News-Record.com

When I spoke to him on Friday, Guilford County Republican Party Chairman Bill Wright said he was not going to make his preference for state party chairman known.

As I was reporting this story, Wright told me, "I won't say anything right this minute."

It was important as a county chairman, Wright said, to remain impartial.

So much for that. From an e-mail touting endorsements sent around by state party chairman candidate Chad Adams today:

Bill Wright, Chairman Guilford County Republican Party

The next Chairman must be someone who understands grassroots activism and can effectively communicate our Republican principles and those of our Constitution. Our next Chairman must have the ability to raise the funds necessary to support Party efforts in electing conservative Republicans across our State. It is my opinion that Chad Adams best meets these requirements and I am honored to endorse Chad Adams as the next Chairman of the NCGOP.

Worth noting: one of the candidates for state party chairman is Marcus Kindley, Wright's predecessor.

From this weekend's paper, in no particular order:

• * Inside Scoop covers a local bill to change how the Greensboro City Attorney is appointed. (Second item.) Short version: it ain't moving for the foreseeable future.

• * North Carolina Republicans are getting ready to chose a new chairman. My story talks more about what the next chairman will have to do in terms of rebuilding the party. For more on the latest mud slinging in the race (which I only mention briefly) check out this story from the Legion of Dome.

• * I wrote for Sunday's paper about efforts to change North Carolina's negligence laws. The push comes in large measure from a Greensboro family and lawmakers.

• * So it turns out that some playground equipment is safe from 8:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. but unsafe after school. Click here to find out how.

• * Not from me, but check out this good read from the AP's Gary Robertson on former Gov. Mike Easley's tenuous grasp on his legacy.

From a story posted online this afternoon:

RALEIGH — Rep. Hugh Holliman’s role in rewriting the state’s health plan makes him “part of the problem,” according to an employee group running radio ads criticizing the Lexington Democrat.

The two-year, $675 -million bailout raises deductibles and copays as well as increases the cost for dependent coverage. It also cuts benefits for those who are overweight or smoke. And while it costs taxpayers, it is not as expensive as other potential fixes to the plan.

The ad attacking Holliman is sponsored by SEANC, the State Employees Association of North Carolina, a 55,000-member, union-affiliated group that frequently gets involved in political campaigns and lobbies the legislature.

“Hugh Holliman has his priorities wrong,” says the SEANC ad, airing on WZTK-FM and WSJS-AM in the High Point and Greensboro markets. “He’s part of the problem when he needs to be part of the solution. Maybe it’s time for new leadership in the North Carolina legislature.”

Click here for the full story, including this from Holliman:

“I think it’s fair to say I really don’t appreciate that (the ad) but they’re certainly welcome to do what they think they need to do,” Holliman said. “I think SEANC needs to discover they’re in the real world... and we don’t have money to just throw around.”

Click here to listen to the ad.

Worth noting: SEANC also targeted Rep. Margaret Dickson with a radio ad, as you can read in this release.(PDF)

As I point out in the story, Holliman is really part of a two-headed beast that oversees the state health plan. The other is Sen. Tony Rand, the majority leader in the Senate.

I asked SEANCE why they were going after Holliman and not Rand. The reply came back from SEANC political director Kevin LeCount that Rand's time may come. From the story:

“Everything we say in the ad about Rep. Holliman, we would be happy to make the same assertions about Rand,” LeCount said. “It’s not because we’re not going to talk about Rand.”

However, I think it's worth nothing that Holliman had a relatively close General Election in 2008, winning by 5 percentage points in what could be a swing district. Meanwhile Rand was unopposed and in a district carried handily by Democrats at all levels of the ballot.

It would not be unreasonable to speculate that SEANC is spending its ammunition where it thinks the impact is more likely to be noticed.

A Washington Post story today on the recession-enhanced health crisis in North Carolina features Greensboro:

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- It's right there on the wall, hectoring David Talbot as he races from one exam room to another.

"You want to see the recession? There it is," Talbot says, pointing to a row of multicolored graphs. "We began to spike in October 2008, and we're losing the battle now. We just can't keep up."

Recessions are tallied in numbers -- jobless claims, home foreclosures, plant closings and bailout dollars. Here at the HealthServe community clinic, Talbot, the medical director, tracks the recession in days -- the number of days that patients wait to see a doctor.

Just six months ago, the clinic delivered same-day care to most callers, the gold standard from a health perspective. But in October the delays crept to four days, then 19 in November and 25 in December. In January, HealthServe temporarily stopped accepting new patients, and almost immediately 380 people put their names on a waiting list for when the crunch eases.

In North Carolina, more than any other state, the recession has triggered a burgeoning medical crisis. A steep rise in unemployment has fueled a commensurate increase in the number of people who do not have health insurance, including many middle-income families.

Click here for the full story, which prominently features Greensboro's HealthServe clinic.

The Elon University Poll just put out its latest two-day cycle of data, and in their news release today played up this question:

I'm going to read you three statements, and, after I read all three, I'd like for you to tell me which statement comes closest to your position on this issue:

[(#1) I oppose any legal recognition for same sex couples,

(#2) I support civil unions or partnerships for same sex couples, but not full marriage rights, or

(#3) I support full marriage rights for same sex couples].

Whether or not to put a constitutional amendment on same sex marriage before the voters has been a topic before the General Assembly. The Elon Poll reported the following results on the question:

(#1) OPPOSE ANY LEGAL RECOGNITION FOR SAME SEX COUPLES 44.4

(#2) SUPPORT CIVIL UNIONS OR PARTNERSHIPS FOR SAME
SEX COUPLES, BUT NOT FULL RIGHTS 27.5

(#3) FULL MARRIAGE RIGHTS FOR SAME SEX COUPLES 20.8

OPPOSE ALL ASPECTS OF THE SAME SEX MARRIAGE (v) 1.5

OPPOSE SAME SEX MARRIAGE ON RELIGIOUS GROUNDS (v) 1.0

DON'T REALLY CARE ABOUT IT, DOESN T BOTHER ME (v) 1.7

DON'T KNOW (v) 2.8

REFUSED (v) .4

(My gut reaction is the "Don't really care" answer rate would be higher if it were offered as an initial response choice.)

The Elon Poll results seemingly conflicts with those gathered from a recent Civitas Poll. The Civitas Institute is a conservative think tank and has sent representatives to news conferences supporting a gay marriage ban. It asked about gay marriage this way:

North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast that does not have a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and woman. Do you support or oppose a constitutional amendment in North Carolina defining marriage as between one man and one woman?

Support 76%

Oppose 21%

Not Sure 4%

Refused >1%

For those who may be wondering, I'm told the more liberal-leaning PPP hasn't put out public numbers on the topic.

Elon also asked a roughly analogous question to Civitas - "Would you [support or oppose] an amendment to the North Carolina constitution that would prevent any same sex marriages?" - respondents remained split: with a little more than half opposing a constitutional amendment and about 40 percent supporting one. Civitas was up at 76 percent. So what gives?

Both polls seemingly did a good job get a broad spectrum of the population, although I think it's possible that the Civitas Poll's question 27 regarding political philosophy may reflect some over-sampling. (The party affiliation question, #30, is spot on with what I'd expect to see, though.)

Remember, Elon didn't preface its question with information about other states. It definitely seems like the wording of the question might have gotten in the way of replicable results here. Put crudely: The Civitas questions established a norm by referring to other states and there’s a pretty good body of research that shows poll respondents like to seem “normal” to those asking the question.

Elon also allowed people to express a middle path on both their questions. As with a lot of political issues, you have die-hards on either side and then folks who are willing to trod the middle road.

One of my favorite time-wasting/good-for-background-noise shows on cable is Mythbusters, mainly for the show's propensity to gratuitously blow stuff up.

Among the best tag lines from the show comes when the two hosts approach a damaged apparatus (usually one subjected to the aforementioned gratuitous explosion) and notes, "Well, there's your problem."

It's a slightly more succinct way to say, "Wow, there's no question why this won't work anymore and I really don't need to explain it because the evidence is right there in front of your face."

I had one of those moments this morning, although, sadly, it didn't involve an explosion.

The latest Elon Poll asked a question reported deep down in its data sheet:

"Would you say that campaign contributions to state lawmakers influence their legislative activities [a lot, some, not much, or not at all]?"

Now, I know what the response would be if you asked your average journalists. But these results come from a sample of folks roughly split on public financing of elections and who, as much as ever happens in a poll, seem to reflect the general population of the state:

NOT AT ALL 4.9

NOT MUCH 5.3

SOME 43.0

A LOT 40.9

DON T KNOW (v) 5.4

REFUSED (v) .4

Simply put: Well over 80 percent of those surveyed believe campaign contributions in some way, shape or form influence how state legislators go about making the laws of North Carolina.

I've written dozens of stories over the years about campaign donations and they inevitably contain some quote from a politician or their spokesman that says, "Well, sure, I get money from X industry, but they just must like where I stand." In fact, you can find just such a quote regarding donations on the federal level in the Charlotte Observer's story about tobacco industry donations to Richard Burr:

Burr spokesman Chris Walker says the campaign donations don't influence Burr's policy agenda.

"It's not something that comes into any equations here," Walker said. "It doesn't really affect what we're doing legislatively."

Let's be clear: this is a Republican/Democrat thing. You can write that same kind of story for just about any politician of any influence at the local, state or national level.

Even if it's true the policy position came first, even if it's true that a few thousand bucks isn't so much money in the grand scheme of fundraising, and even if it's true the money chased the policy position and not the other way around, the Elon Poll says 80 percent of the people don't believe you.

Well, there's your problem.

It does not matter if the campaign finance system is pure as the driven snow. The average citizen is unwilling to make the leap of logic to say; sure, you might get thousands of dollars from a particular interest but you, Mr. or Ms. Legislator, but it doesn’t influence your choices at all.

If you accept the poll results, there are a couple of relevant questions:

• * Is there a fix?
• * If so, what is it?

The same Elon Poll says folks are split on the idea of public financing for campaigns. The idea of putting tax dollars into campaigns with whose sentiments you might disagree sits poorly with a lot of folks.

So what's your solution? (Or should we take the results of the poll to mean that people believe money influences politics but they're okay with that?) The comment link is open for opining.

From our department of political trivia and artifacts:

Emily's list, a PAC that supports female Democratic candidates, has issued a poster as a fundraiser. Featured on the poster, which you can find at this link, are North Carolina Sen. Hagan and Gov. Bev Perdue.

There's a free version (8.5 by 11) or for $15 you can get a 12 x 18.

Hat tip: LWG

The N+O is reporting that one-time Greensboro Congressman and long-time tobacco lobbyist Horace Kornegay has died.

Did anyone out there know the man? He is a little bit before my time, ending his lobbying career before I was in high school.

Update: Congressman Howard Coble's office just confirmed the death.

Update: Click here for our early online news item.

Update: Kornegay apparently participated in an oral history project.

