Party of grifters
Under the leadership and example of Donald Trump, the GOP has openly become a party of grifters, using positions of power and influence to benefit themselves and their cronies. The latest example is over at the UNC Board of Governors. The next chair has been trying to...
Democratic edge is holding
There’s another poll that shows the Democratic advantage is holding in North Carolina. The Survey USA poll done for Spectrum News shows Democrats have an edge in the generic ballots for both Congress and legislature. It also shows that Trump is unpopular in the state...
Thanks for the memories
The Cave closed for the last time last night. I wasn’t there when they locked the doors and I haven’t spent much time there for the past decade or so, but it was a place that had a huge influence in my life. The people I met there and the scene they created are a...
Truth to power
John Blust and Trey Gowdy almost make me want to reconsider my opposition to term limits. Unbound by the need to get re-elected, they’re speaking truth power and in both cases the power is their own party. We need voices of reason and less of the tribe. John Blust...
NC Congressional polls
Andrew Dunn has created a great new site called Longleaf Politics that, among other things, is tracking polls in North Carolina. The most recent entries look at Congressional races in NC-09 and NC-13. The polls were conducted by PPP for the Democratic SuperPAC Patriot...
A look at a GOP primary poll
I got a glimpse of a poll in a GOP legislative primary and it should give Republican incumbents a shudder. It’s just one district, but there’s an indication that their base is not happy with their elected officials. That feeling could hurt turnout in both the primary...
You can still hear 1968
This year marks fifty years since the end of the one-party South in North Carolina. The Democratic Primary in May of that year gave a hint of what was to come and the November election began to define the modern Republican Party in the South. The forces that reshaped...
R.I.P. Pat Taylor: 1924-2018
Pat Taylor died on Sunday in Wadesboro. He was lieutenant governor from 1969 to 1973, back when that post had actual power as the leader of the state senate. Before that he was Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives. I knew Pat my whole life and he...
Beware of those pledges and petitions
It’s that time of the year in campaigns where various interest groups are sending candidates questionnaires and petitions demanding fealty to whatever causes they espouse. The most innocuous ones seem to genuinely want to know candidates’ positions. Others almost...
Dispatches from the political battlefield
Ever since the inauguration of Donald Trump, progressives have been marching and organizing. At the national level, the movement was kicked off by the Women’s March that drew more people than Trump’s inauguration. On the local level, groups like Indivisible sprung up...
