News-Record.com

Around this time last year, pundits had started forecasting that a combination of Black’s troubles and a blue moon election would land Republicans in power in Raleigh.

And the voters said “Ha!”

There are few things in our democratic system that can be called truly immutable truths.

And as much as the 2006 elections answered questions we’ve been asking for a long time – can national Dems really ride a “tidal wave,” will Jim Black hurt his party here in N.C., etc… – we sit on the brink on the new year with a whole new set of questions.

Among the big ones, for me, are these:

Among the things crying for attention in my e-mail this morning:

(RALEIGH) – Linda Daves, Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, expressed the following regarding the passing of President Gerald Ford:

“President Ford was an inspirational man who devoted his life to serving his country. He carried us through a period of great division and helped us become a more united nation. His love for his country shined throughout his Presidency. President Ford’s service to his country and his party will never be forgotten and our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

The timing of this amuses news folks because:

a) President Ford passed away a week ago.
b) Any stories that might have possibly used that quote ran five days ago.

But anyway, way to weigh in there guys.

Looking back to former N.C. Sen. John Edwards' announcement he was running for president again, Asheville's Kerra Bolton compares Edwards and another likely contender. Sen. Barack Obama. She writes first of Obama:

He’s charming, intelligent and has a compelling personal story that he documented in his best-selling memoirs. But other than serving in the Illinois Legislature, Obama has no previous political experience.

Edwards, 53, has faced this "gravitas" question in the 2004 campaign. He slyly dodged it by focusing on his dreams for America’s future instead of dwelling on his past.

Click here for her full column.

While Edwards has done some work on this issue, and executed some artful dodges, he’s not out of the gravitas woods yet. Case in point, this column from Shawn Macomber:

Those who say John Edwards doesn't have the foreign policy credentials to lead the nation in a time of global war obviously haven't noticed the bracelet he wears to express solidarity with Sudanese refugees in Darfur. (Don't worry. He isn't shy about pointing it out.) Actually, if Edwards primary foreign policy goal weren't surrender in Iraq, I'd assume Elizabeth augmented this year's stocking full of Wendy's gift certificates--you know, the fast food joint where John, Elizabeth and a few dozen of their favorite media sycophants spend the Edwards' wedding anniversary--with a Weekly Standard subscription.

Hat tip to Bubba on the link.

Now, Edwards campaign won’t spend a whole lot of time trying to win over folks like Macomber or Bubba. But in some primaries where there are bunches of conservative Democrats – North Carolina’s comes to mind – and, if he gets that far, a general election, they will be going after some of the folks on the center-right that may be reading those two and others like them.

Which means the gravitas question is going to be around for a while. The question will be whether his work as a private citizen traveling and advocating will count as much in the minds of voters as the experience that comes serving in an elected position like the Senate.

For those interested in what those rascally House Dems up in D.C. mean by their 100 hours agenda, click here for a link.

It will be a minor miracle if they actually stick to this calendar since things in legislatures, particularly the big House, tend to get off track.

A year or two back, there was a big hubbub over how American Idol’s voting system couldn’t handle the call volume and some contestants got fewer votes than they may have expected.

While the singing contest seems to have for the most part gotten itself together, stories like this one don’t inspire confidence in how we choose our honorables:

A laboratory that has tested most of the nation’s electronic voting systems has been temporarily barred from approving new machines after federal officials found that it was not following its quality-control procedures and could not document that it was conducting all the required tests.

The company, Ciber Inc. of Greenwood Village, Colo., has also come under fire from analysts hired by New York State over its plans to test new voting machines for the state. New York could eventually spend $200 million to replace its aging lever devices.

(Snip)

“What’s scary is that we’ve been using systems in elections that Ciber had certified, and this calls into question those systems that they tested,” said Aviel D. Rubin, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins.

Oh, and there was this report that made it into my e-mail box today:

A report prepared by civic watchdog groups VoteTrustUSA, VotersUnite.org, and Voter Action found the 2006 mid-term elections were marred by persistent and widespread voting machine malfunctions ... In all, 1022 accounts of machine related problems from more than 300 counties in 36 states were examined and categorized.

All of which should keep these folks in business for a while longer.

I’m getting a story together on the various things likely to show up on legislators’ plates this year. There’s a variety of opinion and emphasis, even among just our local delegation, about what’s important.

And depending on what city or county government, interest group or lobbyist you’re chatting with, you’ll get a different answer about what SHOULD be on the agenda.

The local honorables are holding a public hearing (6 p.m., Tuesday, 1/9, at Greensboro City Hall) to hear from interested folks about what’s on their minds.

In case you can’t make it, or just want to let the wider world know, what’s on your mind? What should the legislators be tackling this session?

Gov. Easley has appointed Merle C. Green, of McLeansville, to the Governor’s Task Force for Healthy Carolinas. You know her better as Merle Green, director of the Guilford County Health Department. From the release:

Green is health director at the Guilford County Health Department. She is regional chair of the N.C. Association of Local Health Directors, a member of the Guilford Adult Health Board of Directors, the Smart Start Board of Directors and Sisters of Mercy Diocese Board of Directors. Green received her Bachelor’s degree in public health from N.C. Central University, her Master’s degree in health behavior from UNC at Chapel Hill and Master’s degree in business administration from Elon University.

Click here for the full release.

More Update:

• Linkage from Edwards' own blog. (It's a bit hard to get to and I think you need a sign in.)
  
• For those who have asked, yes, Mathew spells his first name with one "t," not two as is more common.

Update:

• Click here to go to the story.
  
• Click here to read editor John Robinson's entry on the story and catch the discussion over there.
  
• Another post by Robinson on the Edwards subject.
  
• Sue has some thoughts.
  

I have a profile piece coming Sunday on Mathew Gross, a Greensboro resident who is former N.C. Sen. John Edwards' senior internet strategist for the 2008 presidential campaign. Gross worked for the Dean campaign and created Blog for America, which is still operating, although no longer as part of a campaign operation.

