In North Carolina, the political label “conservative” is more popular than the terms “liberal” or “progressive.” In the most recent John Locke Foundation poll, for example, 46% of likely voters described themselves as conservatives, with 25% picking the liberal label and the rest either “moderate” or nothing at all. If we broaden out to include all North Carolinians, not just those who reliably vote, the gap shrinks a bit. But conservatives still form a plurality — and they significantly outnumber liberals.
Because Gov. Roy Cooper’s former secretary of health and human services, Mandy Cohen, just got the nod from President Joe Biden to be the next director of the Centers for Disease Control, politicians and analysts are again debating how North Carolinians fared during the COVID-19 pandemic.
RALEIGH — In a recent column, I argued that cities would draw more investment and job creation to their downtowns if people felt safer in them. Because the only North Carolina cities included in the national study I cited were Charlotte and Raleigh, some readers concluded that I thought the problem was limited to those two jurisdictions.
RALEIGH — Has there even been a point of time in which so many public controversies rest on a single, abstract principle of constitutional government? I can’t think of one.
Negotiators from the North Carolina House and Senate are current hashing out a compromise budget for the fiscal year that begins in July. One of the sticking points, it seems, is how best to build on the state’s impressive record of tax reduction and reform.
RALEIGH — Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have legitimate grievances against the Democrat-controlled State Board of Elections. The latter has abused its power in overtly partisan ways in recent years, most egregiously by striking a collusive settlement with Democratic attorney Marc Elias and Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein in 2020 to change our election procedures in direct contravention of election laws enacted by the General Assembly.
North Carolina’s own Patrick McHenry, who represents our 10th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, helped negotiate the debt-ceiling compromise that President Joe Biden signed on June 3. Not surprisingly, McHenry described it as a major accomplishment.
RALEIGH — The North Carolina General Assembly seems poised to strip additional appointment powers from the governor. Senate Bill 512 would alter the composition of the state’s Board of Transportation, Environmental Management Commission, and six other entities. The House passed its version May 31. The two chambers will work out their differences in conference.
When my first book, The Heroic Enterprise, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1996, I asked about releasing it on audio. “Let’s see how it goes,” my editor replied, warning me that while there was an audiobook market by then — primarily in the form of cassette tapes — it wasn’t very large. If my book on corporate social responsibility turned out to be a bestseller, there might be enough demand to justify a cassette version.
Since 2008, when Barack Obama narrowly won the state and Kay Hagan beat Elizabeth Dole by a more comfortable margin, Democrats have fought hard but lost every subsequent presidential and senate race in the Tar Heel State.
In Washington, Republican lawmakers are insisting that any deal with the Biden administration to raise the federal debt ceiling be accompanied by stricter work requirements for such programs as cash welfare, nutrition assistance, and Medicaid. In Raleigh, Republican state senators tried to make work requirements a condition for expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, though the final deal fell short of what they’d hoped.
