At a little after 10 a.m. a couple of Thursdays ago, the press room on the ground floor of the Legislative Building started to fill with suits and cameras in anticipation of the roll out by House leaders of voter ID legislation. The buzz in the room, however, was not about the introduction of the […]
Kirk Ross
Bio: Kirk Ross is a freelance columnist for INDY Week and founded the online news and feature publication The Carolina Mercury. He lives in Chapel Hill.Link: http://www.exileonjonesstreet.comEmail: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/ExJS
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Unlike Oz, the Legislature is all-powerful
“Well, why’d you do it?” I asked. Tony Rand, then the all-powerful head of the Senate Rules Committee and at one time known as this state’s Shadow Governor because of his influence, pausedand I swear this is truehe got kind of misty-eyed. This was in July 2001 and we were discussing Rand’s attempt earlier in […]
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Rural residents the big losers this legislative session
“I have held dying toddlers in my arms struggling to breathe, in Halifax County, one of the state’s poorest counties, while waiting for air transport to Nash Regional Hospital. “I have held the hands of dying people and wiped the tears from loved ones’ eyes because the diagnosis came too late. And while doing this […]
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Art Pope and his allies sharpen their knives on the state budget
There’s a pause in the action in Raleigh as Gov. Pat McCrory appoints his staff and the newly organized General Assembly breaks until the end of the month. But it’s only a pause. There’s an eagerness to get things done. And with the Republican governorship and overwhelming GOP majorities in the state House and Senate, […]
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Expect state lawmakers to act quickly on Voter ID
Are you one of the disenfranchised? According to the Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks voting rights laws, 11 percent of voting-age citizens in the U.S.—21 million people—do not have a photo ID. Studies show even higher rates among older voters (18 percent), African-Americans (25 percent) and low-income voters (15 percent). A 2011 study by […]
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Election shows impact of redistricting and why voting-rights groups are suing
Within hours of the final election results, it became clear: In the 2011 redistricting, the GOP drew themselves a hell of a set of maps. Even though North Carolinians split their vote almost evenly between the parties, and turnout neared 2008 levels, including participation among African-Americans and young voters, far fewer Democrats were elected than […]
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The prospect of four years under Gov. McCrory
Gov. Pat McCrory will come across as a somewhat sensible man. The conservative Republican will tread the line between a chaotic, polarized Legislature hellbent on reshaping state government and an equally chaotic array of dissenters including a Democratic lieutenant governor, Linda Coleman. This probable outcomeMcCrory leads his Democratic opponent Walter Dalton by 10 points and […]
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GOP-drawn districts and a torrent of cash could flip seats, but how many?
Signs say that come November, a change is going to come. If that change doesn’t happen, it’ll be the biggest story out of North Carolina for the 2012 election. It will mean Barack Obama won the state again. It will mean that the omens portended by the Republican tide in 2010 and then hard-wired into […]
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The GOP hatches a plan to win North Carolina. Will it work?
There are 83 days until the election, and we’re on the brink of the Republican and Democratic national conventions, with the attendant campaign cash that such high-stakes races bring. Since the Citizens United decision, which allows nearly unlimited amounts of money to flow into pumping up or taking down a candidate, it has become more […]
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A summer of mayhem courtesy of the N.C. Legislature
For an example of the damage an unchecked majority can do when it moves in lockstep, consider the last 30 or so hours of the recent session of the North Carolina General Assembly. During the homestretch in Raleigh, the Legislature gutted racial justice legislation, defunded Planned Parenthood again, thumbed its nose at forced sterilization survivors […]