Some odds, ends, links and audio related to the story:

The AP just moved this sad news re: Rep. Howard Hunter:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - State Rep. Howard Hunter Jr., a Democrat from Hertford County who was elected to a 10th term in November, died Sunday, said a spokeswoman for House Speaker Jim Black.

A cause of death for Hunter, who had been hospitalized in recent years, was not immediately available Sunday.

Hunter, who ran a funeral home in Ahoskie, represented the northeastern counties of Bertie, Hertford, Gates, and Perquimans.

He served as vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Hunter was a former Hertford County commissioner and served on boards including the N.C. Institute of Minority Economic Development and the Northampton County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Gov. Mike Easley will appoint Hunter's replacement upon the recommendation of his local party. Whoever that is will serve virtually the entire two years of Hunter's term, which began Jan. 1.

The legislature convenes Jan. 24.

In years past, I’d be writing a column right now either:

• Letting folks know that the legislators from the Triad/Guilford County don’t figure to be very powerful in the next legislative session; or
• Things are looking up, sort of, for local legislators in the next session.

Consider this down-in-the-mouth prose from a 1998 News & Record editorial, lamenting the fact that a lack of legislative horsepower has resulted in a lack of state dollars:

“Guilford County has learned that lesson the hard way. All too often, Guilford has come out on the losing end of legislative showdowns, trumped by counties with more effective and powerful delegations.”

Yeesh.

Now, I’m not here to tell you that the honorables from Guilford County or the broader area will run roughshod over the joint during the next two years. But during the past few years, the current team of local legislators has clawed their way up in terms of power and influence.

Sen. Robert Holloman passed away this morning. He is the second legislator to die in the past few days. This from state Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek, via e-mail:

"Today, the North Carolina Democratic Party is in mourning. It is with great sadness that we learned over the weekend of the deaths of two of our legislators, Representative Howard Hunter and Senator Robert Holloman, who coincidentally represented the same part of our state. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Hunter and Holloman families in this difficult time and with the people of Northeastern North Carolina that they represented. I ask that Democrats pause today to salute their service to our state."

Guilford County legislators are meeting tonight to hear from the public (that’s you!) about “issues of concern.” Basically, this is your chance to tell the honorables in person what they ought to be doing.

Time is 6 p.m. and it’s at Greensboro City Hall.

Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro Democrat, will head the Legislative Black Caucus during the upcoming session of the General Assembly.

The caucus is made up of the African American legislators in both the House and Senate. Generally, they try to present a united front on issues they see of being of special concern to the African American Community.

Adams says the group has not set its agenda for the upcoming session yet. However, there are probably a few things that will almost certainly be on it.

“Certainly the death penalty was an issue that was part of the caucus agenda last time and we didn’t get very far with,” she said. The black caucus and other legislators advocate imposing a moratorium on executions while problems with the death penalty process that lead to innocent people being put on death row are worked out.

I would expect the Earned Income Tax Credit and/or raising the minimum wage further (it went up to $6.15 an hour on Jan. 1) to be on their list as well.

Fellow capital reporter Laura Leslie went and got herself a blog. Laura works for WUNC, the Raleigh public radio station. Aside from being smarter that 95 percent of the people you wander into during the average day, she works in radio, which means her bosses give her lots of cool toys to play with. Expect good things out of her.

I’m just happy not to be the only denizen of the press room (aside from Mr. Betts, who no one would dare make fun of) with a blog anymore.

Yes, the big meeting of House Democrats to choose their leaders is scheduled for tonight. Yes, I’ll be skulking around outside the meeting room, along with at least a dozen other reporters, I'm sure. And yes, I’ll update here when some definitive word comes down.

For those of you just DYING for the handicap in advance of things, go see Laura, she's got it about right.

The state NAACP and affiliated groups called a news conference yesterday to announce what they were calling HK on J, “Historic Thousands on Jones Street.”

The announcement was tied to an event their planning on Feb. 10 but, as organizers tell it, is really about a larger movement they want to start. The idea is to organize progressive groups (NAACP, El Pueblo, Democracy NC, some union groups, NC WARN, People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, etc…) to come together behind a unified agenda.

The group has set up a seb site (click here), which includes a 14 point “Peoples Agenda.”

Click her to listen to state NAACP President William Barber explain the broad outline of the group’s platform and mission.

Some are pretty mainstream ideas that are already going to get play in the General Assembly this year. Under the heading of “Health Care for All,” you could certainly put the contemplated high risk insurance pool and other health care reform efforts. “Abolishing the Death Penalty” is certainly controversial, but has been on the table.

Other items are further off the legislative radar, such as redressing the Wilmington Race Riots and bringing troops home from Iraq.

Of note locally, two folks from Greensboro spoke at Tuesday’s event.

• Click her to listen to the Rev. Mazie Ferguson.
• Click her to listen to the Rev. Nelson Johnson.

Public Policy Polling has surveyed Tar Heels on who they think might could be their next governor and president. Democrats were asked about Democratic contenders, Republicans about Republicans. From the news release:

Among Republican primary voters, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani leads his top competitors with the support of 30% of respondents. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich received 29% support and Senator John McCain received 23% support.

Conservative activist Bill Graham is the frontrunner in the Republican gubernatorial field
with the support of 24% of likely Republican primary voters.

Former Senator John Edwards leads his home state with the support of 29% of likely Democratic primary voters in his race for President. Senator Hillary Clinton was supported by 16% of respondents, while Senator Barack Obama garnered support from 15%.

Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue is ahead of State Treasurer Richard Moore in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor, 32% to 20%.

Click here for the full report.

I really wouldn’t make too much of the numbers at this early stage of the game, but I do have some thoughts.

On the Republican side, it seems odd to me that McCain would be trailing among presidential contenders, but maybe the RINO (Republican in Name Only) patina that hangs about him sometimes does him harm in the wake of the Richard Morgan – Jim Black co-speakership mess.

