And the race is on
House Speaker Thom Tillis crossed the finish line last night and can take a brief breath of fresh air. However, it will be very brief. In less than two weeks the state House will be in session with its almost $450 million hole, teachers demanding raises and a reminder...
PoliticsNC’s primary winners and losers
Big Winners Thom Tillis was obviously the big winner last night. He can now quit worrying about his right flank and start focusing on the general election. The GOP establishment spent millions beating back the Tea Party. They now have their candidate in place and the...
Nationalizing primaries
The nationalization of political campaigns is basically complete. More than 90% of the ads so far in the Senate race were produced by national outside groups. And they spent almost $8 million. Candidates are becoming little more than proxies for ideological...
It’s all over but the crying
It’s all over but the crying. With less than 24 hours left before the final day of voting in the 2014 primary season, nothing can really change the outcomes. The victors are in place. We just don’t know who they are yet. In the marquee race, the GOP primary for US...
The two sides of the jobs report and mismanaging expectations
The jobs report is out again. This time, April growth exceeded expectations. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 288,000 new jobs were created and the unemployment rate dropped to 6.3% from 6.7%. So what was the response? As Politico notes, Democrats were...
My first Hagan ad
The Elon University poll came out this week. North Carolina voters are an ornery bunch right now. They don’t like much of anything. In particular, though, they don’t like Kay Hagan. Her approval rating is upside down at 35-47. According to most public polls, it’s been...
Feel their pain first
I have a bias about campaigns. I don’t believe that people usually vote around issues. I think they vote on an emotional response to things that are less tangible. Rarely does a candidate’s position on a single issue or even group of issues persuade the electorate....
A pretty low bar
It seems most political observers are in agreement that Thom Tillis is going to be the GOP nominee for US Senate on May 6. Tillis and his supporters keep saying that the prospect of facing the speaker scares Hagan and the Democrats. But that’s not the case at all....
Harris offers too little, too late
Last night in the final debate, Mark Harris tried to draw a contrast with Thom Tillis but he just doesn’t have it in him. His criticism was subdued and “just the facts, ma’am” polite. He needed to show a little outrage and indignation to draw the attention necessary...
More incompetence
You know, I was going to write a blog about the GOP primary and the math that it would take for Thom Tillis to cross 40%. Instead, I’m going to write about another chapter in the ongoing GOP war on competence. Once again, they have broken the old, “If it ain’t broke,...
