watch. “Heated up” is the most overused lead in political news coverage. It’s a cliché reporters resort to all too often when candidates attack. So I’m going to call out any uses of “heated up” I see in political coverage. The latest sinner is an excellent reporter, Mark…

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It’s the Redistricting, Stupid

The pre-Thanksgiving flap over a Republican judge’s comments about redistricting is a classic case of a politician committing a sin by speaking the truth. The truth is that the 2008 and 2010 elections are critical to the long-term political future of North Carolina. Whichever party controls redistricting – in the legislature and in the courts…

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Easley Strafes Dole

A long-time friend of Governor Mike Easley once told me that – whatever else you say about him – Easley is a master of messaging. Senator Dole learned that this week. Easley dropped a well-timed bomb on Dole. He hit her on the Navy’s planned Outlying Landing Field with this quote: “It is time for…

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Bill Graham’s Fuzzy History

Bill Graham, the trial lawyer running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, has a loose grasp of North Carolina political history. Of course, why would a good trial lawyer let the facts keep him from scaring the GOP jury with the Hillary Clinton bogeywoman? Graham wrote in recent fundraising letter: “Mark my words. Hillary Clinton is…

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Death of Home Tax?

You can call it the Land Transfer Tax. You can call it the Home Tax. Or you can just call it a dead duck. When an idea gets overwhelmingly rejected in 16 counties, as the home-sale tax did last Tuesday, its time clearly has not come. And won’t anytime soon. Realtors and Homebuilders spent $800,000…

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Democratic Winds Blow South

This week’s elections in Virginia and Kentucky should be encouraging for North Carolina Democrats. Kentucky threw out a Republican incumbent and elected a Democratic governor. Of course, that can be blamed on the incumbent’s scandals. But also, Virginia elected a Democratic Senate for the first time in 12 years. A year after electing a Democratic…

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Perdue Digs Deeper

When you’re in a hole, the first rule is: Stop digging. But Beverly Perdue’s campaign is digging a deeper hole every week. I sound like a broken record about this. But her campaign looks broken. The News & Observer found that her fundraising report failed to provide the occupations and employers for more than 300…

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the 100-County Tour

Every campaign, some fool candidate promises to campaign in all 100 counties. Every time, I say: You’re crazy. This year, GOP gubernatorial candidate Fred Smith and Democratic Senate hopeful Jim Neal are drinking the 100-county Kool Aid. I’d like to put a lie detector on them after they go to, say, 60 counties. Ask them…

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Who’s With Pelosi?

Who’s With Pelosi? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be in Raleigh today, speaking at Meredith College. The question is: Who will be with her? That is, which Democratic politicians will be there to have their picture taken with the San Francisco Democrat – and who will duck it? Specifically, will either Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue…

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