I’m not at all surprised to see Edwards leading the field of Democratic presidential contenders but not running away with it. I think I’d be more skeptical of that number if it showed Edwards with a big lead right now. I’m a little surprised, but not totally shocked, that Sen. Clinton’s number is as high as it is here in the south, but that’s not completely out of line.

On the Republican side of the gubernatorial equation, you can see the results of what buying a lot of television commercials early will get someone like Bill Graham. But that race is anyone’s ballgame at this point.

On the Democratic gubernatorial equation, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue has had the higher profile job, so she has the higher profile numbers. We’ll see if she has a truly entrenched competitive advantage if Moore can’t move the needle any by November.

I would have put this online sooner but I had to take care of that pesky print product.

Rep. Joe Hackney of Orange County is the Democrat's candidate for Speaker. A lot can happen between now in Jan. 24 and there is a good amount of worry that that one of the defeated Speaker candidates - either Rep. Jim Crawford or Rep. Dan Blue - would reach out to Republicans and cut a cross-party deal.

However, all the Dems I talked to as they left Wednesday night’s meeting said they were going to stick to their choice.

Greensboro's Rep. Pricey Harrison was an early and vocal supporter of Hackney. When I asked her last night if that was good news for her, she demurred.

“I don’t expect to get any bonus points,” she said.

Well, I expect her to. At the very least, Harrison - who is from the Dems' more liberal wing - will be more successful under Hackney’s leadership than under a more conservative speaker, like Crawford. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see her show up in a committee post that one who is only beginning their second term in the legislature usually wouldn’t get.

Also a boon to the Greensboro area is the selection of Rep. Hugh Holliman of Davidson County as majority leader.

Holliman’s selection is a done deal.

Click here to listen to my run and gun interview with Holliman immediately after his selection.

Like we government nerds need another thing to chew up our work day, what with all the staying up until the wee hours to see who might possibly be speaker in a few weeks.

But then National Editor Janet Brindle Reddick sent me this CBS news story about “Fantasy Legislature:”

A few weeks ago, 44 aspiring "team managers" signed up to participate in the league, a spinoff of Fantasy Congress, which was founded last year by a California college student.

Both are similar to fantasy sports leagues, but instead of tracking touchdowns or home runs, managers win a point every time one of the six lawmakers on their team introduces a bill. Points escalate for every step the bill takes through the legislative process, with the motherlode _ 100 points _ awarded if the governor vetoes the bill and is overridden.

You only wish I was making this up. Click here for the full story.

Before the honorables here in Raleigh get themselves all cranked up for the new session (coming Jan. 24), I’m going to wander up to that other capital city next week and take the temperature of the Greensboro area’s Congressional critters.

Interviews have tentatively been set or are trying to get themselves scheduled with Reps. Coble, Watt and Miller as well as our two senators. Although the state purpose of the trip is to check in and see how they’re doing under the new Democratic management, with any luck I’ll get hopelessly sidetracked on even more interesting stories.

On the agenda will be some questions for the House members about why they voted how they did on the first 100 hours bills that have been running this week. And I’m thinking Iraq will come up.

But at the risk of getting the usual silence and tumbleweeds that blow through the comments link when I ask something like this, what’s on your mind? What do you want to know from our federal honorables?

As always, folks who send me a question will get it answered, at least in part, here before the main story publishes later this month.

There seems to be some agreement throughout the pundit subdivision of the blogsphere (see: Allen and Doug) that something is profoundly wrong with the Duke Lacrosse case, so much so that the D.A. and prosecutor (until he removed himself), Mike Nifong of Durham, may need to be held to account in some way.

And I’m beginning to get the sense that folks might want something other than the bar complaint that’s been filed.

Might the General Assembly, which will come back on Jan. 24, get up to something?

The legislature has been known to make laws in response to public outcry and a constant pounding in the news cycle. You need to look no further than the raft of ethics laws passed to quell public outrage over former House Speaker Jim Black to see that.

So as I reported for another story that will run next week, this comment from Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro Republican, didn’t shock me:

“Something I think we need to look at, is if someone can do to me or you what Nifong did to those Duke people, there’s got to be some consequence. I’m not sure what we might need to do yet, but I really think we might need to do that.”

Blust may not be the only one thinking along these lines, although of the folks I’ve talked to he’s only one to come right out and say it.

What could the legislature do? I’m not a lawyer, and don’t claim to play one on tv, but one could well imagine them creating some mechanism (other than the court of public opinion) to go after someone for a reckless prosecution.

One might think this chapter of the general statutes might be a place for Blust and any like-minded individuals to start their ruminations.

In the Wake of Rep. Joe Hackney’s selection everyone had an opinion, including:

• Mooneyham.
  
• Chistensen.
  
• Fitzsimon.
  
• Leslie.
  
• Ross.

Consensus opinion: despite the possibility of something goofy happening and a few Dems making an end-run around their caucus, Hackney will likely be voted in as Speaker on opening day. I see no reason to disagree.

In my mind, the Dems choose the guy they thought could get something done over the next session even as fallout over the former House Speaker Jim Black’s tenure continues to come. And, whether the guy is charged with something eventually or gets off the hook, the fallout will come.

As several of the folks I link to above noted, Hackney has a reputation for being “prickly.” Sure enough, in my experience he is not one of the most cuddly, chatty legislators one is likely to meet.

But among folks in powerful positions, he’s also one of the least likely to BS you. Hackney doesn’t spend a lot of time mincing words or hinting at things or out-and-out misleading folks. He either says what’s on his mind straight out or he doesn’t say it.

Welcome to those of you finding your way here after reading this story on the Polo.com incentives.

