House Bill 2 might not be the albatross for Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s re-election bid many pundits and Democrats have suggested, and his decisive response to late October’s Charlotte riots could give him an electoral boost, based on recent election polls and the views of several political observers. Others say Democratic opponent Roy Cooper remains...
While voters in a number of North Carolina localities will have alcohol, tax increase, and bond referendums on their minds, citizens in the Forsyth County village of Tobaccoville will be deciding whether to recall their mayor. On Jan. 7, Tobaccoville Mayor Billy McHone resigned his office, but rescinded the offer before the Village Council could...
The Wake County Board of Elections will revert to using the maps that were in place in 2011 for this year’s school board and county commissioner elections, a federal judge has ruled. All nine members of the school board will be up for re-election this year. They’ll run in single districts. Candidates will be elected...
Eighty-two-year-old U.S. Army veteran Joe Muldoon made his first jump from an airplane Saturday afternoon with his 21-year-old grandson Mason. Joe, a Cleveland-area resident, said he wanted to do something special to coincide with the likely nomination of Donald Trump at this week’s Republican National Convention. On Friday, this reporter was at the Cleveland Skydiving...
While officials are mulling a request from a federal judge to submit new district maps for Wake County commissioner and school board elections, one longtime lawmaker says the U.S. Supreme Court could allow this year’s elections to be held under the disputed plans. “Hopefully, the [House] speaker and the [Senate] president pro tem will attempt...
Republicans across the country have voiced concerns that Donald Trump’s likely presidential nomination could harm down-ballot Republican candidates’ electoral fortunes. But some political analysts say time and Trump’s unpredictable pivots to soften his image may ease some of those concerns as the general election approaches. In contrast, Democrats believe the combination of Trump’s brashness, his...
Donald Trump is likely to win the Republican presidential nomination at or before the Cleveland nominating convention, and even though voters have soured on the candidates, the presidential race will drive turnout, a state Republican official says. “The mood is negative nationally. The mood is negative in the state,” Jim Burton, director of the state...
U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson is “astonished” that a three-judge panel of the U.S. Middle District of North Carolina is holding the state’s congressional candidates in electoral limbo by failing to rule on whether new district boundaries will be used for the June 7 primary. “We haven’t heard a peep out of them,” said Hudson, a...
• Lt. Gov. Dan Forest has produced the first ad for his re-election campaign, and it focuses on his leadership of the opposition to the Charlotte “bathroom” ordinance, which resulted in House Bill 2. • A fascinating op-ed column in the Los Angeles Times by law professors from William & Mary and the University of Virginia examine Attorney...
In the event federal judges throw out the latest North Carolina congressional district maps, a group of Republicans in the General Assembly has devised a plan that allows voters to cast their ballot for any state congressional candidate, even if the voter lives in another congressional district, according to sources. No member wanted to be...
• While we don’t know if the congressional districts drawn last month in a special session of the General Assembly will stand up in federal court, candidate filing for the scheduled June 7 primary is under way. All incumbents have said they’ll seek re-election, but here are the incumbents and challengers who had filed as...