Update: Here's a picture from our archives:

The business-friendly think tank N.C. Free shut down last fall. Dome reported that here.

So I guess an e-mail that came in earlier this week shouldn't have surprised me:

ROCKINGHAM, N.C., Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- It was announced by Iron Horse Auction Company, Inc. that the assets of NC FREE (NC Forum for Research and Economic Education) are being offered via an online only, internet auction. The auction is being broadcast on Proxibid.com for the convenience of buyer's world wide.

For more than 25 years, the NC Forum for Research and Economic Education provided political analysis for North Carolina politicians. At one point, NC FREE was the leading provider for unbiased political education to America's leading industries. The organization was dissolved by its board of directors because its funding was ceased. Now, more than 250 lots of TV production and webcasting equipment and office furniture will be sold.

The assets are located at Iron Horse Auction Company Inc.'s Sales Facility at 174 Airport Road in Rockingham, NC. Buyer's can view these items January 19th and January 20th from 9:00 a.m. -- 4:00 p.m. The online auction will end Wednesday, January 21st at 3:00 p.m. EST.

I kept hearing that there was some hope to revive the thing, but this strikes me as rather final. Outside of the ideological questions the group encountered late in its run, seeing them go by the wayside is kind of a shame if only because their Almanac of North Carolina Politics (a compendium of stats and analysis written for state elections) tended to be useful.

For those looking for a good last minute deal on office furniture and LCD projectors, click here. The auction has been extended two days due to the snowy weather this week.

So while I've been wandering about D.C., there have been happenings at home.

Governor-elect Bev Perdue completed her cabinet Tuesday.

(By the way: thanks to my colleague Gerald Witt for picking up my slack on Perdue's Commerce and cultural resources appointments.)

The head-scratching pick of the day might be Lanier Cansler as HHS secretary. There's two ways to view this appointment:

The guy is a consultant knowledgeable about the health care, has served in the agency so knows the lay of the land and is a Republican to boot - giving Perdue some bipartisan cred. (Lanier is a former legislator and gave advice to state Sen. Fred Smith during the campaign, according to a March 17 story in the Asheville Citizen Times.)

Then again ...

The guy was a consultant in the knowledgeable about the health care field: Specifically, Dome reports he is a registered lobbyist for a company that has sold the state a Medicaid bill-paying system. (Perdue told reporters in the state that Cansler is detached from his private industry dealings.)

He has served in the agency so knows the lay of the land: Specifically, he was deputy secretary from 2001 to 2005, right about when the mental health system started its rock-sled ride to perdition. And fixing mental health will be one of the DHHS secretary's most high profile tasks.

He is a Republican - okay, that's not a potential failing, is it?

-=-=-=-=-=-=

Both the North Carolina Democratic Party and North Carolina Republican Party will be looking for new leadership in the new year.

In a statement, GOP Chairman Linda Daves:

"Serving as the Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party has been a great honor. The ability to serve the interests of the people of North Carolina has been one of the great privileges of my life. The best part of this job has been the ability to meet the many diverse people who make up the fabric of our state. I have spent many years working alongside dedicated, hardworking Republicans in North Carolina as a grassroots activist. It is these good people who make up the heart and soul of our party. Having the ability to see their commitment to making our state the best that it can be has given me renewed hope for our future each day.

There was also the small matter of the state GOP getting a butt-whoopin' last fall. A gain of one seat in the state senate is far outweighed by losing the state auditor's office, losing the state's presidential electors for the first time since 1976 and losing a senate seat held by a well-known incumbent.

One prominent North Carolina Republican told me this week "the party is in shambles," referring both to its national standing and its operations in state. Rebuilding it will fall to the next chairman.

There doesn't seem to be a line out the door for the job. State Sen. Fred Smith doesn't seem to be going hard at it.

Former Guilford County GOP Chairman Marcus Kindley has been stumping for the job. Four years ago, he drew a lot of support from rural areas of the state.

-=-=-=-=-=-=

On the Democratic side, many folks have seemingly expressed interest in the job - if not said they were running outright. The most widely known name being floated might be Jim Neal, who ran against Sen. Kay Hagan in the Democratic primaries. He wrote this in an e-mail Tuesday:

Many members of the State Executive Committee (NCDP SEC) have been urging me to run for Chair of the NCDP which Jerry is vacating. Some I got to know during the primary campaign; others I'm talking to for the first time. They've got my ear and I am considering in earnest.

Initially, I was approached over the summer about seeking the office at which time I passed. Six months later.....I'm willing to listen as my life has settled since the aftermath of the elections. I'm intrigued and have no doubt that I would be an effective representative and leader. The sheer cross-section of folks across the SEC who've been calling is telling and exciting. Whomever is elected as the next Chair will have to continue to build upon the impressive coalition of traditional and newer party activists whom Jerry did such an effective job of uniting during this past election cycle.

I have not declared my candidacy as such but I am seriously considering doing so. I simply have not made a decision as yet. I have not been in contact with legislative leaders; it is premature to do so and they've all got a lot on their plates at this time. I certainly will do so should I decide to run.

According to news reports: Luke Hyde, the 11th district Democratic chairman, is actively running for the job. There are at least three other names in the mix according to Dome.

Whoever inherits the State Party Chairman Jerry Meek's job will have the opposite problem of their Republican counterpart. Rather than rebuilding, they'll be at the reins of an organization that just won big - so the bar will be pretty high.

I put out the audio earlier, but click here for my Q+A with Gov. Easley. Commentary on the interview has come already from Doug Clark on our editorial page and James at BlueNC.

My other story this weekend is something all us scruffy media types tend to write a dozen times over: what's coming up next year during the General Assembly session. This year's story, no matter who has been writing it, pretty much focuses on the gap between what the state wants to pay for and the money it can raise.

Elsewhere in the big wide media world, the N+O's Rob Christensen demonstrates the perils of political prognostication, but goes ahead and forecasts for 2009 anyway.

Winston Salem's James Romoser explores the fact that only one NC inmate was sentenced to death in 2008.

Charlotte's Lew Powell offers his year in review, worth clicking on if only for the graphic.

And by way of confession, seeing this cover from Vanity Fair in the local Target prompted me to surf to the site for the first time in a while:

If you go, this profile of Tina Fey is worth reading, even if it was written by Maureen Dowd.

Now, as I've said to my oldest child this morning, go play outside - it looks like a nice day out.

For those searching for a relatively short macroeconomic explanation of what's going on in the economy right now, this Economics Bulletin by the UNC School of Government may help.

I don't know whether this forecast is overly rosy (keep in mind it was published before the latest round of economic manure hit the fan) but it does contain an interesting breakdown of how different parts of the state might be affected:

At this point there are two strong effects pushing the U.S. economy in opposite directions, and it is difficult to determine which effect will win out. On the one hand, the collapse of mortgage financing is causing the construction industry to contract. Most U.S. recessions begin in construction in general and in home building in particular. Slow construction spending leads to layoffs, which leads to lower spending in the rest of the economy. To the extent that this pattern holds, the unprecedented collapse in housing could be expected to lead to a very long, deep recession in the near future.

On the other hand, U.S. recessions historically hit their peak when manufacturing firms are forced to lay off workers. The falling dollar will increase demand for U.S. manufacturing goods abroad and make it more difficult for foreigners to compete here. This effect would tend to create a slowdown that is short and shallow, rather than a full-blown recession.

The most current data predict that the U.S. economy will experience something in between the two scenarios described above: a long, shallow recession. That is, unemployment will not rise to the highs that it did during the 1980s, but the slowdown could go on for eighteen months or more. This would mean that the U.S. economy would not start to recover until sometime in 2009 at the earliest. As a consequence, North Carolina governments will likely continue to experience revenues that fall short of trends. If the slowdown does last eighteen months, revenue would not begin to recover until 2009–2010.

The effects of the slowdown will likely be concentrated in service-heavy local economies, such as recreation and hospitality on the coast, technology in the Triangle, and financial services in Charlotte. Traditional manufacturing towns, as well as the Piedmont Triad, should be less affected by the slowdown. Indeed, some manufacturing-heavy towns could even see an upward trend. In addition, agricultural prices will likely continue to increase as the dollar falls and foreign demand increases, and towns heavily dependent on agriculture should weather this slowdown relatively well.

From today’s paper, a story on Walmart’s expanding political activity in North Carolina:

RALEIGH - Walmart may be the world's largest retailer, but until recently its footprint in North Carolina politics has been anything but big box.

That is changing as the company's federal political action committee expands its donations to candidates seeking state office, including $54,000 to state-level candidates during the current election cycle, which began in December 2006 and will continue through November.

Before 2004, the company's PAC gave no money to North Carolina legislative candidates.

"The point of being involved in the PAC process is to build relationships with these individuals, to help them understand what Walmart is doing to be a solution provider," said E.R. Anderson, a company spokeswoman who returned phone calls placed to the PAC's treasurer.

Anderson said that there was no single factor that prompted the company to take an interest in North Carolina or other states' political scenes. Rather she listed transportation, health care and environmental regulation as issues about which the company is concerned.

Click here to read the whole thing.

The John Edwards affair story has been the stuff of speculation for weeks:

My boss weighed in...

...as did the barkeep and my friends at McClatchy. And so did the folks at Blue NC and Cone..

Now there is some there there as the candidate speaks. From our friends at the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is admitting to an extramarital affair but denies fathering the woman's daughter.

Edwards tells ABC News that he lied repeatedly about the affair with a 42-year-old woman but says that he didn't love her. He says he has not taken a paternity test but knows he isn't the father because of the timing of the affair and the birth.

ABC says a former Edwards campaign staffer claims he is the father, not Edwards.

Edwards was a top contender for the Democratic nomination for president. He placed second in the Iowa caucuses last January but dropped out of the race a few weeks later.

Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004.

Here's ABC's early take.

This is ugly all the way around:

• * Ugly for the family. You don’t need me to explain that.
• * Ugly for Edwards’ career and rep. He goes from being kind of an interesting, different sort of national figure to just another pol who couldn’t keep it in his pants.
• * Ugly for the news business. The National Enquirer is not a legit newspaper by any stretch of the imagination, but everyone once in a while that blind pig finds an acorn.
• * Ugly for the news business part II. As if it weren’t bad enough to have to follow an Enquirer story, we now get treated to whole news cycles full of material that will push the puerile interest test. Ah, shucks, it’s not like there’s a national election to cover or anything.
• * Ugly for the electorate. Once again, they’ve been lied to. Not good for one’s faith in politicians.

Ugly, ugly, ugly.

Update: Edwards has issued an official me culpa, via the AP:

In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public. When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99 percent honest is no longer enough.

I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices, and I had hoped that it would never become public. With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006 and today I take full responsibility publicly. But that misconduct took place for a short period in 2006. It ended then. I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established. I only know that the apparent father has said publicly that he is the father of the baby. I also have not been engaged in any activity of any description that requested, agreed to or supported payments of any kind to the woman or to the apparent father of the baby.

