Hold off on measuring those drapes Thursday morning’s news that Erskine Bowles would not seek the Democratic nomination for governor sent many Republicans and right-wing pundits into a frenzy of jubilation. They were convinced that only Bowles could keep former Charlotte mayor and traditional conservative turned Tea Partier Pat McCrory out of the [Continue Reading...]

Speculation about likely Democratic candidates for governor and lieutenant governor is dominating Raleigh’s political world these days. It is also serving as reminder of a major problem that persists in our political system, known as the wealth primary. Most of the stories about potential candidates mention money prominently, often before anything else, how [Continue Reading...]

Former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory was making the rounds at television stations across the state in the last few days leading up to his formal announcement for governor on Tuesday. McCrory’s “one-on-one” interviews with news anchors not only provided a preview of his campaign kickoff but also a sense of the themes he [Continue Reading...]

10—number of counties in North Carolina that had poverty rates of 20 percent or more every year from 1970 to 2000 (“The Legacy of Hardship; Persistent Poverty in North Carolina, N.C. Budget and Tax Center, January 2012) 9—number of counties in North Carolina with persistent poverty that have housing stress, with 30 percent [Continue Reading...]

The shock of Governor Bev Perdue’s announcement Thursday that she will not seek reelection is still reverberating in the political world from Raleigh to Charlotte to Washington. Pundits are busily speculating not only about who will replace Perdue as the Democratic candidate for governor, but what effect her decision will have on President [Continue Reading...]

Republican legislative leaders must be awfully worried about Governor Bev Perdue’s proposal to raise the sales tax 3/4 of a penny to restore some of the devastating budget cuts to public schools that lawmakers made last year. That’s the only plausible explanation for their puzzling statements and odd behavior in the last few [Continue Reading...]

The folks who want to write discrimination into the state constitution formerly kicked off their campaign of intolerance this week, launching the ridiculously named “Vote for Marriage NC” coalition. The distortions and misleading rhetoric weren’t limited to the name. Rev. Mark Harris, President of the N.C Baptists, said in a statement that “the [Continue Reading...]

459 million—amount in dollars the budget approved by the 2011-2012 General Assembly cut in public school funding (Report on Continuation, Expansion and Capital Budgets, House Bill 22, N.C. General Assembly 2011 session) 347 million—amount in dollars the budget approved by the 2011-2012 General Assembly cut in funding for the university system (Ibid) 117 [Continue Reading...]

Don’t look now, but the 2012 campaign began Tuesday afternoon. Governor Bev Perdue announced that her budget proposal for the next fiscal year will call on lawmakers to restore three-quarters of the one cent sales tax they cut last session and use the money to fund education. It is not a shocking proposal. [Continue Reading...]

Jordon Greene, a Republican candidate for the General Assembly from Caldwell County, breathlessly announced last week that he is the first candidate seeking the District 87 House seat to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, promising never to support any tax increase, no matter the circumstances or the crisis the state might face. That [Continue Reading...]

Goolsby’s tin ear Add Senator Thom Goolsby to the list of Republican legislators who either don’t understand the damage their state budget is doing to public schools or simply don’t want to face it. Goolsby attended a legislative breakfast this week with teachers and local school officials in New Hanover County and received [Continue Reading...]

  The next General Assembly special session is set for Thursday, February 16. The current Senate calendar that is available for that day has nothing on it. The House calendar list two items. Both are adjournment resolutions left over from last week’s middle of the night debacle. That may be all we know [Continue Reading...]

The inside-the-beltline Raleigh political world is still buzzing about the Republicans’ midnight special legislative session last week in which they lashed out at teachers by ending the automatic dues check-off for the North Carolina Association of Educators. Monday a Superior Court Judge temporarily blocked the law after the NCAE filed a suit questioning [Continue Reading...]

45—number of minutes after midnight last Thursday morning that House Republican leaders convened a special session of the General Assembly after called veto override session adjourned (“N.C. lawmakers override another Perdue veto,” Greensboro News & Record, Thursday, January 5, 2012) 72—number of minutes after midnight last Thursday that House voted in a special [Continue Reading...]

Unanimous reviews for “The Nightmare on Jones Street” The reviews are still pouring in for this week’s special midnight performance of the “The Nightmare on Jones Street: The Tillis Berger Divide and Conquer Show,” and the critics seem almost unanimous. The Greensboro News & Record hails the performance as spiteful, bizarre, cynical, and [Continue Reading...]