A couple notes:

• Once the deal is done with an incentives package, the Commerce Department and other agencies have to make with the records, which is a relatively recent addition to the state’s open records laws. Incentives are an area where the public’s right to know about how their government chooses to spend tax dollars is in conflict with the objectives of the business and government agencies. Having the records available after the fact doesn’t balance out this equation in my mind – it doesn’t, for example, let taxpayers who oppose a particular deal get organized far enough in a advance to stop it – but it does give folks a window into the workings of the incentives process.
• The Commerce Department is one of the few agencies I’ve been to where officials won’t let you into the office area. This is not because they think you’re dangerous, but because you might hear some over-enthusiastic employee espousing about some pending deal that’s not ready for daylight…at least that’s what they told me. I’m betting they just don’t want anyone around all those gold shovels they use for groundbreakings.
• The folks at Polo.com didn’t respond in any meaningful way for this story. Heck, once you get $4.4 million in taxpayer money, there’s really no reason to explain why or how you made your decisions is there?

As always, the comments link is open.

Right around the time the House Democrats were settling into hour number two last Wednesday of their meeting to choose their pick to replace Speaker Jim Black, this thought crossed my mind:

“What in the world are we all doing here?”

So I’m sitting in the U.S. House press gallery Tuesday night, watching the federal honorables take their only three controversial votes of the day. I focus in on Rep. Howard Coble as the Speaker and the clerk struggle to make themselves heard over the din of an unruly chamber.

At the end of the Speaker’s spiel on the bill - honoring the Florida Gators for their BCS victory - Coble leans over a chair, inserts a small plastic card into a slot on the back and pushes a button. It was an obviously practiced move that took all of a second or two.

The bill, one could argue, was hardly the most important piece of legislation to move that day. However, the act is important. It is at once at the core of a Congressman’s job – to vote on business before the legislature – and the official duty on which they spend the least time, despite voting on dozens and dozens of bills in a given month.

A few more random thoughts, quotes and observations from my day on the hill:

• Although he didn’t know it, a reader who recently e-mailed John Robinson provided our first reader-supplied question of the trip. The question: why did Coble vote against HR 2, which would raise the federal minimum wage. His answer:

  “I don’t think a very minor increase in wage has any real impact for those who are suffering financially . . . . Many of them are youngsters, high school kids. And small business people tell me that even though it’s a small increase that many times they’ll be forced to got from five employees to three employees. So I just don’t believe it address the problem of people who are at the bottom of the financial poll.”

  Coble did note that he had so far gotten one piece of negative correspondence on that vote so far, addressed to “You damned SOB…”

• If you’re wondering how it is that Congress can seem like its off in its own little world, it’s because, well, it is. Congressmen and their staffers can get three squares a day, go to the dry cleaners, get a hair cut and a shoe shine and never leave their security perimeter, which encompasses the Capitol Building as well as the office buildings that flank it.

• People look at you funny here if you don’t have a Blackberry. I think they all look odd walking about staring in the direction of their feet.

• Democrats are still getting used to being in the majority. “It’s the little things,” one staffer told me, “like being able to book a conference room.”

• On some down time I went up and watched part of the afternoon session in the House. Basically, they were running through bills deemed not to be controversial and basically passing them with little or no rancor (and few people in the chamber, although that’s another post). There’s a fair amount that gets done up here with Democrats and Republicans cooperating. You’ll rarely see that stuff in the paper – often its technical in nature – and it’s duller than dog poop to watch on C-Span. But it’s sort of heartening to know this place isn’t as dysfunctional as it seems. It’s just looks that way when they try to do anything really important, like, say, pass a budget.

More here tomorrow Wednesday evening and next week in the paper.

So a couple of lobbyists walk into a Congressman’s office. There’s nothing unusual about that in D.C. Barring weekends and federal holidays, I’d warrant there’s a lobbyist of some sort walking into one of the 535 member offices just about every day of the year.

Of course, it’s a little unusual to have a reporter sitting in the room.

Rep. Brad Miller was kind enough to let me sit in on part of his day Wednesday. That day included a visit from Floyd Stoner and James Ballentine, who represent the American Bankers Association.

Now, Stoner and Ballentine didn’t run screaming from the room when they met me, which I appreciated. But it seemed to me they were a little on edge, and probably not as blunt as they might have been had I not been sitting there scribbling in my notebook.

The pair is interested in the federal predatory lending legislation that Miller (and Rep. Mel Watt) plan to file once again. The bill would set limits on what banks can charge for loans to people with less than optimal credit and set boundaries for when loans just aren’t feasible. A snippet of the conversation:

“What we want to avoid is turning back the clock where if you don’t have A-plus credit, you get nothing,” Ballentine said, saying that if rules were too restrictive lenders help borrowers with less than stellar credit.

“We have been aware we, we will be aware we don’t want to regulate sub-prime lending to death,” Miller said, drawing on the example of North Carolina’s law to show that sub-prime lending can still happen in the face of regulation.

It went on like that for about 10 minutes, maybe a little longer.

Miller and his staffers characterized this as a “meet and greet,” an opportunity for the lobbyist in question to make their intentions known.

Now, I know the idea here is that instead of having someone who is going to work against whatever you do, you invite them to give their 2-cents on a pending bill and maybe they’ll help you get it passed. It happens quite a bit in Raleigh, where there’s a special room in the legislative office building where these stakeholder meetings typically go down.

So I know was supposed to be a cooperative occasion.

But it also had the feel of a couple of prize fighters sizing each other up, maybe at a weigh in or something. Except in the pugilistic exposition that is American politics, it’s not just two guys in the square circle. Rather, as many different parties as have an interest in a thing lace up their gloves and go at it.

Bits and pieces from Wednesday (and one from Tuesday):

• I’ve heard from Democrats and Republicans that the much ballyhooed plan to work five days a week put forward by the Democratic leadership is keeping them from visiting with constituents back in their districts. And this early in the session, they say, there’s not the work to justify it. Said Rep. Virginia Foxx yesterday, “We’re cramming two and half days of work into five.”

• In yesterday’s post I wrote about Rep. Howard Coble’s opposition to the minimum wage. On the Senate side, Sen. Richard Burr said he generally supports the idea of the raising the wage, but has a different take on how it ought to be done. Click here to listen to that clip.