It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry. In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up - feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help.

I have given a complete interview on this matter and having done so, will have nothing more to say.

The North Carolina Association of Realtors sent out this press release today, which reads in part:

The North Carolina Association of Realtors®, with more than 43,000 members statewide, has made a $10 million commitment to continue its statewide efforts to protect private property rights and housing affordability.

The Association’s 160-member board of directors today approved a longterm plan to direct association dollars into a special advocacy fund designed to educate the public on key issues. An immediate infusion of $2 million will be made, and monies from future budgets also will be directed into the fund.

[snip]

The NC Association of Realtors® has been a leader in educating the public about state and local government efforts to impose a real estate transfer tax, also known as the home tax. Since November 2007, 19 counties have overwhelmingly voted against a tax on homeownership. In one county - Gates - voters have said no in two separate elections.

Translation: We're happy no local government has passed this thing but would much rather it not be an option and we're willing to spend a lot of money to make your constituents think you're a bad, bad, bad person if you don't vote to repeal.

Update: On a related note, our friends at the Associated Press just moved this little nugget:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ The Senate Finance Committee wants to repeal a local tax option that has been shot down by voters in every county where it was considered.

The committee recommended Wednesday to expunge a law approved last year that allows counties to triple land transfer taxes if approved by local voters.

Since last fall, 19 counties have asked voters to approve the tax hike. None was successful. Democratic Sen. David Hoyle of Gaston County told the committee that county commissioners shouldn't have the option to include the request on the ballot. He said voters have already shown they're not interested.

The bill now goes to the full Senate.

Democratic leaders in the House don't seem interested in repealing the law. They rejected efforts to discuss the issue during last week's state budget bill debate.

Charlotte's Jim Morrill reports that Ada Fisher won the race for GOP National Committeewoman over Mary Frances Forrester.

That's pretty darned interesting, since Forrester was the odd-on favorite by most of the big-wig Republicans I talked with last week. Jim's brief indicates that Fisher's candidacy was something of a surprise, and it sure wasn't who the party leadership was counting on.

Fisher twice took on the unenviable task of trying to unseat Democrat Mel Watt from the 12th Congressional District, so probably won some love among the rank and file that way.

She is running this year for running for state House seat against Lorene Coates.

Guilford County Commissioner Linda Shaw is getting ready to step away from her post as Republican National Committeewoman.

Her replacement will be elected at the North Carolina Republican state convention in Greensboro this weekend. At the same time, the party is expected to confirm Rep. David Lewis as Republican National Committeeman.

Republicans I've spoken with this week say they only know of one candidate, Mary Frances Forrester, who is running to replace Shaw. Other nominations could arise from the floor, but Shaw and other leaders say Forrester is likely to get the nod.

Forrester is the wife of Sen. Jim Forrester, but has been a party insider in her own right. She is a former chairwoman of the Gaston County Republican Party, has been a delegate to the national convention and has served in roles such as parliamentarian and bylaws chairman for various GOP organs.

She attracted some less than welcome attention from the gay press when she penned this piece for the N.C. Christian Action League website.

My fellow Christians, make no mistake. It is under the guise of tolerance that the homosexual agenda is seeking to change the course of Western Civilization, redefine the family and rob our children of their innocence.

Reaction came here, here, here, and here, among other places.

My guess is that it's unlikely the furor surrounding her piece probably won't be much of a roadblock to winning the committeewoman seat.

Following up on an earlier post about a web service (iwanttovote.com) that offers to help you register to vote for $9.95 and change. State Elections Director Gary Bartlett is pretty clear in his thinking:

"Personally, I believe this scheme to be a consumer rip-off and would like to stop it," said Gary Bartlett, director of the State Board of Elections.

More from a story in today's paper.

The N.C. NAACP has intervene in the lawsuit filed earlier this year that challenges legislative districts across North Carolina.

"The lawsuit has racist implications," said the Rev. William Barber, who heads the N.C. NAACP.

Will have video in a moment.

Update: Barber called the lawsuit "mysterious," saying that while Bob Hunter, the Greensboro lawyer who filed it, is a well-known Republican activist little is known about the plaintiffs.

Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro Democrat, also spoke in her capacity as chair of the N.C. Legislative Black Caucus. She said that 19 legislators across the state, all Democrats and most African American, would be affected by the lawsuit.

Update: My video upload is taking forever, so Click here for the full audio from the NAACP presser.

Sen. Larry Shaw, is a Democrat from Cumberland County who serves in the North Carolina Senate. But folks up in Washington, D.C. report that he was making the rounds up there last week.

The word was, Shaw was shopping his ideas on how to get the United States out of Iraq to members of Congress and the U.S. State Department. He confirmed that Monday afternoon.

My first question to him was how it fell into the purview of a state senator to shop a plan involving international diplomacy, the military and such.

"As you well know, this whole Iraq issue has got the country in a quagmire. We're hurting because of this. We're hurting in so many way. Our military is broken down ... We couldn't fight another war for 90 days if our lives depended on it. So it involves all of us.

The administration, he said, had been given a "blank check" by Congress to wage a war that doesn't seem to be getting better.

"Shouldn't I be concerned about this? Should we all be concerned about this to some degree" he asked.

Shaw has put his ideas to paper and describes it as an exit strategy. A source up in D.C. sends the following along:

• *A letter from Shaw to the State Department outlining his thoughts.
• * A shorter letter to Sens. Dole and Burr.
• * This is a letter to Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice.

From some of the traffic, it looks like Shaw pitched himself as a potential "Middle East Special Envoy." It also looks like at least Congressman's office refused to recommend him for that post.

When I asked Shaw to outline his plan, he said it would involve getting the countries of the OIC, Organization of the Islamic Conference to join as "coalition partners" with the United States. The group is made up of 57 countries whose stated aim is to " pool their resources together, combine their efforts and speak with one voice to safeguard the interest and ensure the progress and well-being of their peoples and those of other Muslims in the world over."

Shaw said that the U.S. should " train them, equip them, to give them everything our guys got," so that they could take a leading role in securing Iraq. When I asked if the OIC might take over for the United States, Shaw said no.

"I wouldn't say take over," he said. "I would say be a coalition partner. They're not in a position to take over anything. But they can work to be our partner and help us out of this."

Shaw said he traveled to D.C. as a private citizen, not as a state Senator nor as a board member of Council on American-Islamic Relations. (He's a CAIR board member.)

Since he's not from the Triad, local readers may not know Shaw, a Fayetteville (that's in Cumberland County) Democrat, has served six terms in the Senate and one in the House. He is one of the few Muslim elected officials serving in the state or federal legislatures.

It's been a while since I've updated my blog list. Making an appearance today is The Soup, an anonymous Raleigh-based blog that weighs in on state government and politics.

Its latest post aims some snarkiness at researcher and one-man-wrecking-crew Joe Sinsheimer. Go check 'em out.

The battle over the transfer tax did not end with the close of the legislative session. In fact, for some folks, it is just getting started.

The tax, as you might recall, would allow counties to impose up to a 0.4 percent tax on the transfer for real estate - over and above the 0.2 percent they charge now.

My colleague Nate DeGraff detailed the Guilford County commissioners resistance to the idea, but that didn't stop a letter writer today from speaking out:

If voters approve the transfer tax, it would increase the seller's tax over the current deed stamp revenues by 0.4 percentage points, or from 0.2 percent to 0.6 percent. It could be really chaotic if some counties approve the transfer tax and some don't.

The realtors' effort to kill the transfer tax at the state level was well funded and organized. There's no reason to think efforts at the local and regional level won't be just as earnest. And in fact, a "thank you" message on their site reads:

So we need your help again. It's now time for all of us to stand up to the politicians in our local communities who want to tax our homes and send a message that this home tax is a bad idea. Stay tuned to our web site, as we continue to spread the word across the state--- and in your back yard---to stop the Home Tax!

The fight isn't over, the battle is just shifting to the counties. My guess is that you're going to see this thing replayed in miniature (or not so miniature, depending on the size of your county) a few dozen times over during the next year, particularly when counties begin construction of their budgets in early Spring.

Fascinating stuff, from this Slate piece:

The idea behind political prediction markets is simple. Lots of people wager on the outcome of political campaigns: Who's going to be the Democratic presidential nominee? Will the Republicans take back the House? And when the votes are counted, the winning bettors collect. The thrill of prediction markets for political junkies is that they harness "the wisdom of crowds." A single person's bet on an election outcome isn't very good, but thousands of bets, with real stakes, are more likely to predict the correct result than even the best pundit.

Anyone want to get in on the ground floor of some Bloomberg for President shares?

Click here for the story from Sunday's paper.

-=-=-=-=-=-=

Previous posts on this Saturday's GOP convention are here, here and here.

-=-=-=-=-=-=

From the working lede of my newspaper story on Saturday's GOP convention:

RALEIGH - The plain-spoken and sometimes controversial former chairman of the Guilford County Republican party lost his bid to head the state GOP Saturday afternoon.

Marcus Kindley took roughly 35 percent of the votes cast during the Republican's biannual convention in Charlotte. Coming out on top was Linda Daves, a Mecklenburg County woman who has served as state party chairman since December.

Kindley polled competitively in the state's rural counties. But Daves was overwhelmingly the choice of the large urban delegations from Mecklenburg, Forsyth and Wake Counties.

Guilford County's delegation split its votes, 43-30 in favor of Kindley, a result that sent murmurs throughout the room when it was announced.

"In Guilford County, there's been people who didn't like my style, basically it's been a lot of women in the women's group and they came today and voted for Linda (Daves). I found the women tend to vote for other women and that's okay," Kindley said.

-=-=-=-=-=-=

Click here for Marcus' full explanation of how the votes went down.

And click here to listen to him talk about what's next.

-=-=-=-=-=-=

In her acceptance speech, Daves reached out to Kindley supporters, saying it was okay that the vote was split. The audio isn't quite as good, but click here to listen to Daves accept her new job.

-=-=-=-=-=-=

As the afternoon session was kicking into gear this afternoon, party officials were trying to make sure that everyone who was supposed to vote could vote. So they played a music video that basically talked up the involvement of religion in public life.

"There is no separation - we're one nation under him," went one lyric that I jotted down.

The song got a big round of applause at its end.

-=-=-=-=-=-=

For those of you into numbers, Guilford County's 74 delegates represented 8.4 percent of those in the room. Mecklenburg's 113 represented 12.9 percent of the room.

-=-=-=-=-=-=

Are Dems more Internet savvy than the GOP? A Washington Post story addresses that question:

But implicit in his cheerleading was the acknowledgment that there is a widening gap between Democrats and Republicans on the Internet, and that his party will have to scramble to catch up. "For the most part Republicans are stuck in Internet circa 2000," he said in an interview.

Click here for the full story.

Update: I should note, the story focuses on presidential web presence, but I think it has more general application.

