Sunday stories
From this morning's paper:
RALEIGH — It’s too soon to say the battle lines are being drawn for the 2010 U.S. Senate campaign, but troops are mustering.U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, is winding up his first term as a senator — he served five terms in the House — and preparing to defend his seat in a political landscape much changed from his previous statewide run.
In 2008, a Democrat won North Carolina’s electoral votes for the first time since 1976. And Democrats wrested the seat once held by Republican icon Jesse Helms from the hands of Elizabeth Dole, a GOP luminary in her own right.
“When you look at what happened here in 2008, it turned upside-down what everybody thought they knew about North Carolina politics,” said Steven Greene, a political science professor at N.C. State.
Click here for the whole story.
For a slightly different view of the same topic, check out the N+O's Rob Christensen's story. And yes, as my boss notes, it's weird that we're writing about the same thing at the same time.
Also from me this Sunday:
Sen. Phil Berger can find plenty to criticize about the Senate version of the budget passed last week. He says it spends too much money, hurts counties and paves the way for unwise tax increases.But what irks the Eden Republican and the GOP leader in the Senate the most is this: He wasn’t really sure what he was voting against. The budget passed the Senate 30-16 Thursday and now goes to the House.
The budget, Berger said, was written mainly behind closed doors and Republicans had little say in its crafting.
“That is the way under the leadership of the Democrats that business is conducted in the Senate,” Berger said. “There’s a certain amount of arrogance to it.”
Click here for the whole story.
From elsewhere:
- * Winston-Salem's James Romoser profiles Sen. Linda Garrou. The Winston-Salem Democrat is in the spotlight this year as the Senate's lead budget writer.
- * Taft Wireback continues what is sure to be a long-running series: how stimulus money is being used in Greensboro. Today is the Greenway edition.
- * Also a continuing series: the N.C. tax man explaining why refunds are slow.
- * My colleague Ryan Seals reminds you that it is nearly tax day for those who might owe the government a little something.
Comments (2)
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Whats so strange about liberal papers going after Burr, at the same time.
Of course if I had endorsed Kay Hagan, I be trying to deflect attention from it to.
Keep up the good work Mr. Burr, you know you are doing good, when the liberal papers, print about you.
If you are like Basnight, Hackney, Rand and the likes you do not make the papers.
Heck, look at Black, he had to go jail, before the liberal papers noticed him.
Then they whined about him going to jail.
Posted on April 13, 2009 6:11 AM
I don't suppose, Dog, you'd care to point out where either of those stories constituted "going after" Sen. Burr. Or are we just not supposed to mention the fact he has an election unless it's to say he'll roll to victory on the wings of glorious legislative accomplishment?
I will point out mainly for the benefit of third parties: the editorial and news sections at the News & Record (and pretty much every daily paper of any size) are separate departments and do no coordinate or direct one another's coverage efforts.
The last three sentences of your comment are simply inaccurate.
Posted on April 13, 2009 9:19 AM