• As I was stalking Miller today, I stopped in on the House Foreign Relations Committee where he is a member. The agenda for the day was to hear from and question former Sec. State Madeline Albright. She is not a fan of the administration’s Iraq policy.
  “There are not a lot of countries looking at Iraq right now and thinking ‘I want my country to look like that.’ It’s not a great advertisement (for Democracy),” she said.

• Usually when I wander into someone’s legislative office, they have pictures of them standing with political heroes or allies. So I’m sitting in Watt’s office and he’s getting done criticizing the president’s Iraq strategy and I look up to see a picture of President Bush and Watt and their wives at a White House Christmas Party.
  “I live the president on a personal level… we’re not enemies.”

More here tomorrow night.

The architecture of the Capitol complex, indeed in much of official Washington, seems to be designed to make one feel small. The Russel Senate Office Building is no exception.

A walk down the third floor hallway can seems like a swim through white marble and plaster. The ceilings are tall. How tall? I’m not sure, but easily two-and-half times my 5-foot-11-inches. The doors flanking the hallways are tall two, big wooden jobs that look like they might give a scrum of Vikings wielding a battering ram a run for their money.

As you come around the corner of the building that faces the Capitol, there is a rotunda area. An opaque window on the top shines light through a round, open area that reaches down five or six stories to the first floor.

On the third floor, the walkway overlooking this sunny space is occupied by network television crews. Their encampment is a prime interview area, a place for the honorables to chat with the talent, typically by remote, as their quotes echo up to a domed roof decorated with red and gold inlaid squares.

This is the Senate side of the hill and strange territory for a Representative. You may think the Republicans and Democrats go at it pretty hard, but the rivalry between Congress’ two bodies isn’t anything to sneeze at.

So it was a bit unusual when the man with the rumbled overcoat and felt fedora came in through the front door, showed a small id card and wandered past security. Rep. Howard Coble was on his way to an interview with MSNBC.

Coble is of interest to network television types because he’s a Republican who advocates for getting out of Iraq. Although he’s getting interviews in the context of the President’s proposed surge now, as Coble told the MSNBC crew, “I’ve been saying that for two years.”

He also laid his time-tested line on the television folks: “I’m in favor of a surge where the destination is the United States of America.”

As he was doing the interview, a pager that announces votes on the House floor began beeping and bleating, alerting members that the time to vote was ticking away. As soon as he was off the air, Coble was shuffling off back down the stairs and across the street to make the vote.

More from Thursday’s wanderings:

• The big news of the day over on the House side of Capitol Hill was HR 6, which is the Democrats’ energy bill. It was the last piece of the First 100 Hours Legislation. Background here.

  Click here to listen to Rep. Howard Coble’s take. Coble, a Greensboro Republican, voted against.
  Brad Miller, a Raleigh Democrat who represents parts of Greensboro, voted for it. Click here to listen to Miller talk about the good points of the bill.

• Speaking of the first 100 hours, I wrote the other night:

  “There’s a fair amount that gets done up here with Democrats and Republicans cooperating. You’ll rarely see that stuff in the paper – often its technical in nature – and it’s duller than dog poop to watch on C-Span. But it’s sort of heartening to know this place isn’t as dysfunctional as it seems.”

  Now, if you support the things undertaken during the first 100 hours (minimum wage hike, reducing student loan interest, the energy provisions, etc…) you’re probably happy things are moving at a clip. But on the flip side of the equation, opponents are griping a bit and those gripes aren’t entirely without merit.

  Bill opponents aren’t being allowed to offer amendments to bills and the bills aren’t running through committees. So basically, the Democratic leadership is ramming the things through without much deliberation. Again, if you’re a Dem or supportive of the measures, you might not care.

  Reps. Coble and Virginia Foxx both expressed their displeasure with the first 100 hours sprint. Coble seemed to think the Dems would settle back in into a more small-d democratic way of doing things. Foxx, was less certain, saying, “I’ll be very surprised if that happens.”

• News and Record Photographer Jerry Wolford was up here shooting pictures and doing some audio for a couple days of my trip up here. We’re pretty stoked about some of these shots. The only disappointment: Jerry never got a chance to get pictures of Sen. Dole. It was a couple bits of bad timing and bad luck that got in the way of that.

• Some of those good pictures came from Burr talking to a group of Chapel Hill school kids on the steps of the Senate side of the Capitol. It was bitter cold out, but he showed up just in a suit and took questions for a little while. When asked about the war in Iraq he told the kids in part, “I’m supportive of the President’s decision to send more troops.”

• No snow (other than a few angry bits of sleet) up here yet, unlike what you folks got in Greensboro today.

• Rep. Bob Etheridge happened to be speaking on the energy bill when I wandered by the House gallery today. I didn’t catch his whole speech, but suffice it to say he was voting for the bill. “Yet while Americans are struggling to make ends meet, oil companies are making record profits,” he said.

A few odds and ends here tomorrow, then I’m heading home to write all this up for next Sunday’s paper and get ready for the North Carolina General Assembly session, which begins Wednesday.

There has been some discussion at Kirk’s and Ed’s about a volunteer job I currently hold as president of the N.C. Capital Press Corps. The discussion surrounds my decision not to credential Kirk.

A few points that may be taken or left by those having those discussions, after the jump:

Reports from Washington:

• Tuesday.
  
• Wednesday.
  
• Thursday.

My week in D.C. wrapped up this afternoon. A few notes before I head back south:

• One of the things I've been talking with folks quite about bit about this week is Iraq. Click here for the first part of my conversation with Sen. Dole on the topic. For a second bit, trimmed to get it down to three minutes, click here.

• A reader question that came through my editor asked who pays for those civic pride bets like the one Sen. Burr made on the Orange Bowl.

  After chatting this over with a few people on the hill, it usually comes from the elected official’s own pocket or their campaign account.