Before getting to some thoughts on North Carolina, I'll address a most, um, perplexing quote . . . right after the jump.

From the State Treasurer Richard Moore's campaign

State Treasurer Richard Moore will announce his candidacy for governor, Tuesday, May 22, at a rally in his hometown of Oxford, NC. The rally, which is being held at Moore's alma mater, J. F. Webb High School, will start at 5 p.m.

The campaign website is a bit sparse right at the moment.

One more thing:

Mentioned in this post is a letter from Torlen Wade, a DHHS official, to Rep. Wright that says the state will fork over $150,000 for the purchase and renovation of a building in Raleigh.

According to testimony before the SBOE, there never was any such money nor was any such money requested from the state or appropriated in the budget.

Click here to read the letter.

One more tidbit from the SBOE hearing on Thomas Wright:

Sitting in the audience were a hand full of nurse anesthetists, basically nurses who put you to sleep for operations.

That group has been fighting a running battle in the legislature with anesthesiologists over the past few years. The doctors want to create a new class of paraprofessionals that would do the same thing as the nurses do.

The nurses' names first arose during investigations into former House Speaker Jim Black.

But this issue in controversy was before Wright's committee and, according to testimony Tuesday, they threw a fundraiser for him in 2005.

The state board closed its hearing before hearing from the nurses who apparently had showed up to testified.

Michael Crowell is an attorney for the nurses and I asked him what was up.

"They would have testified if they were asked to," he said.

Apparently, the nurses would have testified about contributions they made to Wright that either were not reported or were reported late.

"My impression is that Rep. Wright's problems are of a nature that is a lot larger and different than the nurse anesthetists know about," Crowell said. "They are among the witness to an accident, they aren't the ones who were closest or saw the most."

What it comes down to, apparently, is the nurses could add specifics to the pattern that the state board established.

There appears to be one more subpoena issued for tomorrow's hearings into the campaign accounts of Reps. Thomas Wright and Mary McAllister.

Torlen Wade is listed as the Director of the Office of Rural Health and Community Care on his subpoena. That's a division in DHHS for those keeping score at home. As described on various websites, it has some responsibility for issuing health care-related grants.

He also served as a member of the Public Health Taskforce with Wright, in 2006.

Previously.

The ladies and gents over at the Civitas Institute have thrown themselves a little poll. And while I don't reject numbers from ideological organizations out of hand, their latest release is a lesson in why we're cautious of such things.

The bullet from their news release:

An overwhelming 70 percent of North Carolina voters disapprove of temporary taxes, according to the Civitas Institute's May DecisionMaker Poll. These responses reveal that, given the $1.1 billion state budget surplus, voters believe the temporary taxes are unnecessary.

Really? Since 70 percent of North carolinians can't agree on what constitutes barbecue, that's a pretty strong result.

And actually, the polling methodology - who they called and how - is pretty strong. But then look at the questions.

"Even though North Carolina will have a $1.1 billion budget surplus this year, the state House has continued $300 million in temporary taxes in order to increase spending over the $1.1 billion surplus. Do you approve or disapprove of this action?"

1. Approve ------------13%
2. Disapprove----------70%
3. Not Sure-------------17%

I'm not going to say that question is loaded, but would you mind pointing it away from me and flipping on the safety.

From the good folks at the Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The federal judge scheduled to sentence former House Speaker Jim Black later this month should recuse himself, Black's attorney said Thursday, citing the judge's history in a legislative redistricting case.

Click here to read the full order.

More from the AP:

Ken Bell, Black's lawyer, said U.S. District Court Judge James C. Dever III, while still an attorney in private practice, sued Black and other state officials on behalf of state Republican leaders and a GOP voter earlier this decade. The lawsuit challenged the maps approved by the General Assembly for its own House and Senate districts.

Dever's clients won the redistricting case at the state Supreme Court, forcing Black and other lawmakers to redraw the districts. If Dever sentences Black on May 18, Bell wrote, "it will appear to the public that Judge Dever will indeed have had the last word on the redistricting battle engaged in during his private practice."

In date order:

• Court documents say that former lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings is due to be sentenced on Monday.

• The Associated Press reports:

  RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ The State Board of Elections will meet May 15 to hold an investigative hearing into the campaign finances of Rep. Thomas Wright, an elections official said Tuesday, marking a new phase of the probe into donations Wright has received.

  The public meeting, which could last up to three days, will come five months after a former Democratic consultant lodged a formal complaint against Wright, D-New Hanover, alleging he broke elections law by delaying disclosure of $41,000 in campaign donations.

  Gary Bartlett, the state elections director, declined to discuss what evidence had been uncovered but said the hearing was called for by board chairman Larry Leake. In March, Bartlett said board investigators believed there was a "possibility of criminal violations" of the campaign reporting law.

  Word has it that Rep. Mary McAlliste, D-Cumberland, will also come before the board during those hearings.

• Meanwhile, Dome reports that former Speaker Jim Black will be sentenced on May 18.

Democracy NC says you're not voting (pdf):

A new "Civic Participation Index for North Carolina" shows that only two out of five adults [40.8 percent] bother to vote in the typical state election.

The Index says that young North Carolinians age 18 to 25 are half as likely to vote as their grandparents - and more likely to engage in binge drinking than participate in elections.

Pretty much any elections director will tell you the same thing.

The release appears to be sent out in support of the same day voter registration bill.

Jay Ovittore says the Young Dems are coming to Greensboro for their convention on March 24. Click over to his joint for the details.

Those pollsters at Elon U are at it again. From their latest release:

As President George W. Bush urges for an increase in troops in Iraq, a recent Elon University Poll shows that 57 percent of those surveyed disapprove of the push. The War in Iraq is the most important issue to 45 percent of those surveyed, a significant increase from less than a year ago when only 26 percent of respondents listed the war as the most important issue. The poll shows 64 percent of respondents in a five state area disapprove of Bush’s handling Iraq versus a 31 percent approval. In addition, the majority of respondents trust the Democrats in Congress to do a better job handling the situation in Iraq than Bush.

• Click here for the news release.
• Click here for the data.
• Click here to read more about the Elon Poll.

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.

Update: Click here for Sunday's story.

Linda Daves and Charlotte will head up the North Carolina Republican Party for the next six months. She was elected by the party’s Executive Committee during a meeting in Greensboro Saturday.

For local folks, this of course means that Marcus Kindley, who heads the Guilford County GOP, didn’t get the job. (Nor did State Sen. Andrew Brock.)

Kindley said after the meeting that he wasn’t planning on running for county chairman next year. He has held the post since 2001. Six years is seen as a pretty long tenure for a county party chairman, at least around Guilford County.

When asked to be clear, would he run or would he not, Kindley said this (after the jump):

Republican leaders meeting in Greensboro today selected Linda Daves of Charlotte as their chairman, replacing Ferrell Blount, who resigned on Election Day.

Hometown boy Marcus Kindley says he will likely run for the post again in the Spring.

More to come.

My friends and neighbors at the Charlotte Observer are reporting that North Carolina’s two U.S. Senators asked for a postponement in the selection of a new state chairman.

The short version: they didn’t get it. So I’m sure the festivities this Saturday will be oh, so not awkward in the least.

Update:By the way, the GOP Executive Committee has moved their meeting from Charlotte to Greensboro. It will be at the Koury Center at 1 p.m.

Kindley sounded none-to-happy about Dole and Burr getting involved.

"There's not even words to say how disappointed I was in those two," Kindley said.

Previously and even more previously.

Sen. Andrew Broch has entered the race for N.C. Republican state party chairman.

He joins Guilford County Republican Party Chairman Marcus Kindley and Linda Daves, who hails from Charlotte and has been the state party’s vice chair. (Click here for previous coverage of those two.)

In a news release sent Thursday afternoon, Brock writes:

It was a tough year for Republicans, and great frustration exists in our ranks because even with the Democrat corruption scandal looming, we managed to lose - not gain - seats in the state legislature and were outspent by the Democrats 3:1.

In recent days, I have been encouraged by many conservative activists to consider running for North Carolina Republican Party Chairman. It has become apparent that business as usual at our state party isn’t working, and that more of the same is not what our party needs.

Republicans must be proactive and make the positive changes we must have in order to become the majority party in our state. We need a change of direction, and simply cannot have more of the same at our party headquarters. As a campaign consultant by trade, as well as serving as the Republican Senate Deputy Whip, I believe it is time to apply professional expertise to improve and upgrade party operations to an entirely new level -- the level we deserve.

We must have improved fundraising, outreach to the business community, upgraded candidate recruitment efforts, and a pro-active communications strategy to keep the Democrats on their heels. For these reasons, and with the importance of re-districting right around the corner, I have decided to run for Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party and will not rest until we are the majority party in our great state!

Broch is circulating a letter from former U.S. Senator Lauch Faircloth.

So who else is going to pile in here before Dec. 2?

I caught up with Marcus this morning. He confirmed that he took his blog down. Click here for prior post.

"When I'm successful for this office, any comments that I have will come from that office," Kindley said.

He continued: "I didn't think it was good to have a personal blog out there … I didn’t want anyone to mistake what I had to say in a personal blog for the official position of the party."

Kindley said he was also worried about being quoted out of context.

Update: Until I was going through an old file, I had forgotten about Kindley's old political action committee.

Marcus Kindley, now chairman of the Guilford County Republican party, is running to replace Ferrell Blount as state party chairman.

Blount resigned earlier this week, saying he wants to run for another office.

• Click here to read Kindley’s news release.
• Click here to read Kindley’s blog, “The Chairman’s Corner.”

There is at least one other candidate in the race. Linda Daves of Charlotte, a vice chair under Blount and the interim chairman now, says she is seeking the job. Daves headed up the Republicans “Victory 2006” organization this year.

The party’s state executive committee will choose the new chairman Dec. 2 in Charlotte.

Update: When I wrote this post at 4:28 p.m., "The Chairman’s Corner" was up and running at the link above. However, when Roch checked in to the comments below at 11:04 p.m., it was gone. But for better or worse, the Google cashe remembers all.

Update 2: Click here to read Saturday's newspaper story on this.

Update 3: Since there seemed to be discussion at Ed’s and Sue’s I decided to do a couple things.
First, I looked up Marcus’ blogger profile, which no longer lists “The Chairman’s Corner” but does list a newish one called Romans 8 Prayer Warriors.
Second, I put in a call to Marcus to ask whether he took it down or whether something else happened. I’ll report back here when he gets back to me.

From our friends at the Associated Press, who are keeping busy this election evening:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — State Republican Party chairman Ferrell Blount will step down from his post after Election Day, saying he's considering a future run for elected office.

The party released a letter Tuesday evening from Blount, a Pitt County farmer who became chairman in August 2003, saying that he would offer his resignation to party officials Thursday.

So, we reported recently that the President was coming to town this month. But we haven’t written much about it since then.

So I’ve gotten a few questions like “is he really coming?”

