Honor King by fixing the Voting Rights Act
As we honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., today is good time to remember that Congress has failed to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Supreme Court found section 4 of the act to be out of date in 2013 and left it up to Congress to amend...
Send a mayor to Washington
Since he was first elected, polls have shown Sen. Thom Tillis to have low favorability numbers. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s in trouble since his numbers are similar to those Sen. Richard Burr carried throughout 2010 and 2016 when he won re-election, but it does...
The neo-Confederates lost
A friend noted that by removing Silent Sam’s pedestal, Carol Folt changed the facts on the ground. In other words, the debate is no longer about whether or not to take Sam down, but whether or not to put him back up. I suspect he’s down for good. The neo-Confederates...
Silent Sam is about race, not law and order
Well, the UNC Board of Governors is kicking Carol Folt off campus. Instead of waiting until the end of the year, they’ve given her until the end of the month. And they’ve kicked her off campus because she removed a vestige of white supremacy. The whole episode shows...
Folt bolts, takes Sam with her
So it looks like the UNC Board of Governors has run off another employee. UNC-CH Chancelor Carol Folt announced she’s leaving at the end of the academic year, just weeks after UNC President Margaret Spellings announced her resignation. Since firing Tom Ross, the Board...
Run, Amy, run
With all the hype around Democratic candidates throwing their hats into the ring for president, I’ll give my choices for various races this week. I’m not saying I won’t change my mind as I get more information about people, but for now, I’ll go through a couple of my...
Bad votes
The legislature is now back in action. Members were sworn into office this week and the General Assembly official opened the 2019-2020 session the legislature on Wednesday. They also elected new leaders. Tim Moore was re-elected Speaker of the House. All the...
Undermining democracy
Yesterday, a right-wing evangelical group reported potential election fraud in a Mecklenburg state house district and demanded the Rachel Hunt, the Democratic victor in the election, not be seated. The accusations have little merit. Instead, they have two goals:...
Primaries begin today
Today marks the beginning of primary season. While I’m sure more will emerge in coming weeks, Cal Cunningham’s announcement today that he’s running for lieutenant governor sets up a challenge to Democratic state senator Terry Van Duyn of Buncombe County. Let the races...
New faces, new expectations
Democrats start the first full week of 2019 in a better position than they’ve had in years. The new Congress was sworn in last week and Nancy Pelosi took the Speaker’s gavel again. My #NCPOL twitter feed was full of new legislators taking the oath of office this...
