Category Archives: NC Politics

Meredith Breaks (R)ank – Senate 19

July 31, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics 1 Comment

Last week, I wrote about controversial Senate Bill 3 that was passed in the recent special session.  The bill makes it easier for a Republican to win the upcoming race for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court by preventing another candidate from running as a Republican and splitting the Republican vote.  For more detail and the text of the bill, use this link.

News outlets caught on to something during the vote.  A few Republican legislators in competitive districts broke with their party and voted against the bill.  Wesley Meredith was one of them.

Meredith is the definition of a party-line voter.  As the “Majority Whip” in the Senate, his job is to keep others on that same line.  He was one of only five senators to score a 100% rating from Civitas for his “conservative effectiveness” in 2017.  So what gives???

There’s only one thing that can explain Meredith’s novel attempt at moderation:  he’s worried.  His district has been “un-gerrymandered” by the federal courts, and now he must appeal to swing voters if he wants to beat Kirk deViere in the fall.

Senate Bill 3 has been vetoed by Governor Cooper.  There will be a vote in Raleigh on Saturday, August 4 to override Cooper and make the bill law.

Do you think Meredith will side with Cooper or have another change of heart?  I have a feeling he might stay on vacation this Saturday.

 

Whereas, we don’t like where this is going…

July 24, 2018 By in NC Politics Tags: , 1 Comment

The legislature eliminated primaries in judicial races this year.  As a result, we have a three-way race for one seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court.  There are two Republicans and one Democrat in the race.  One of the Republicans hasn’t been a Republican very long.

Republican leaders are upset at the way their best-laid plan to take back the Supreme Court is playing out.  They have a fix in mind, filed today.  They will eliminate one man’s right to run as a Republican to make it easier for the other Republican to win:

bill

Full PDF of the bill

Please vote in November.

McCready’s Choosing the Battlefield (NC-09)

July 16, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics Tags: 1 Comment

Andrew Dunn over at longleafpolitics.com wrote an interesting post criticizing Dan McCready’s response to controversy surrounding a sermon given by his opponent, Mark Harris.  McCready (D) and Harris (R) are set to battle it out in November for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.

Harris gave the sermon in 2013, but it found its way to the internet and made national news.  In sum, it lays out traditional “biblical womanhood” with man as “head” and woman as “helper” and criticizes society’s treatment of young women:

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N.C. Republicans Gasping For Power

June 26, 2018 By in NC Politics Tags: 1 Comment

If you ever fish a blackwater river in Eastern North Carolina this time of year, you’ll come across an interesting phenomenon.  Bowfin (aka blackfish, dogfish, or grindle) are a prehistoric fish that can survive in hot, oxygen-starved water by inhaling air into a swim bladder that works like a lung.  In short, they can breathe if they have to.

Pull your boat into any oxbow on a really hot summer day, turn off the motor and sit still.  You’ll soon see and hear the bowfin rising to the surface, holding onto life, one gulp at a time.  Pull up on Jones Street on a hot day this week.  Listen.  You’ll hear something similar.

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Fox News or the Fayetteville Observer???

June 11, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics Tags: Leave a comment

Where do you get your political news?

FiveThirtyEight has an interesting article up about the nationalization of our news sources and the increasing partisanship and polarization of our politics.  In short, even the smallest of local issues is now examined through a national, partisan lens.

The article even gives a shout-out to the Fayetteville Observer:

Americans today are far more engaged with and knowledgeable about national politics than state or local politics, a gap that has been growing in recent decades. And it turns out that the changing media environment is a key engine of today’s nationalization. More and more, Americans are turning away from the media outlets that are most likely to provide a modicum of state or local coverage. They are substituting Fox News (or maybe FiveThirtyEight) for the Fayetteville Observer, and The New York Times’ website for the Nevada Appeal.

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