Officially, the White House won’t acknowledge the President is headed to North Carolina anytime in the near future. They only do his public scheduled for a week in advance.

But I can tell you I’ve talked to more than a few local Republicans who have $1,000 dinner tickets for Oct. 17, and they’re not paying to stare at one another.

The President is scheduled to come to Greensboro next month. Some linkage:

• The Whitehouse won't confirm the event.
  
• Marcus Kindley, the Guilford County GOP chairman, is concerned about the effect on local fund raising.
  
• Hat tip to Ed Cone, who has quite the discussion going on over at his joint...something about giving the President a hug or what not.
  
• According to those in the know, the fund raiser in question is to be hosted at the home of New Breed founder Louis DeJoy and his wife, Ambassador Wos.

The outstanding question at this point: what else will the President be doing in our little berg? Sure, rubbing elbows with folks who will shell out big bucks to your party is fun, but I would bet this trip is combined with some policy announcement or speech locally.

In case you missed it: John William Pope, 81, died this weekend.

From today’s News & Record:

• I chatted with Browns Summit farmer and Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler.
  
• Lanita Withers talks to Matt Hill Comer about his ambitions for a creating a political action committee.
  
• My colleague Eric Townsend spent at least part of his Saturday talking to folks about the pending minimum wage hike. For those who need it, click here for background.

Around the state, here’s what some other papers and bloggers were up to:

• Reporters? Cynical? Sat it ain't so, Scott! Ok, it really is so, and you should read his column as to why.
• NC Policy Watch’s Christ Fitzsimon writes So much for all the talk about the integrity of the budget process. The Insider reports in its Friday edition that the final budget agreement includes a special provision pushed by Governor Mike Easley that allows car racing teams to receive a sales tax rebate for car parts bought in North Carolina. But you might have know something about that already.
• Diane Davis is disappointed at the death of the landfill moratorium.
• Oooo…$10 lottery tickets.(Reg. could be required) Nope, I still don’t get the appeal of the whole scratch-off thing, but that’s okay.
• Charlotte’s Jack Betts writes about ethics efforts in the legislature and why the public just might be skeptical about the whole lot of ‘em.(Reg. req.)

The state Democratic Convention is coming to High Point this weekend.

Click here for the schedule and more info.

It’s always a good day when I get to upload something other than politicians blithering away (oh, they say worse about me, don’t worry).

Click here to listen to what Joey Cheek had to say at a morning press conference before the state Senate and House got to honoring him.

I’ve never heard him talk before, but from what I’ve read of our prior coverage, this is pretty much vintage Cheek: a little funny, a bit self deprecating, using his limelight to draw attention to a cause he cares about.

The most interesting thing from the presser:

“I genuinely feel that I have a much improved world view because of my travels,” Cheek said. Although he wasn’t sure what form it would take, Cheek said that he hoped his next charitable endeavor might be helping folks from North Carolina who wouldn’t have had a chance to travel to go abroad.

Listen to the whole thing.

Oh, and today is Cheek’s 27th birthday.

More:

• Click here to read the resolution that honors Cheek.
• Funny moment, they began reading in the Cheek resolution without having Cheek in the Senate chamber.
• Oh, dear goodness, the Senate just sang happy birthday to Cheek.
• Cheek is in the House now. And we've just heard the over-enthusiastic statement of the day, from Rep. Laura Wiley, a High Point Republican, “We have proven the ice is hot in North Carolina.”
• Best line of the day, from Cheek himself, recognizing that an awful lot of time was being spent on him down here in Cap City: "I would like to appologize to the tax payers. I don't know how much I've cost them in shutting down the government today."

Now, if you really want, you can click here to listen to the HOUSE honor Cheek or you could click here to listen to the SENATE honor Cheek. I included audio of the clerk reading the resolution in the Senate audio, but not in the House - I figured once was enough.

The folks here in Cap City are all a tizzy over some hockey thing... perhaps you heard something about a cup and a fellow named Stanley?

• Gov. Mike Easley proclaimed today as Carolina Hurricanes Day.

• The General Assembly fell over itself inviting the team down to address the General Assembly (probably Wednesday). Update: There will be a joint GA session Wednesday.

Good...maybe those hockey boys can help the honorables wrap up the budget, hip checking pork and what not.

Of course, there are some enthusiastic hockey fans in Greensboro who would like to see some news on an other hockey front. (The hurricanes played in Greensboro for two years while their spiffy new arena in Raleigh was under construction.)

Our friends at the Associated Press report that U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick is not running for governor in 2008. From the AP:

The announcement by Myrick, who had the highest name recognition of any potential GOP candidate, creates a wide-open race for the party's nomination. The governor's office will be open in 2008, with incumbent Democrat Mike Easley barred by the state constitution from seeking a third term.

Myrick, 64, who faces Democrat Bill Glass in her bid this year for a seventh term in Congress, said she issued the statement to quell rumors of a gubernatorial run.

"My focus is on my current job and I want to end the speculation to the contrary," said Myrick, a former Charlotte mayor.

Unlike the Democrats who have three presumptive front runners – Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, AG Roy Cooper and State Treasurer Richard Moore – the gubernatorial picture is hazier for the GOP. Myrick was the Republicans’ best known potential candidate.

Myrick’s departure from the race may catapult Bill Graham to the front of the pack. Graham’s a name known among pundits and reporters as the driving force behind the public stop the gas tax campaign. The couple times I’ve heard him speak, he’s been coy about his gubernatorial ambitions. And with action pending to cap the gas tax this year, the issue may not have currency into 2007 and 2008.

Sen. Fred Smith has been mentioned as a potential candidate, but like Graham may lack a bit in the name recognition department, at least statewide.

Patrick Ballantine, who ran against Easley in 2004, doesn’t have his name mentioned by pundits as much as one might think. That may be due to getting beat pretty handily in a year when a presidential candidate from his own party (Bush) lead the ticket and won the state.

So who else is out there?

Now let’s see here...North Carolina governors over the past couple decade have tended to lean to the political center - or at least pragmatic - over the past couple of decades, whether they be Democrats or Republicans. They need to have and be able to raise a fair amount of campaign cash. Their names, for better or worse, need to be fairly well known. And some experience in the legislature graduate school of hard knocks doesn’t hurt either.

Anyone know a GOP pol who fits that bill who will have time on their hands in a few months?

I do, but the guy I’m thinking of would drive the more conservative, Art Pope-lead wing of his party nuts.

Richard Morgan.

You heard me.

Yes, I know he’s been in a running fight with fellow members of the GOP over his power-sharing arrangement with House Democrats. And yes, he just lost a costly primary campaign. And yes, I know that you usually need to win the activist wing of the party to win a statewide primary.

But still, the possibility was intriguing enough for me to give Morgan a call.

“There have been others that discussed that possibility with me, but my foremost concern has been the institution of the House,” Morgan said. “I don’t know what the future holds.”

Morgan continued that after his primary loss this month, he hasn’t had time to consider his political future.

“I haven’t been in the frame of mind to think about that.”

I take him at his word. Frankly, he sounded kind of tired on the phone. But I’m betting that come October or November, those “others” who have broached the topic with him are going to broach it again.

You'd be pretty naive to think that this sort of thing doesn't go on in governments at all levels. But people who do such things usually have enough sense to keep it to themselves. (Via Wonkette)

Greensboro has its own version of the pro-immigration rallies going on right now at the government plaza downtown. (Other activity on this front went down in Raleigh and elsewhere today.)

I was in town today and stopped to check it out, although I'd be hard pressed to report on what most of the speakers were saying…my Spanish is very poor.

But it looked to me like somewhere north of 1,000 folks turned up as of 4:45 p.m. A lot of them were holding placards and American flags. There were only two foreign flags in the crowd that I could see, both of them Mexican flags.

The Greensboro police were well in evidence, but didn’t seem to be terribly intrusive. I counted somewhere around 20 officers in uniform, including a trio on bicycle patrol and at least a couple guys on the roof-top of the Old County Courthouse.

All and all, there was music, there was cheering, it looked like a good time was being had by those in attendance when I left, right before 5 p.m.

My colleague Amy Dominello is compiling tomorrow’s report for the paper.

Oh, and I saw Ed Cone out there, so I expect he'll have a report too.

You remember how AG Roy Cooper decided to sue the TVA over air pollution?

The joke at the time was this sort of law suit ate up some much paper that it was environmentally unfriendly itself.

Turns out, it isn’t cheap either.

The Council of State next week will consider shelling out $326,078.81 for legal fees, in addition to $158,258.94 already spent on the case.

Of course, there is an argument to be made that if North Carolina wins the case, it could be a boon to the economy and well worth the investment.

From the Lt. Gov's office:

Raleigh: Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue is the featured speaker for the Greensboro Rotary on Wednesday, May 3rd at 12:30pm at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center.

The Lt. Governor will speak about education and economic development.

If you're dying to ask a question but can't think of a good one, ask her what she did while Gov. Mike Easley was out of the country (looking at biotech efforts in Europe) this past week.

According to the state constitution (tip of the hat to Barry Smith at Freedom newspapers for pointing this out to me) whenever the governor is out of state, the Lt. Governor is considered the Acting Governor...which means she could have issued all sorts of whacky proclamations if she wanted to.

Sadly, it seems like she didn't take advantage of the opportunity.

For my money, the answer to the headline's question just might be state auditor.

Why?

You not only get a cool office in downtown Raleigh staffed by investigators of various sorts, but you can poke around in just about any part of state government you really want to.

And hey, if you're a Republican, say, and most of the other statewide elected officials are Democrats, then you just might take the opportunity to tweak your colleagues every now and then.

To wit:

• Click here for links to the Auditor's latest report, detailing how a computer in the treasurer's office was used for campaign purposes.
• And Click here for the auditor's statement on that report. (PDF)

Now, it's definitely improper for anyone in state government to be conducting political business on a taxpayer computer.

But is it me, or does these lines from the release not sound like they're aimed at the former deputy in question?

“We fully understand that in an elected office there will be some points of contact, some minimal contact between an office or agency and the political process. While it may be difficult for elected officials to completely isolate politics from the work environment, public officials should make strong efforts to do so,” said Merritt.

Merritt recommends that agencies develop proper policies to ensure taxpayer dollars are used for taxpayer purposes.

“Taxpayers need their dollars (whether state vehicles, computers, supplies or salaries) to work for them and for them alone.” Merritt said.

Maybe it's just me.

You always know you're in for a good time when a Republican starts quoting John F. Kennedy or Franklin Roosevelt; ditto when Democrats start quoting Teddy Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan. There's nothing better for some political types than to use quotes from an icon of the other guy's party to support your position.

To wit: North Carolina GOP Chairman Ferrell Blount's "open letter" (read: sent to media outlets) to Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek. (Link is to a PDF file.)

It starts off:

Forty five years ago this month John F. Kennedy in a message to Congress stated, “The basis of effective government is public confidence, and that confidence is endangered when ethical standards falter or appear to falter.”

