Coop’s Coup

Last week Republican legislators stripped Governor-elect Roy Cooper of power. This week Cooper showed he still has the power to beat them. Cooper’s strategy was simple and elegant: If the Republicans repealed HB2, he won. If they didn’t, he won bigger. They didn’t. He won. Big time. The Republicans had said – over and over…

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Helping storm victims – or politicians?

Will next week’s legislative session be about hurricane and fire relief – or political relief? Will the legislature help people who lost loved ones, homes and property – or help Republicans who lost elections? And will Republicans give Roy Cooper a nuclear weapon to use against them in 2017, one that dwarfs HB2? Senate Republicans are…

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Alas, Poor Pat

As his hopes and his days dwindle down to a precious few, you almost feel sorry for Pat McCrory. Almost. It has to be hard being the first North Carolina Governor to lose a reelection race. He couldn’t do what Jim Hunt, Jim Martin, Jim Hunt again and Mike Easley did. Bev Perdue was a…

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Pity Pat

He’s had death threats. He and his wife are being shunned socially. He was verbally assaulted by a 21-year-old drunk student, and she was arrested. Corporate executives and university presidents have abandoned him. The voters don’t understand HB2. Its supporters are being “purged.” “It gets to me, I just hide it until I go home…

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No high ground for McCrory

Pat McCrory’s reelection problems go much deeper and much farther back than HB2. Any lift he gets from putting on his hurricane hat isn’t likely to lift him out of the floodwaters. That’s the assessment Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling gave at a Common Cause NC fundraiser Sunday evening. Jensen offered a view of…

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The Great HB2 Train Wreck

“Is HB2 the worst self-inflicted wound in the history of North Carolina politics?” That’s what a young whippersnapper asked at breakfast the other day. (When you’re my age, you get a lot of questions about history.) I couldn’t think of a worse one. Terry Sanford’s food tax? It hurt him politically, but Sanford didn’t push…

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McCrory vs Charlotte

Pat McCrory acts like the Queen City has become Queer City. Now, the city that made him may break him. He got elected because he had a reputation as a moderate, pragmatic, pro-business Mayor of Charlotte. He may lose reelection because he has a reputation now as a gay-bashing, bathroom-obsessed, bad-for-business Governor. He won in…

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50 days minus 1

Carter and I were interviewed by The Charlotte Observer Monday about the election outlook. So, instead of having to organize our thoughts and actually write something, we’ll just post the following story by the Observer’s editorial board, “50 days out, here’s what political experts think (and predict!) about N.C.’s biggest races”: We’re less than 50…

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Apocalypse Soon

Pat McCrory just got slam-dunked by the ACC. His teammates are starting to switch sides. Tamara Barringer was the first legislator to undergo a deathbed conversion. More will surely follow. But a long-time veteran of the legislative sausage-making machine doesn’t expect much from the Jones Street crowd: “The latest HB2 shame on North Carolina will…

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WTF, Pat?

Now HB2 has gone too far. It’s interfering with our state religion: NCAA basketball. It’s one thing to lose the NBA All-Star Game or PayPal. But March Madness? And Potty Pat McCrory wonders why we’re still talking about this. Maybe because he keeps talking about it. He’s lurching. Defending HB2 one day, dropping it the…

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