It’s hard to believe, but Election Day is right around the corner. Early voting starts in just a few weeks. This is also a Presidential election year with emotions running strong and hopefully with a lot of North Carolinians voting. There is clearly cause for great excitement. There is a big problem however. [Continue Reading...]
In January the promise was bright and seductive. The new Republican leadership in both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly was going to transform the way business was done. Things were going to be open, transparent and inclusive. Unfortunately, as we approach July, that promise is tarnished and the charm and seduction [Continue Reading...]
The North Carolina General Assembly has recently begun the newest round of legislative redistricting – that is, drawing the new maps under which state lawmakers and members of Congress will run for office during the next decade. It is the sixth time since the United States Supreme Court ordered states to re-balance congressional [Continue Reading...]
Governor Easley’s court appearance on the Tuesday just before Thanksgiving was too late; the penalty, a $1000 fine, was too little; and the ultimate victim was the confidence of the citizenry of North Carolina. It was also pitiful- a former governor who could have left an admirable legacy has become the first governor of NC to be found guilty of a felony related to his work as governor. [Continue Reading...]
Politics and money: It is one of those combinations that just seems natural and automatic – like Andy and Barney, Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy. And though it is a combo that is still going strong in 2010, it is past time for North Carolina to consider mandatory retirement. [Continue Reading...]
About the only good thing to come out of the scandals surrounding former North Carolina House Speaker Jim Black was the passage of major lobbying and ethics reforms. But it took Black’s disgraceful fall to move legislation which had been languishing in the General Assembly for many years. [Continue Reading...]