Hmmm...where could he be going? But wait, more Kennedy quotes:

In the same message to Congress President Kennedy stated, “The ultimate answer to ethical problems in government is honest people in a good ethical environment. No web of statute or regulation, however intricately conceived, can hope to deal with the myriad possible challenges to a man's integrity or his devotion to the public interest.”

But what could he want? You don't suppose this is about Jim Black do you?

Now I am asking you, a fellow state chairman and North Carolinian, to take the courageous step of asking a member of your own party, Jim Black, to resign. I know that this issue has not been easy for your and your silence on the issue evidences the conflict I imagine you must feel.

Yup.

I leave you with a quote from one other Democrat President, Woodrow Wilson. He said, “I love the Democrat Party; but I love America a great deal more . . . . When the Democrat Party thinks that it is an end in itself, then I rise up and dissent.”

Bonus icon quote from Woodrow Wilson! That's going pretty deep on the rhetorical bench. I was SO expecting him to lay down some Lyndon Johnson.

In case you missed the link above, click here to read Blount's whole letter, without my smart-alec remarks.

When Meek's response comes my way, I'll post it.

Day 2 of the the State Board of Elections hearings concerning Speaker Jim Black’s fund raising just got fun.

We’re hearing testimony that allies of Black were asked to donate to former High Point Rep. Steve Wood because Wood, in 2003, was going to support Black for Speaker that year. Wood, according to the testimony so far, backed out of that deal and the checks were never cashed.

And yes, Wood is in the house, apparently waiting to testify as of 3 p.m.

More to come later, but I have to pay attention now.

I'm not usually one for press releases, but this one from Rep. Howard Coble's office just begs to be shared.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.)----The member of Congress who is so unfazed by Hollywood celebrities that a chance meeting with actress Melanie Griffith - whom he did not know - became the talk of Capitol Hill a few years ago, will have another opportunity this week to test his pop culture awareness. Actress, singer, TV reality star, and pizza saleswoman Jessica Simpson is scheduled to visit the office of U.S. Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC) on Thursday, March 16.

Jessica Simpson will be on Capitol Hill Thursday as an ambassador for Operation Smile, which provides free surgeries for poor children with cleft palates and other facial deformities. Congressman Coble, a longtime supporter of Operation Smile in North Carolina, will meet with Simpson in his office in the Rayburn Building on Thursday at 10 a.m.

For the past three years, Jessica Simpson has been Operation Smile's International Youth Ambassador and traveled last October with a medical team to Kenya. Following her meeting with Rep. Coble, Simpson is scheduled to participate in a news conference for the charity elsewhere on the Hill.

Simpson, who is 26, will be visiting Rep. Coble just two days before his 75th birthday. No word yet if the pop singer will serenade the birthday boy or if he will be able to name any of her songs, movies or television shows.

Coble was given the nickname of Hollywood Howard a few years ago by his House colleagues when word leaked out that he met actress Melanie Griffith while she was on Capitol Hill. It was so obvious to the actress that Coble did not know who she was, that she sent a handwritten note to his office later that day giving him some additional information about her career. Obviously not offended by the chance meeting, Griffith signed her note with a large heart.

Gov. Mike Easley is escaping Raleigh today and is scheduled to be in Greensboro.

According to the news release, Easley's supposed to show up at "7628 Thorndike Road" at 2p.m. Curiously, it doesn't say who Easley is coming to see.

Ooo, mysterious. Because no reporter (or say, anyone with an internet connection) would have access to a reverse-search directory.

Oh, wait, yes we do.

That address belongs to RF Micro Devices. Now that the local governments have pitched in, it's a safe bet that Easley is coming to town to deliver the state's goody-bag of economic incentive stuff.

I'm told our crack business team is all over this and will report accordingly for tomorrow's paper.

Update: Our biz team is on top of things.

The Elon Poll of political opinion in southeastern states is out today. Click here if you want to read the whole thing.

The focus this time around was on President Bush and his job approval rating. I'm still digesting the whole thing, but the headline seems to be this:

Question: Do you [approve or disapprove] of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?
Strongly Disapprove 36.0
Disapprove 16.1
Approve 23.7
Strongly Approve 19.2
Don't Know 4.2
Refused .8

The numbers for North Carolina:
Strongly Disapprove 39.2%
Disapprove 13.6%
Approve 23.3%
Strongly Approve 18.4%
Don't Know 5.2%
Refused .3%

You know the drill...read and then discuss via the comments link below.

For those who remember the story about the NC GOP collecting church directories, here's one cartoonists’ take on the issue. Via Cone.

This story from "The Hill" newspaper, a publication that mainly covers the scene around Congress, had me laughing this morning. (Via Romenesko.)

It covers the various things that press secretaries in Washington, D.C. do to deflect and absorb bad news for their bosses.

Most legislators here in Raleigh don't have press folks, the exceptions being House Speaker Jim Black and Senate Leader Marc Basnight. However, the list of tactics the Hill reporter came up with looked familiar. Legislators don't need a press secretary to do these all on their own.

• Say "I will call you back" and then don't.
• Repeat the same phrase over and over.
• Try to talk the reporter out of writing the story.
• Act brusque and distant.
• Don't return phone calls until the day after deadline.
• Talk in short sentences.
• Act as though you are in a hurry and need to get off the phone as soon as possible.

PR folks for the various executive and council of state agencies do some of the same stuff.

Let me add one or two others that I've run into over the years:

• Offer up what they think will be a more interesting story about something or someone else.
• Use language that is un-quotable, either by way of cuss words or by using such tortured syntax that a direct quote is impossible.
• Suggest that the reporter is stupid for even having to ask such a question.
• Suggest your reporting would be incomplete without talking to someone or getting a fact that they think would be hard for you to run down.
• Get "distracted" by an old friend/constituent/staffer who happens to wander by and get into a prolonged conversation hoping the reporter will get fed up and go away.

Now a quick disclaimer: Most of the legislators and other folks I deal with around here are delightful most of the time...really. They're nice folks who have normal lives and are all of a sudden thrust into this rather odd fish bowl. No one is ever happy to deal with bad news or a question that cuts too close to home, some are just more deft at dealing with them than others.

That said, neither anything on the Hill list nor mine has ever stopped bad news from coming down the track. As Brian Walsh, a one-time spokesman for Bob Barr (R-Ga.) said in the Hill piece:

"You have two choices," Walsh said. "Whether you like the story or you don’t like the story, you have to make the determination: Will it be less bad you telling it or your opponent telling it?"

For today’s (2/21/2006) paper, I'll add to the cannon of stories on House Speaker Jim Black's campaign finances.

Update:(Click here for the story.)

In particular, this story looks at giving from chiropractors to Black's campaign during the July 1 through Dec. 31 (2005) time period. Chiropractors gave Black 33 contributions during those six months, 25 of which are recorded as having arrived on Dec. 7. The cash and in-kind total from the Chiropractors to Black during that time period was $38,779.87.

This came four months after Black helped make the following part of the state budget:

An insurer shall not impose as a limitation on treatment or level of coverage a co-payment amount charged to the insured for chiropractic services that is higher than the co-payment amount charged to the insured for the services of a duly licensed primary care physician for the same medically necessary treatment or condition.

That provision makes it cheaper for patients to go to a chiropractor. Instead of paying the co-payment one would for a specialists (like a plastic surgeon), patients pay the usually lower co-pay that goes with seeing a general practitioner.

Source material and credits:

• The state budget bill. (Section 6.29 is the relevant bit.)
  
• Black's campaign finance report. This is a large PDF file. An index of his campaign reports can be found here.
  
• Several papers noted the change for chiropractors around the time the budget bill passed in August. Here's the Google cash of the N+O's story from back then.

So why'd I get into this? A couple of reasons:

• There is somewhat of a Greensboro connection to this story, which is what got me interested initially. Four of the chiropractor-donors practice in Greensboro. Those donations were substantial, ranging from $500 to $4,000.
• I have written before about support from Speaker Black going to local candidates, but I hadn't written about local donors giving to Black. This was a good way to show the tide of political money flows both ways.

As always, feel free to leave your thoughts, suggestions and complaints at the comments link below, or e-mail me directly at mbinker@news-record.com.

A recent survey finds a majority of North Carolinians support raising the state’s minimum wage.(PDF)

Update: (Click here for the story that ran Sunday.)

More on this will be in the paper over the weekend, but you can have your say here right now via the comment links below.

Previous posts on the topic here.

A couple more notes on the church directory story:

• Guilford County Republican Party Chairman Marcus Kindley phoned this morning to say that he did not endorse the practice of collecting directories from churches for use in GOTV efforts.

  “It’s not something we asked our members to do,” Kindley said of the Guilford Republicans. Kindley is a lay minister at his church and, if nothing else, is earnest whether speaking about religion or politics.

• These guys don’t seem to like the church directory idea either.

UPDATE: Click here to link to today's story.

I'll have a story in tomorrow's paper (barring calamity) about the state Republican Party asking its membership to gather membership directories from churches.

This is not a new thing for the state party to do, but the practice caused quite the national ruckus during the 2004 presidential election. National political leaders said it was too much an invasion of politics into the pulpit.

As it turns out, the Catholic diocese of Charlotte (which covers Guilford County) and several local pastors I talked to don’t think much of the practice either. A flavor of the responses I got from one local Baptist pastor:

"I would say you're encroaching on sacred territory. When congregations inject politics into their congregational life, it will be bad for everybody . . . We wouldn't want our friends to be selling their personal directories to someone who is selling something. That would be an abuse of our friendship. I would think the same thing about giving it to a political party."

I suspect this will be one of the things that "people are talking about" tomorrow. For your information and discussion purposes, here is the e-mail that sparked this conversation (after the jump):

From our friends at the Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The State Board of Elections asked prosecutors Friday to investigate whether a former lawmaker and a leader of a political action committee violated campaign finance laws, but delayed making a decision about the campaign of House Speaker Jim Black.

More here, and apparently more to come in coming months.

From Public Policy Polling:

A majority of North Carolina voters do not think the Bush Administration has broken the law by utilizing wiretaps of American citizens without a FISA court order according to a Public Policy Polling survey. Fifty-three percent think the wiretapping policy is legal, while only 39% think the President is breaking the law.

For context:

When it comes to impeachment, North Carolinians think that President Clinton’s alleged transgressions, lying under oath about sexual relations with an intern, are worse than President Bush’s potentially illegal wiretaps. Fifty percent think that lying under oath about inappropriate relations with an intern is the more impeachable offense. Thirtythree percent think that authorizing wiretaps on Americans without a court order is more impeachable.

Click here for the full release and survey questions.

Discuss below.

Update: While a majority of poll respondents didn't question the program, the boys and girls at the House J committee do have a few things they'd like to know about. (PDF)

I've got a great new party game. Tell me who said this Thursday:

“The General Assembly budget process often results in decision being made at the last minute and middle of the night without open debate.”

