Rep. Renee Ellmers, the Tea Party candidate who beat Bob Etheridge, was one of a host of Republican freshmen members of Congress who hosted a lavish fundraising event at a Washington hotel yesterday, just before being sworn in today. Major lobby groups were asked to give $50,000 for the event’s full “VIP package.” Fox News highlights [...]
The News & Observer ran a short piece today about the fundraising advantage of Congressional incumbents from the Triangle in the 2010 election. You can see more details about the fundraising of Congressional candidates around the nation by using a handy map prepared by the Center for Responsive Politics. Just put your cursor over the [...]
For better or worse, a gaggle of “firsts” this year will have a lasting impact on North Carolina politics. Here’s the Top 10 list from Democracy North Carolina. Happy New Year!!
Remember the corrosive effect on NC politics of video poker and the lottery? Alabama is the latest state where gambling interests have upturned the political establishment - with federal indictments of state legislators involving six- and seven-figure bribes. The confession of a top lobbyist is awesome reading. You have to wonder how eager Gov. Perdue [...]
Fortunately, a healthy number of business leaders see big problems with the Supreme Court’s decision to encourage an arms race in secretive political spending; many are also opposed to the aggressive action by US Chamber of Commerce in the 2010 elections. If you’re a stockholder and get the proxy notices about how to vote your [...]
The end of 2010 marks the eighth year that North Carolina’s voluntary public campaign financing program for statewide judicial candidates has been in effect – long enough for it to be used or rejected in the staggered election cycles that have now involved all 22 seats on the state’s Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. [...]
Ten years ago this week, the US Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore turned over the White House to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the losers of the national popular vote. The blatantly political decision to stop the Florida recount launched a new era of anti-social ideologues undermining the rights of real people in [...]
Our friend Gene Nichol at UNC Law School has an op-ed column in today’s News & Observer that not only says democracy is under attack by the money-is-speech ideologues on the US Supreme Court; his words (contrary to his everyday deeds) could even lead you to think it’s time to declare total defeat. Indeed, there is [...]
This is a level of corruption that we don’t often see: The new government in Nigeria wants to charge Dick Cheney, the former vice president and chairman of Halliburton, in connection with $180 million in bribes paid to Nigerian lawmakers. The lawmakers awarded a $6 billion construction contract for a natural gas pipeline to Halliburton [...]
Fred Hobbs of Pinehurst, a former state senator and co-owner of a civil engineering firm that boasts of its connections to high-level state officials, today paid the largest civil fine ever levied by the State Board of Elections - $150,000. After being exposed, Hobbs readily admitted he used a money laundering scheme to funnel $148,000 [...]