  In the case of the Orange Bowl bet, Burr shelled out. The payout was, as is typical for North Carolina honorables, barbecue. But there was the big decision.

  "It makes it particularly difficult for a Senator from North Carolina because we have both eastern and Lexington style barbecue and you don’t want to disenfranchise either one," Burr said. "So we cooked it ourselves."

  So for you kids getting into politics, remember you not only need to know how the shake hands, work well with others and navigate the bureaucracy, but knowing how to cook your home state's delicacy doesn’t hurt either.

• Another reader question: Keith from High Point wrote to ask if Sen. Dole is in North Carolina much. That's a reasonable question given her gig the past two years heading up the NRSC, which kept her on the road campaigning for candidates in other states when she wasn’t in D.C.

  Free of that commitment, Dole said this morning she planned to be in North Carolina about every other week when the Senate was in session, more during recesses.

  "You’re going to see so much of me you’re going to think, 'Good glory, here she comes again,'" Dole said.

• He's not from the Greensboro area, but former state legislator and current U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry is gaining recognition as one of the most outspoken young conservatives on the hill.

  He was part of a news conference Friday afternoon that took a few swipes at the Democrat’s 100 hours agenda.

  "They promised results," McHenry said. "They delivered hypocrisy."

  I asked him about what he said was an effort "to disagree agreeably," but sounded a little biting to my ears.

  Click here to listen to what he said on the walk back from that news conference to his office. It's an interesting take on how one needs to operate in D.C. when one doesn't sit in the seat of power.

  McHenry has been applying that "strong elbow" he talks about in that clip liberally.

That's it for now. I'll be driving back tomorrow and spending the next few days getting several stories together for next Sunday's paper.

Previous Wx posts:

• Tuesday.
• Wednesday.
• Thursday.

This Sunday (1/14) I have a story about what’s on the honorables agenda this year. (Click here for the main bar of the story. It doesn't look like a graphic that ran with it got online. See the end of this post for that.) It runs down some of the things that our local (that’s local to Greensboro for new readers) honorables think will be important this year, including the Earned Income Tax Credit, a statewide smoking ban and providing health care to the uninsured.

Stories like these are frequently doomed to falling short since in a place like a state legislature, the agenda is so broad and set by so many folks that you’re sure to overlook something. For example, my story probably doesn’t pay enough attention to the environmental agenda and the steps the legislature might take to address global warming.

To balance out my effort, here are some other agenda stories from the Associated Press and News 14.

A few more thoughts on the upcoming session:

• Ethics is very much on the mind of the honorables as they begin 2007, much as it was when they ended 2006. Consider this from Rep. Pricey Harrison, who e-mailed a few days after I spoke to her for my story:

  “I forgot to mention that i plan on working on legislation to tighten up restrictions on 527s. We worked on the issue some last session as part of the ethics reform legislation, but constitutional concerns kept us from passing a stronger bill. I think the fairjudges.net effort and the SBOE's refusal to grant rescue funds has some of us concerned about the potential for mischief unbridled 527s can create.”

  I don’t know that it’s a big surprise that the legislature may find itself on an ethics kick again, but my eyebrow is raised.

  At the end of last session, I had the sense that there was some ethics fatigue. The bills that did pass were hard to get done and caused a good deal of debate among the honorables, some of it embarrassing. None of the honorables seemed real eager to jump in that creek again, but they certainly seem to have their swim trunks on now.

• Update: The General Assembly will be getting lots of reports like this one from the Joint Legislative Commission on Land and Water Conservation. Thos reports from interim committees will put some issues front and center early on.

  This land and water commission, for example, recommends the legislature spend money and offer tax breaks for conservation efforts.

• Also in the slightly surprising to see it so high on the agenda category, global climate change.

  Last year, the committee studying climate change seemed to be spinning its wheels during the session. Now, they seem to have some traction as session is about to open in a few days.

  It’s still possible, likely even, that solutions pushed by the committee will still have problems. There are a significant number of honorables of the GOP persuasion who don’t buy into the climate change arguments. That provides a baseline of opposition.

  Next, some of what the climate change folks might recommend will cost real money. Maybe not “building a new stretch of I-40” expensive, but expensive. And this budget year might not be horrible, but it’s going to be tighter than last go around. So honorables competing for funds might not take kindly to whatever the recommendations are. That’s your potential secondary phalanx of opposition.

  Put this in the category of robust debate rather than slam dunk to get something done.

• Immigration. This is a hangover from last year and from the lack of Congressional action. If Congress moves forward on that front, then this issue may get backburnered. If not, expect the Raleigh honorables to move forward, maybe something related to punishing employers for hiring illegal workers.

  This figures heavily into the 2008 political matrix. Voters, particularly conservative-leaning ones, increasingly see it as an ongoing and unaddressed issue. Democratic leaders, even those not naturally inclined toward it, would have incentive to take up immigration to insulate themselves from criticism and win political points.

• It’s not on anyone’s announced agenda, but keep an eye out for a bill that would reauthorize something akin to payday lending.

• Keep an eye out for how and if the legislature reforms the rules by which the House and Senate operate, particularly with regard to the committee system and how much power is vested in the leaders of either chamber.