Now I know you might be thinking John Blust, the Greensboro Republican who has long-railed against the way the General Assembly puts together its budgets.

But think again.

It was Attorney General Roy Cooper, sounding one part like a candidate for governor (hey, the 2008 elections are just around the corner!) and one part like a member of the legislature's minority party (Blust's Republicans).

Cooper was pitching to the General Assembly - by way of a news conference - a series of reforms he said were aimed at "fighting public corruption." Most were typical prosecutor stuff: make it a crime to lie to state investigators, allow state prosecutors to empanel investigative grand juries like their federal counterparts, etc...

Fair enough.

But then he confused his audience - not hard when you’re dealing with us scrubby media types - and said he also proposed AS A CORRUPTION FIGHTING TOOL reforms to the state budget process.

When asked if he was inferring the stat budget process was, well, corrupt, Cooper issued the above quote. And indeed, it sounded a lot like Blust. (It didn't answer the question mind you...)

This is the second time Cooper a potential candidate for governor (correction on 1/28) has seemingly ripped off an idea that a member of the Greensboro delegation has championed.

I'm beginning to think these boys must be sneaking into town for Cheesecake and political advice.

I'll have a story on all this (at least the Cooper sounding like Blust thing) in tomorrow's (Friday's) paper.

Remember Britt Cobb? He was the temporary fill-in for disgraced Agriculture Commission Meg Scott Phipps, who is now enjoying the hospitality of a federal penitentiary. Cobb, a Democrat, ran unsuccessfully against Steve Troxler, a Guilford County Republican, to keep the job.

I mentioned yesterday that Gwynn Swinson had resigned as Secretary of Administration.

Since loosing the Ag post, Cobb has been hanging about the Department of Administration as Swinson's Deputy Secretary of Government Operations. Well, with Swinson leaving, he's going to get to run the show.

Gov. Mike Easley announced today that Cobb will take over at Administration Secretary.

Sure there are now cows or much livestock of any sort involved, but the job sounds, um, just darned exciting. From the release:

Created in 1957, DOA acts as the business manager for North Carolina state government. The Department oversees government operations such as building construction, purchasing and contracting for goods and services, managing state vehicles, acquiring and disposing of real property, and operating auxiliary services such as courier mail delivery and the sale of state and federal surplus property. In addition, the Department oversees the maintenance of state-owned buildings and grounds, and police security for state government facilities in Wake County. The Department also houses several advocacy groups including the Governor's Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities, the North Carolina Council for Women/Domestic Violence Commission, the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs, the North Carolina Human Relations Commission and the North Carolina Youth Advocacy and Involvement Office.

From an outfit called Public Policy Poling Inc. comes a survey that tells us, well, something. My favorite bits:

• North Carolinians, being an optimistic lot, seem to think they have a slightly greater chance of winning the lottery than getting hit by a meteor or finding buried treasure. However, we seem to think that we're more likely to get bit by a shark.
• 51 percent don't care which Hollywood couple break up.

Click here to read the whole thing. (It is a PDF.)

I don't know how much stock you should put in the results. Apparently their research methodology relies on people to not only have a phone and answer, and not only be willing to take a survey, but be willing to take a survey by way of push-button responses.

Me, I'm really waiting on the next Elon Poll.

Us scruffy press types spent some time this afternoon with Bill Graham, a Salisbury lawyer who has been bankrolling radio ads and a web site railing against the recent gas tax increase. (Click here for some background.)

Among other things, Graham has been circulating an online petition and now claims to have more than 22,000 "signatures" asking the honorables to come back to town and repeal the 2.8-cent per gallon gas tax jump that took effect Jan. 1.

(Click here to visit his web site.)

Titled in homage to Sergio Leone's 1966 classic western, Democracy North Carolina put out its report on the "The Good, the bad and the ugly" in NC campaign finance news for 2005.

Click here to download the five-page MS Word File.

If you've been paying attention to state politics this year, you'll know a lot of what's here already. Although, if you for some reason you didn't think there was a connection between money, politics and legislative action you'll be shocked, SHOCKED I tell you. An example from the report:

Optometrists gave more than $125,000 to legislative and Council of State candidates in the 2004 election. Fellow optometrist Jim Black received the most – $59,750 – and was instrumental in getting a provision added to the 2005 budget that requires five-year-olds entering public school to receive an eye exam. School officials, pediatricians, and the N.C. Medical Society opposed the measure, pointing out that school children already receive eye tests and the cost of the test (at least $75 per exam) is a needless burden on parents and an annual windfall of $8 million-plus for optometrists.

Read the whole thing. You'll notice a reference or two to the beer industry's campaign giving, a subject I wrote about (with a data assist from Democracy NC) here.

Conservative Greensblogger Guarino suggest North Carolina Republicans need a "Contract with North Carolina" a la the Contract with America that help Newt Gingrich and his fellow Republicans come to power on a national level in 1994.

The Talking about Politics blog officially earned a spot on my permanent reading rotation today with this post on the tussle between the state GOP and Richard Morgan. Why? Anyone who can use the word "polecat" with a straight face when talking about politics is worth a read. (For more on the Morgan thing, click here.

Also, the following quote from this post made me laugh so hard Diet Coke came out my nose:

... with the lottery the politicians have found a way to make the people want to give the government money. That’s why the lottery is a truly awe-inspiring – and frightening – idea.

Good Sunday morning. Here are a few updates from the world of state government. First from me:

• There is this story on local Democratic House members saying they still support Speaker Jim Black, despite his recent publicity problems. And let’s be real: as the story details, there’s so much of a paper trail between Black and local Democratic pols that they couldn’t really hide their ties even if they wanted.
• And the folks at ALE, the agency responsible for enforcing the lottery laws on retailers, say they can't hire all the folks they think they'll need to do the job by April 5, when the game is supposed to get going.

But wait there's more from our friends at the state's other newspapers:

• Raleigh's N+O had this story about retired pols using their left over campaign accounts for, um, non-political expenses.(Registration required if you haven't already.) It leads with former Guilford County legislator Joanne Bowie who bought herself a new car and new computer with the proceeds. Find the actual campaign finance report by clicking here.(PDF) (She also paid some taxes and invested some in a retirement account.)
• Okay, it's not from this weekend, but this Charlotte Observer story about a planned protest against Black in Ashville by former Democrats is interesting anyway.(Yeah, registration required there too.)

And finally, if you're a fan of our Inside Scoop column that runs in the newspaper, you'll want to know it's moving.

See you back here on Monday.

North Carolina Women United, describes itself as "a consensus-based coalition of organizations committed to achieving full equality and empowerment for women."

As many groups do, they have recently put out a legislative report card to show what they think went right or wrong during the General Assembly session.

Click here for that report in PDF form.

Click here for that report as a MS Word document.

And Click here for group's news release on the topic.

I don't know many folks in state government who blog (a prominent local exception being Pricey Harrison), but there are some folks who work around state government that are catching the wave.

The latest by SEANC can be found by clicking here.

SEANC is the State Employees Association of North Carolina. In his first post, SEANC Director Dana Cope lays out his goals for the group:

• To become the number one Political Action Committee in North Carolina
• To promote greater member involvement
• To elect at least 10 SEANC members to the legislature
• To gain collective bargaining for public employees
• To gain a fully funded pay plan
• To recruit 65,000 members by 2010

By way of background, SEANC has a long-running battle to boost worker pay, mainly fought in the hall of the legislature. The group watched teachers get a pay raises a couple different ways this year while rank-in-file state employees received much more modest compensation.

Again, go ahead and check out the new blog on the block. And if you want, drop me a line and let me know who else up here in Cap City you think should be blogging.

I am shocked, SHOCKED, that more people haven't used some play on that phrase in headlines for stories regarding House Speaker Jim Black (a Democrat) and party-switching former House member Michael Decker (now a Republican) of Forsyth County.

Well, those inclined will have the opportunity tomorrow.

A relatively new website publisher, www.JimBlackMustGo.com, dedicated sent around an e-mail today that read in part:

Raleigh – Joe Sinsheimer, creator of the Jimblackmustgo.com website, today questioned why state House Speaker Jim Black sent a large campaign contribution to former State Representative Michael Decker in February 2005 after Decker had lost his 2004 re-election effort in the GOP primary. Decker closed his campaign account the next day, apparently pocketing the leftover funds.

What the website was writing about was recorded on this campaign finance report by Decker's now closed campaign committee.

Well, I should have guessed, but it wasn't too long before my fax machine began rattling off something from NCGOP headquarters.

(RALEIGH) – Ferrell Blount, Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, issued a harsh response after learning that Speaker Jim Black gave former Rep. Michael Decker $4,000 one day before Decker drafted a check to himself and closed his campaign account.

...

“First we learn that Jim Black got Michael Decker a sweetheart $48,000-a year state job in return for switching political parties and keeping Jim Black in power,” Sinsheimer said in the release. “Then we learn that Black helped Decker’s son, Michael Decker Jr., get a job as a ‘research associate’ in the General Assembly. Now we learn that Black is rewarding Decker with campaign cash. There seems to be no end to Jim Black’s influence peddling. I am sick of turning my head while Jim Black rewards his political allies with campaign cash.”

Republicans, in case you haven't gotten the gist, really don't like Black. And the GOP leadership is still mad at Decker for his 2002 party flip-flop that lead to the Black-Richard Morgan co-speakership, rather than out-and-out control of the House by Republicans.

And in case you've missed it, the GOP leadership is holding a grudge against Morgan as well.

So is it unique for someone to get a campaign donation after they loose an election? Not really. Consider a local example provided by former Rep. Joanne Bowie, a Greensboro Republican, who received a $500 donation in February 2005, according to this report.(PDF)

Of course, there are those who would argue that Decker hadn't reported any debts that his committee couldn't cover so Black's contribution amounts to a pay off.

As always, feel free to discus via the comments link below.

How does someone griping about a $1,000 contribution lead to a story on the GOP escalating its warfare against Richard Morgan, a fellow Republican? I'm going to make you wade through a pretty long post to find out:

I got a phone call yesterday from someone upset that Ed McMahan, a North Carolina national committeeman for the Republican Party, had given a political donation to Democrat and State Treasurer Richard Moore. (A short profile of McMahan from the state GOP can be found here. Click on this link and then scroll down two spots.)

When asked about it, Guilford County Republican Party Chairman Marcus Kindley said the move amounts to treason against the party. Moore was running against a Republican from Guilford County (who has now moved out of state).

Folks who had talked to McMahan said yesterday that a clerical error sent funds from his personal campaign committee rather than a PAC that gives to bipartisan causes that he controls for his company. (That's the same account he gave the News & Observer as well.) The people who are upset about that are upset about that. Those who are not, say it's a simple mistake.

(I think the bigger discussion here might be that there are folks involved in politics who can miss-send $1,000 from a campaign treasurery and not know it goes missing until a campaign finance report comes out. But that's for another day.)

