Posts Tagged ‘Jim Hunt’
YDs Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Young Democrats are bringing new energy to the North Carolina party this year, but that’s only one reason I keep an eye on them. YD leaders today tend to become NC leaders tomorrow. I found this clip from The News & Observer, October 6, 1968, about that year’s state YD convention in Fayetteville. Reporter Dick…
Read MoreJim Hunt, Democrats and Race
When Jim Hunt was president of North Carolina Young Democrats in 1968, he said something at a YDC meeting that was deemed newsworthy – and wasn’t popular with all Democrats: “I’m getting tired of going to county, local and even State YDC meetings and looking out at the audience to see far too few black…
Read MoreHunt, Helms and MLK
I was struck last week by Republican politicians posting tributes to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., even as they fight everything he stood, marched and died for. Forty years ago, in 1984, the King holiday was a big issue in the Senate race between Jesse Helms and Jim Hunt. Helms opposed the holiday. He filibustered…
Read MoreThe River
When I introduced Chair Anderson Clayton at a Democratic Party fundraiser this week, I told the crowd about her first meeting with Governor Jim Hunt. I told them how Hunt and Clayton connected despite the 60 years between them. It took me back to when I was about Clayton’s age, and working to elect Hunt…
Read MoreBonding Over BBQ
Anderson Clayton reminds me of Jim Hunt: the same energy, the same enthusiasm and the same determination to make North Carolina better – through the Democratic Party. A couple of us old Hunt hands saw that this week when the 86-year-old four-term governor and the 25-year-old first-term party chair met for the first time, at…
Read MoreA Flash of Lightning
A year into the toughest campaign I was ever in when Jesse Helms trailed popular Governor Jim Hunt by 25 points, Arthur Finkelstein walked into my office, dropped a poll on the table, looked from me to Tom Ellis, pursed his lips. “It’s time you two learned something new.” Arthur pointed to the 4-inch-thick poll…
Read More“Deeply Sad” Abortion Ad?
A right-wing blog took a swing this week at Rachel Hunt’s abortion ad – and at her father, former Governor Jim Hunt. In a blog headlined “Rachel Hunt releases deeply sad campaign video,” Andrew Dunn wrote in Longleaf Politics: “State Sen. Rachel Hunt is making the abortion issue the centerpiece of her campaign for lieutenant…
Read MoreCan Democrats Go Country?
As North Carolina Democrats elect a state chair this weekend, three divides emerge: young/old, rural/Raleigh and grassroots/headquarters. Two contrasting candidates are 73-year-old incumbent chair Bobbie Richardson, who defends the party’s 2022 performance, and 25-year-old Anderson Clayton (pictured), who says the party should do more at the grassroots and in rural areas. One young Democrat texted…
Read MoreJim Hunt, 50 Years On
Last Wednesday, former Governor Jim Hunt was on the floor of the state Senate, holding the Bible for the swearing-in of his daughter, Senator Rachel Hunt. Almost exactly 50 years before – on Wednesday January 10, 1973 – newly elected Lieutenant Governor Jim Hunt presided over the swearing-in of the Senate. Things were different then.…
Read MoreCourt Politics
Since 2010 Republicans have worked mightily to engineer a Republican Supreme Court in North Carolina. Now they’re shocked, shocked, that a Democratic governor appointed a Democratic Chief Justice. Elections have consequences, as they say. A longtime court-watcher (a Democrat) told me that while Paul Newby has been on the Supreme Court longer than Cheri Beasley,…
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