Coal Ash

I don’t know why but I’ve become absorbed by the machinations of bureaucrats – it’s a bit like watching Alice in Wonderland: Down is up, and up is down.   Take hard work.   Businessmen work hard to get ahead.   Students work hard for better grades.   But who joins a bureaucracy to work…

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The Future Is Now

“A change is coming, and it’s blue.” That’s the conclusion of an op-ed that looked at why more young Americans are voting Democratic. And it was my conclusion after several hours at the College Democrats/Young Democrats convention in Greenville Saturday.   I found an impressive group of smart, dedicated and determined Democrats who are getting…

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Move On

Is our long national Obamacare binge winding down?   A veteran Raleigh operative said this week that the folks at home are getting tired of hearing about it. Coincidentally, a Kaiser Health Tracking Poll found that “just over half the public (53 percent) say they’re tired of hearing about the debate over the ACA and…

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Green Paint Balls

About a month ago Greg Brannon, dead-set on getting elected to the Senate,  was trying to build momentum and gain ground on front-runner Thom Tillis then, out of a clear blue sky, two investors sued Brannon for flamoozling them out of $250,000 and a jury ruled he had to repay the money.   That opened…

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Addicted to Koch

Thomas Mills at PoliticsNC riled up some Democrats when he questioned the strategy of going after the Koch brothers.   I have the same question. Is this a classic case of chasing the cape and missing the matador?   A national poll this week showed that half of all Americans don’t even know who the…

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A Better Way

Charlotte minister Mark Harris, who’s running for Senate, hit a rough patch when he released a poll showing him trailing Thom Tillis by 11 points – an inconvenient fact his political aide, Tom Perdue, brushed aside by saying, “The fact that we are down actually means we are way up.”   Saying down is up…

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Wake Up

You couldn’t design a more perfect Democratic candidate for Wake County in 2014 than Sarah Crawford. Proven success in a professional career and in community service – check. Attended public schools and college here – check. Young mother with children in public schools – check. Energy, smarts, savvy and a fiendishly hard worker – check,…

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Duking It Out

Duke Energy and Duke basketball had a bad March. Duke basketball probably will come back sooner than Duke Energy.   Duke Energy knows it has a problem. The utility took out full-page newspaper ads Sunday – the classic corporate PR response.   It was a waste of money.   A paid ad persuades no one…

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Fracking, Drilling and Spilling

A federal criminal investigation. A massive, destructive spill. Deliberate pumping of bad stuff into water that people drink.   Is this a description of the current Duke Energy debacle? Or a preview of hydraulic fracking for natural gas in North Carolina?   The Duke mess is a huge – and perhaps fatal – problem for…

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A Mayor for Governor?

Maybe it’ll be Charles Meeker. Or Nancy McFarlane. Or one of their successors. Whoever, a mayor of Raleigh will be Governor. And soon.   The Raleigh media market is huge, reaching maybe as much as 40 percent of the Democratic primary vote and close to a third of the general election vote.  A mayor who…

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