After a few conversations about the McMahan thing, it became apparent why this $1,000 donation was being talked about in the first place.

Click here for the story it lead to.

It's no secret that the GOP party establishment and Richard Morgan, a Republican of Moore County, don't get along. Moore infamous in GOP circles for forging power-sharing arrangements in the state House with Democratic Speaker Jim Black. Morgan was elected co-Speaker in 2003 and serves this session as Speaker Pro Temp, a less powerful but still influential post.

The story that ran in today's paper tells how the Republican Party is set to openly intervene in a Morgan's GOP primary. Messing with primaries is something generally considered beyond the pale for parties - something that leads to too much bad blood. (To be fair, in this case, the bad blood is present in abundance already.)

The GOP party chairman has sometime spoken out on a race, as he did when Republican-turned-Democrat-turned Republican Mike Decker ran for re-election in Forsyth County. But putting the full financial and human resources of the party up against someone in a primary seems to be something of a different animal.

Because he called back late in the day, I didn't get a lot of Morgan's comments to me in the paper - except to show that he was defiant. Here are a few others sentiments that he relayed:

• He called the potential for party interference in his primary as "very dangerous precedent to set."
• He blamed the party move on "extreme" elements of the party, singling out Art Pope, a wealthy GOP operator.
• Of the executive committee members that decided to take action against him, Morgan said: "They have only heard from a folks who are very disgruntled, untruthful, and misleading...They are looking for some sort of revenge. Revenge does no good for the Republican Party."
• He points out that he won election as co-speaker in 2003 and Speaker Pro Temp this year with the votes of Republicans in the House.
• He said he wasn't worried about his re-election chances because his fund-raising organization was just as robust, if not more so, than the state party's.

For Guilford County folks, one of the biggest beneficiaries of a House without Morgan would be John Blust. Blust has not been shy in his criticism of Morgan. And from an observer’s vantage, it doesn't look like Morgan has been shy against using his influence to make Blust's life difficult. Blust didn't get a bill passed before the "cross-over" deadline, meaning that most legislation that he has proposed is effectively dead. And when Morgan is in control of House meetings, I can't think of an instance where he has allowed Blust to debate a bill or resolution during the past year.

Okay Republicans and other political watchers, I've had my say. Now you have yours. Comment below.

(Update: If you're dying to know more about the McMahan thing, click here for the Charlotte Observer story. (Registration required, if you haven't already.)

I just got an e-mail from the North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute announcing that they've broken down some child welfare data by legislative district.

If you're curious, click here. Then plug in your legislative district and the website will spit back a two-page summary.

If you do take a look at the report for your district, I'd be curious to know what you think it's telling you. Comment via the link below.

One of the more aggravating things for a reporter is to spend time on a story that never gets published. While it's not exactly a "waste" of time, it is time that, in the end, probably could have been better spent.

I bit into one of those stories this week in regards to a follow up on the elections for North Carolina NAACP state office. I'm writing about it here for a couple reasons: There have been allusions to it on our letters page, and I think some other folks might run with it this weekend. (And if they do, well, good for them.)

If you don't remember, this was the election during which County Commissioner Skip Alston lost his post as president of the N.C. NAACP to Rev. William Barber of Goldsboro. Carolyn Coleman, another county commissioner, won a seat as first vice president from Gladys Shipman, who is the president of the local Greensboro branch of the group.

Ever since I first started covering elections, I've had people ask me why voters aren't required to show some sort of photo identification when they come to the polls. The worry has been, I think, that anyone could show up and claim to be someone else.

My understanding from speaking lawyers has always been that a person's right to vote shouldn't hinge on them being able to afford or get a government identification card of some sort. Those who are especially disposed to flowery language would say things like, "Voting is a right that must be as unfettered as possible."

Well, it turns out at least one federal court agrees, striking down Georgia's effort to require identification for voting. From our friends at the Associate Press (after the jump):

I will post a link to my story on the race for NAACP president between Melvin "Skip" Alston of Greensboro and the Rev. William Barber of Goldsboro when I get a chance. However, there's a little box on the story directing readers here to discuss, and I wanted to make sure there was a thread for them to use.

(Update: Click here for the story.)

I've been calling around on this story for a few weeks and waited to write it until I could visit with both men in person. In the mean time, there has been other coverage.

Late last week, the spokesman for the state Democratic party sent around an e-mail asking reporters to compare the North Carolina Democrats' web site to the North Carolina Republicans'. The point he was making was that:

• The NC Dems site has information on how to help Hurricane Katrina victims, but
• the NC GOP site does not. (This is still the case as of Tuesday at 10 a.m.).

Is this a valid criticism of just a cheap shot? Does lack of web savvy amount to lack of caring? Or is it even appropriate for the Dems to be using their political infrastructure in this manner?

Our lines comments are open.

Update: GOP has a Red Cross link up now.

I'm about to toddle off and watch the governor sign the lottery bill. He's then expected to do the political equivalent of a touchdown celebration, being that this has been a centerpiece of his education policy for five or six years now. More on that here if it's interesting.

News of the day can be found right here. Be sure to click on all the nifty bells and whistles like our Q+A.

Here are some other lottery tidbits and musings from my e-mail box and around the web:

• Sen. Phil Berger is none-to-happy about the lottery's passage. He wrote in this release: “North Carolina is currently 42nd in the nation in high school graduation and 42nd in SAT Scores. If this is truly an “education lottery,” we should see measurable improvement soon. Based on the hype we’ve been hearing, the only thing keeping our students from academic success was the failure to jump on the gambling bandwagon.”

• The state Democratic Party can't seem to decide whether to blame the Republicans for blocking a lottery or blame the two Republicans who weren't in the chamber yesterday for not going on their honeymoon and getting sick earlier.

  “Whether it was by voting against a lottery or by choosing not to vote, the bottom line is that the Republicans refused to stand up for our schools and our children by supporting an education lottery,” said NC Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek in an e-mail. I've copied it into a word file you can access by clicking here.

But wait, there's more. The web is alive with the sound of lottery musings:

• The News and Record's Doug Clark is mad about how the lottery vote came to pass and let's us know it in this post. The comments are worth reading too.

• NC SPIN has some interesting lottery chatter, but I can't find a perma-link to it.

• Local blogger Guarino is none to happy about the lottery.

• The folks who hand out on this website, however, are very happy. I'd call them lottery enthusiasts.

Next year's partisan elections might end up with one less party on the ballot. From our friends at the Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Libertarians could lose their official status as a political party in North Carolina because they failed to get at least 10 percent of the votes cast in last year's gubernatorial and presidential races.

The State Board of Elections has scheduled time during a teleconference meeting Monday to discuss the party's standing. Sean Haugh, the party's executive director, said Friday he and party Chairman Thomas Hill will participate from Raleigh.

Along with the missed vote totals, the party has gathered only 25,000 of the nearly 70,000 signatures it needs to stay alive. Only Democrats and Republicans would be entitled to appear on ballots in partisan elections.

Haugh conceded that the party has failed to meet the state requirements, but said he hopes that the elections board will use its discretion to allow the party to remain on the ballot.

"It's simply in their best interests," he said. "If they did de-certify us they would have to send a mailing to all 13,000 members of the Libertarian Party.

"It would be very expensive and time-consuming."

Libertarians have appeared on ballots in North Carolina continuously since 1996. About a half-dozen municipal leaders belong to the party, along with several members of county soil and water district boards and a county surveyor.

Elections board chairman Larry Leake, a Democrat from Asheville, said Libertarians have used up their grace period.

"They either have the petition signatures," Leake said, "or they don't."

Democracy North Carolina published today the results of a survey on youth voting. The survey asked 18-24 year olds a variety of questions about registering to vote.

I'm struck by this finding:

"More than 1 out of 3 respondents, 34%, agreed that the process of registering to vote is inconvenient."

Really? I have to wonder about this finding based solely on my own experience.

It might have taken me all of five minutes to fill out my voter registration form the last time I changed address, and two of those minutes spent trying to find my new zip code. By contrast, when I moved to North Carolina I stood in line for more than four hours to get a driver's license that apparently isn't all that secure anyway.

In my pantheon of cumbersome, bureaucratic government processes registering to vote really never ranked. (Try getting a database out of a city that uses 40-year-old technology to store its data.)

So am I off base here?

Not state government related, but:

If you're interested in the nomination of Judge John Roberts to be the next Supreme Court justice you might want to check out the Washington Post blog on the subject.

This story from the AP Wire caught my attention this afternoon:

MARYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A teenager accused of burning an American flag on the Fourth of July was released on his own recognizance after spending nine days in jail.

Blount County General Sessions Judge Hugh DeLozier on Thursday ordered Andrew Elisha Staley, 18, freed pending an Aug. 2 trial on six counts, including desecrating a venerated object.

The case could test Tennessee's statute against flag-burning, which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled is protected speech under the First Amendment.

It got me to wondering if North Carolina had a flag burning statute. As it turns out, we do:

GS 14-381. Desecration of State and United States flag.

It shall be unlawful for any person willfully and knowingly to cast contempt upon any flag of the United States or upon any flag of North Carolina by public acts of physical contact including, but not limited to, mutilation, defiling, defacing or trampling. Any person violating this section shall be deemed guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.

The flag of the United States, as used in this section, shall be the same as defined in 4 U.S.C.A. 1 and 4 U.S.C.A. 2. The flag of North Carolina, as used in this section, shall be the same as defined in G.S. 144-1. (1917, c. 271; C.S., s. 4500; 1971, c. 295; 1993, c. 539, s. 253; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c).)

In fact, according to the the First Amendment Center, there are 47 states with flag burning prohibitions.

I haven't found any cases of this law actually being enforced, but there has been some local discussion of the federal flag burning issue.

This isn't exactly a state item, but:

Jim Cain, President Bush's pick for U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, is scheduled to go before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington on Monday.

Cain is an attorney and partner with the Kilpatrick and Stockton law firm, but chances re you know his name for one of two reasons:

Just a few notes to get you through your Friday:

Members of the House appropriations committee will be busy today looking at the first public drafts of that body's budget. (Yeah, yeah, the transportation subcommittee met yesterday. If you drive I-95, they're looking at tolls for that road again.)

This is the part where the honorables try to figure out how to spend the money that they agreed to raise earlier this week. The House gave final approval to a tax package Thursday, which now goes to the Senate.

In case you didn't see it in the paper, House Speaker Jim Black has promised to resurrect the proposal to hike the minimum wage. If you remember, that died during the crossover rush. But nothing the leaders in the House really like is ever dead, and apparently the "Living Wage Act" will, um, live...if not this summer then in next year's short session. Update: Find that story here.

Oh, and I spent some time at a party Thursday. All I can add is that the shrimp looked marvelous, although it's hard to eat and take notes at the same time so I can't say for sure.

I'll check back in later this afternoon.