  It’s possible, but not likely they could go as far as Rep. John Blust has recommended, or take some more intermediate steps. In an email that Ran Coble of the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research sent out, he suggested four ethics-related measures that might be on the table. Here they are, with my comments following the "-":

  • ban on special provisions in budget bills – this would be a hard pill for a lot of legislators to swallow. This “special provisions” are a way that legislators can demonstrate their influence and bring home the bacon to constituents. They gave it up last year, but will they give it up permanently? Good luck with that.
  • 3 days to study state budget – passing the state budget is the legislature’s single most significant act every year. And, well, it spreads out $19 billion-plus to dozens of state agencies, departments and what not. So of course, the honorables have habitually given themselves as little time as possible to review the final House and Senate budgets as well as the conference budget every year. Having three days to review the thing would allow folks to read through it, offer amendments and rally support or opposition to certain provisions.
  • no floaters who can vote on all committees – hey, I’m not elected, but this practice just seemed like cheating to me. Floaters come in handy to the leadership when a committee with jurisdiction over a bill isn’t keen on passing it or is a little too keen on passing it. Floaters can tip the balance whichever way the leadership wants.
  • open budget meetings to public – Caution: sausage making in progress. Some of these meetings were open last year, more than in the past. But a lot of the nitty gritty deal making, especially on the final conference budget, happens behind closed doors. I know some folks who are of the opinion that the honorables couldn’t come to an agreement in public, that they just can’t be as blunt and say what needs to be said with folks looking on. There are others – and I’m philosophically much closer to this camp – that think if you’re dealing with public money and policy, most if not all secrecy in the process should be eliminated.

So what should be on the honorables’ agenda? As always, the comment link is open.

Update:A graphic that ran with the story did not publish online. It basically was a rundown of what Greensboro area honorables had on their personal agendas. Here's the text:

Some are modest in their scope, important to a limited audience. Others are more audacious, sweeping changes in state law. Call them pet projects if you will, but the things legislators have the most interest in have a way of getting done most often. One passionate advocate can make the difference between the light of day and the rubbish bin for a piece of legislation. So what do local legislators have at the tops of their to-do lists this year?

• Sen. Phil Berger Ethics: Berger wants to build on the ethics laws passed during the last session, adding a measure to regulate legal defense funds set up by elected officials.

• Sen. Stan Bingham
  Malpractice insurance: Bingham would like to set up a state fund to pay malpractice insurance for doctors who volunteer in free clinics.

• Sen. Katie Dorsett
  Cervical cancer funding: Dorsett might file a bill to provide state funding for cervical cancer vaccinations, which protect against the human papilloma virus.

• Sen. Kay Hagan
  Financial literacy education: Hagan again wants to push for the state Board of Education to lay out a curriculum teaching financial literacy to high school students.

• Rep. Alma Adams
  Earned-income tax credit: Adams will push for a tax credit for certain low-wage workers. The credit would be based largely on the federal earned-income tax.

• Rep. John Blust
  Ethics and chamber rules: Blust wants to reintroduce reforms to limit power of the top House leaders. He wants more done to tighten campaign contribution rules for lobbyists.

• Rep. Nelson Cole
  Transportation: Cole says the state needs to find ways to repair and expand its highway system while encouraging the growth of mass transportation.

• Rep. Pricey Harrison
  Renewable energy: Harrison wants to renew a push for state buildings and vehicles to use renewable energy, such as solar power or biofuels.

• Rep. Hugh Holliman
  Smoking: Holliman plans to introduce a bill to ban smoking in all public places. That would include restaurants, government buildings and office spaces.

• Rep. Maggie Jeffus
  Community college funding: Jeffus will again push to use the taxes paid on lottery prizes to help fund community college equipment purchases.

• Rep. Earl Jones
  Stem cell research: Jones will propose a state stem cell research funding bill if federal legislation does not get completed this spring.

• Rep. Laura Wiley
  Stalking: Wiley has served with a committee working to clarify anti-stalking laws. That bill and ongoing changes to the state’s special education laws are at the top of her list.

Economic development incentives have raised my professional hackles for a while now. There’s something noxious to our supposed open system of government about the agreements that state and local governments reach to give businesses taxpayer-funded goodies behind closed doors.

In a couple days, the North Carolina General Assembly will head back into session. To celebrate, the folks at Democracy North Carolina circulated a list of the biggest PAC contributors to the honorables.

From the Democracy North Carolina news release (link):

As the General Assembly prepares to convene, a new study shows that 25 special-interest groups – each with their own wish list for lawmakers – donated a record $5.1 million directly to state legislative candidates in the 2006 election. The groups include Realtors and beer wholesalers, bankers and dentists, lawyers and utility executives, dentists and auto dealers.

The $5.1 million total is almost double what the same groups gave legislative candidates just four years ago in the 2002 election, said Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina, the nonpartisan watchdog group that conducted the analysis. Eleven of the political action committees (PACs) contributed more than $200,000 each; only two gave that much in 2002.

The NC Realtors PAC, which topped the list in both election cycles, contributed $615,715 to General Assembly candidates in 2006, a leap from $235,200 in 2002. The Realtors PAC gave at least $3,000 to 107 of the state’s 170 legislators.

The data backing up this release is contained in this chart from Democracy NC (link). For the most part it confirms what passes for conventional wisdom around these parts, but I did have a few thoughts:

• As Bob Hall notes in the release, most legislators will tell you that campaign contributions don’t influence their votes. The problem, of course, is that no one believes businesses groups give $5.1 million just for the fun of it. From Hall’s release:

  “Groups complain about being shaken down for donations, but they use their role as money supplier to gain an advantage for goals that often conflict with another special interest or with the larger public interest,” he said. “Too many people act like this is a ‘pay to play’ system.”

  Some groups, like nurse anesthetists, have dramatically increased their giving, sometimes to offset the perceived leverage their opponents gain through their large donations.

• It is no surprise to see the real estate industry PAC at the top of the list. Laws and regulations that affect the real estate and building industry are a heavy proportion of the work that gets done here in any legislative session.

• I was a little surprised to see The North Carolina Association of Educators on the list and that they beat out such lobbying luminaries as the N.C. Beer and Wine Wholesalers and Sprint.

  Why? Because one of the major policy discussions that has been going on here for the past few sessions is how to raise the salaries of teachers so they are competitive with other states and so that people can afford to live on the salaries given entry level teachers.

  Or is that all principal money?

At any rate, this is a list worth keeping in mind as policy decisions unfold during the session.

What do training soldiers to fight overseas have to do with conserving land? Read on to find out.

