The N.C. House committee charged with drawing new state election maps will start the formal map-drawing process Wednesday morning. Members can work on maps from 9 a.m. to as late as 5 p.m. each weekday until the process is complete.
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N.C. Senate passes anti-indoctrination bill after emotional debate
A bill that would prohibit public schools from promoting controversial viewpoints related to Critical Race Theory cleared the N.C. Senate on Thursday. Debate about the bill featured rare personal attacks among senators.
Republicans in N.C. House, Dems in Congress weigh in on vaccine mandates
The push and pull regarding vaccination mandates continues, both on Capitol Hill and in. the state legislature, from Republicans and from Democrats.
Democrats' N.C. Supreme Court majority on the line with two seats up in '22
N.C. Appeals Court Judge Lucy Inman is aggressively campaigning for a seat on the state Supreme Court. Inman announced her intentions shortly after being defeated by fellow Court of Appeals Judge Phil Berger Jr. in 2020 for an open seat on the state's highest court. Berger defeated Inman 51% to 49%, a margin of 71,517 votes.
Senate passes sweeping tax cut package with 8 Democrats on board
The North Carolina Senate passed a Republican-led tax reform package Wednesday evening in a quick, 36-14 vote that drew eight Democrats to cross the aisle and vote in favor of the bill. House Bill 334 would raise the standard deduction from $21,500 to $25,500 for joint filers, which would take about a quarter of a million of the lowest-income North Carolinians entirely off the tax rolls. It also reduces North Carolina’s flat income tax rate for remaining taxpayers from 5.25% to 4.99%.
Democrats, unions fighting legislative move to open disciplinary records
A bill that would open disciplinary records of government employees is crawling through the Senate, and employee unions and Democrats are determined to kill it.
Democrats propose plan to fund Leandro without Republican backing
A bill sponsored by Democrats in the N.C. House would pump billions of additional dollars into public education over the next few years toward meeting the requirements of a new remedial agreement in the ongoing Leandro lawsuit.
N.C. Board of Elections votes to rehire Brinson Bell as executive director
The N.C. Board of Elections voted Friday, May 14, to rehire Karen Brinson Bell as executive director. Board members Tommy Tucker and Stacey “Four” Eggers were the only dissenting votes.
House urges Congress to ‘Keep Nine’ members of U.S. Supreme Court
The state House wants Congress to reject proposals for packing the U.S. Supreme Court. The House voted 68-44 Thursday to support a federal “Keep Nine” amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Conspiracy theories damage democracy
For weeks after the ballots were counted, supporters of the defeated presidential candidate insisted the election had been stolen. Some alleged a shadowy conspiracy to rig vote-counting machines, throwing out just enough legal votes and manufacturing just enough illegal ones to decide the outcome.
GOP lawmakers move to bar ‘sue-and-settle’ schemes after settlement
Republican senators have introduced a bill that would require lawmakers to sign off on any deal settling a lawsuit in which the legislature is a party.
Constitution, Green parties face uphill battle to stay on N.C. ballot
Two third-party options could be off the North Carolina ballot unless each gathers enough signatures to petition the State Board of Elections to be added again for future elections.
As N.C. Republicans grappled with how to respond to Sen. Richard Burr’s surprise vote to convict former President Trump, the leading GOP prospects for Burr’s seat in 2022 had starkly different reactions, with sharp differences in tone.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder drew glowing media attention last week as he gave the Weil Lecture on American Citizenship at the UNC School of Law. He vowed a new round of lawsuits challenging whatever form the next round of North Carolina congressional and legislative districts take unless they’re drawn to his satisfaction.
North Carolina’s members of Congress absent more often than peers
Twelve of 15 members of Congress from North Carolina missed more votes in 2020 than the median absences of their peers. In addition, both Tar Heel state U.S. senators outpaced most other senators for missed votes, a government watchdog reports.
Due to GOP tax policy over the past decade, in other words, North Carolina’s state sales-tax burden went down, not up, by hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Alas, some of this effect was offset by increases in county sales taxes. Who is responsible for those hikes? Democrats, overwhelmingly. Democratic politicians authorized those sales-tax referenda and Democratic voters were most likely to favor them.
BJ Murphy: Killing the American Dream One Stimulus Check at a Time
Whatever happened to tax credits and tax deductions? How many more payments will people expect in the future before we declare the pandemic over? The utter reliance and potential household budgeting for future stimulus payments disincentivizes Americans from using their skills and creativity to find a way to meet their obligations. The unintended consequence of stimulus payments may very well be a methodical way of killing the American dream by taking away all incentives of hard work and individualism.
Harrington becomes State Senate’s first female majority leader
Sen. Kathy Harrington, R-Gaston, doesn’t seem impressed at becoming the first female majority leader of the N.C. Senate. She is one of the most powerful lawmakers in Raleigh. She sports a concealed-carry permit, and her daughter is a law enforcement officer. She listens more than she talks, and she doesn’t forget.
She is not someone to cross.
Former governor, chief justice inch closer to running for Burr’s seat
In public and behind the scenes, there’s a lot of movement on both sides of the aisle as candidates prepare to enter the race to succeed retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, setting up competitive primaries and a general election race in 2022. Sources confirm that former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley has hired a new campaign consultant and is preparing to announce her entry into the Democratic primary. Other sources close to former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory confirm that McCrory has taken initial steps to run later this year.
John Hood: Legislators should reclaim their power
Among the many reasons the political discourse in Washington has gotten so toxic, and at the same time so unproductive, is that the legislative branch of our federal government has allowed itself to become increasingly irrelevant.