More media outlets and bloggers are looking beyond the initial uproar over the IRS’s reprehensible targeting of 501(c)(4) applications from groups on one end of the political spectrum. The targeting is bad enough, but the scandal behind the scandal is the refusal of the IRS to challenge the biggest abusers of the c-4 tax-exempt privilege [...]
Legislators who claim they are champions of free enterprise and competition are ready to use the power of Big Government to thwart the marketing plans of a California company that makes electric cars. The company wants to bypass North Carolina auto dealers by selling its cars to customers through the Internet or company-owned stores. That's seen [...]
If you haven’t seen this already, here’s a rundown of the wonderful things happening in North Carolina that the billionaire Koch brothers hope to replicate in other states. Not that they’ve given up on controlling the US Senate, White House, several major newspapers, energy policy . . . the list goes on. But their current [...]
Piles of money from pro-Democratic sources could not overcome the deeply conservative make-up of the Congressional district that on Tuesday elected tarnished former SC Gov. Mark Sanford over Elizabeth Colbert Busch. Groups backing Busch spent nearly $1 million on mostly negative broadcast ads, about five times the spending by outside groups supporting Sanford. Busch also [...]
Why does the beer industry spend so much money on political campaigns in North Carolina? There aren’t nearly as many breweries as, say, auto dealerships but the beer boys pour in the money way out of proportion to their size in the state’s economy. The NC Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association PAC handed out $204,000 [...]
Bob Hall from Democracy North Carolina was on the WUNC’s “State of Things” radio show today, talking about the mysteries surrounding sweepstakes moneyman Chase Burns and the unfolding investigation into gambling money in NC politics, including the possible involvement of Gov. Pat McCrory and his former lobby/law firm. The second part of the show moves into [...]
Former Governors Jim Holshouser (R) and Jim Hunt (D) have an op-ed column in the Greensboro and Wilmington newspapers that lays out the case for keeping the judicial public financing program. It begins, “As former governors, we often disagree. But here's one area where we strongly agree: We don't want the integrity of our courts [...]
The new Republican-majority State Board of Elections took office today and quickly elected attorney Josh Howard as its chair. Partisan wrangling broke out over the selection of the new executive director to replace the 20-year veteran Gary Bartlett. Bartlett is nationally recognized for upgrading the state’s voting system, increasing professional management of county election offices, [...]
Amid prayers, songs, and speeches condemning a litany of new policies attacking the poor, seventeen protesters were arrested as they blocked the giant gold doors leading into the state Senate chamber. Adam Sotak of Democracy North Carolina joined the Rev. William J. Barber II of the NC NAACP and 15 others who followed the tradition [...]
Here’s an assessment from the Guardian of how rightwing mega-millionaires are fueling cultural war in states like North Carolina to gain unusual political power and implement their economic goals (Art Pope is featured). Says the report, “It is no secret that if you want to get large numbers of lower-income people to support a rightwing fiscal agenda, social [...]