I mentioned in my post on the upcoming legislative agenda that a group of legislators (the Land and Water Conservation Study Commission was going to recommend some conservation steps to the General Assembly. They met today (Monday) and issued their final report, a draft of which you can find here. (This version lacks a few of the final tweaks.)

The group recommended that the state spend $1 billion over five years to protect both natural resources as well as historic and cultural sites throughout the state. But they stopped short of calling for a bond to pay for the whole deal as they did during the last session. Basically, they said the legislature should use some mix of funding (bonds, taxes, fees, etc...) to accomplish the goals. Of course, as the old saw goes, if you want to start a fight in the legislature put a dollar on the table (or threaten to take on off).

One of the interesting bits of yesterday’s meeting was to hear Colonel David G. Fox, Garrison Commander at Fort Bragg talk about how the state’s past conservation efforts had helped his base and helped to bring back a certain kind of woodpecker to the region. I guess maybe it goes against type to hear a military type talking with pride about how his base has the largest strand of long leaf pine in the country.

Click here to listen to some of his testimony.

Of local (to Greensboro) note, Rep. Pricey Harrison sits on the committee. Harrison is probably one of the legislatures more environmentally minded members.
Click here to listen to her exchange with North Carolina Farm Bureau President Larry Wooten about farmland preservation funding.

The biggest question surrounding all these preservation ideas is not whether they’re worthy notions (most folks, I think, agree they are) but how to pay for them. That’s where some powerful and well-heeled interests (see prior post on campaign fundraising) will get into the act.

Both the N.C. Home Builders Association and the N.C. Association of realtors weighed in, suggesting that contemplated increases on fees related to property transactions and the like would be unpopular with their colleagues.

Click here to listen to the Home Builders’ Lisa Martin ("Since everybody benefits, everybody should pay.") and Click here to listen the realtors’ lobbyist Rick Zechini talk with the commission.

If the realtors and home builders got their dander up, it wouldn’t be impossible to get this conservation package done, but it would sure get harder.

One odd or end from Harrison: she picked up on something that Zechini said about applying a fee to start state parks in order to fund some conservation efforts. The idea did not make it into the final report because it was not aired at any of the commission’s public hearings. But it seems like the idea might get some attention if the General Assembly starts crafting legislation around this report.

From U.S. Rep. Brad Miller’s office:

On the morning before President Bush delivers his State of the Union Address to Congress, U.S. Reps. David Price (NC-04) and Brad Miller (NC-13), introduced a bill to phase out the U.S. military involvement in Iraq by year's end.

The Price-Miller legislation would terminate the President's authority to wage war in Iraq on December 31, 2007, and would require an exit strategy to bring American troops home by that date. The bill would also enhance political and diplomatic efforts designed to hasten the total transfer of authority to the Iraqi government and bolster that government's chances of success after the American presence has ended.

Click here for the whole thing.

With two executions scheduled to happen fairly soon, a group of legislators are asking Gov. Mike Easley to halt them and others. Among them are Reps. Pricey Harrison, Maggie Jeffus and Alma Adams, all Greensboro Democrats.

Click here to listen to what Harrison had to say about the letter.

From the letter itself:

As legislators, we write to respectfully request that you suspend immediately all executions until we can be assured that North Carolina’s method of execution clearly meets the U.S. constitutional requirement that the punishment is not cruel and unusual.

Governor Jeb Bush imposed a moratorium on executions in Florida following a December 13, 2006, botched execution during which the condemned inmate clearly suffered a protracted, painful death. In addition, eight additional states -- Arkansas, California, Delaware, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, South Dakota, and Maryland have recently halted executions to review their lethal injection process. It is troubling that North Carolina uses the identical drug combination as Florida.

As you know, three North Carolina death row inmates are currently scheduled for execution between January 26 and February 9. We respectfully ask that you suspend those and all other executions until our lethal injection procedures, which are identical to Florida’s, can be reviewed fully.

• Click here for the letter.
• Click here for a related news release.

I just finished watching the State of the Union address and then talking to our local Congressional folks about it. A few notes:

• President Bush was making some nice overtures to the Democrats, but he did use an Republican idiom early in the speech.
  “Some are new to this chamber,” said the president, “and I congratulate the Democrat majority.”
  Most Democrats would say that he should have said “Democratic.” This has been a linguistic spitting matching between the two parties and if you want to know more, click here.

• Was it just me and the folks here in my newsroom, or did anyone else watching the television broadcast see Rep. Virginia Foxx give the president an overly friendly smooch on his way out of the chamber?

• Sen. Richard Burr talked to us scruffy press types after the speech on a conference call. He was asked about the president’s statement on immigration:
  “I was pleasantly surprised to see any immigration plan should not include amnesty because amnesty is a show stopper,” he said. When asked if the guest worker proposal couldn’t be interpreted as offering some sort of amnesty to those who are here illegally, he said, “I think allows for a little creativity.”

• I asked Rep. Mel Watt about the president’s education proposal:
  “Well, he’s committed to No Child Left Behind, I think a number of us are committed to it. Unfortunately he’s shown little commitment to standing up for the necessary funding for it,” said Rep. Mel Watt. “I think we will reauthorize No Child Left Behind. I think we will probably make some amendment to it. The biggest shortcoming is that we have not funded the thing anywhere near the level we committed to when we passed it.”

• I asked Rep. Brad Miller about the president’s environmental statement:
  “I wondered where he’s been for the past six years. He said a lot of things I agree with but there were a lot of things he talked about that he fought tooth and nail for the past six years.”
  He continued, “The speech just ignored the policies of the administration for the past six year. Now, last year, he also said we need to end our addiction to oil but then his budget did nothing on it.”

• Yes, Rep. Howard Coble still says he opposes the surge. He liked what the president had to say on immigration:
  “The President continues to emphasize the importance of guest workers, and I agree with that,” said Coble, who said he does not favor amnesty for immigrants here illegally.
  Coble said he has heard from farmers and landscapers who rely on migrant labor. “They tell me that if they didn’t have guest workers