A handful of House Republicans have introduced a series of bills to limit the governor’s powers in a state of emergency, a move that’s likely to further divide politics in Raleigh, political scientists say. House Bill 1059 would prohibit the governor from preventing religious organizations from gathering in a place of worship during a state...
UPDATED, 8:00 p.m., to add link to court order. In the middle of North Carolina’s uncertain scuffle over congressional redistricting, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen during the 2020 primaries. But one thing is for sure, say political scientists. Incumbents probably won’t suffer if candidate filing is stalled by the ongoing congressional redistricting case, Harper...
For several North Carolina counties, the General Assembly’s new election maps may misrepresent the actual population counts by around 20%. That’s because lawmakers have to rely on 2010 census data until no later than 2021, when the next set of data is published. From 2010 to 2018, the state’s overall population increased by a little...
A new poll from Meredith College shows 40% of North Carolinians would rather vote for someone who’s randomly selected from a phone book than for President Trump. Democratic candidates fare little better. The Meredith Poll sampled 998 registered North Carolina voters from Sept. 29 to Oct. 7 using a mix of landlines and online surveys...
The General Assembly’s new election maps, as they are now, would largely even the playing field for 2020, experts say. Both chambers passed the others’ maps Tuesday, Sept. 17. Redistricting analysts have since evaluated the maps through a relatively new technology, Planscore, which attempts to measure partisan favorability. The metric shows a decrease in the...
North Carolina Sen. Dan Bishop on Tuesday, Sept. 10, won the state’s 9th Congressional District race against his Democratic challenger, Dan McCready. But Republicans shouldn’t relax in 2020, said David McLennan, a professor of political science at Meredith College. Bishop and McCready were locked in a special “do-over” after the N.C. State Board of Elections...
Republicans are getting impatient. Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper insists Medicaid expansion be included in the General Fund budget, and the Republican-dominated General Assembly unequivocally refuses. Lawmakers passed a budget bill and sent to it the governor, who vetoed it June 28. Republicans plan to pass a budget anyway. One piece at a time. The hope...
If the state budget process seems polarized now, just wait. It could get even more quarrelsome as lawmakers contemplate how their votes might affect 2020 political prospects. Call it the Three P’s — preening, posturing, and preparing for election campaigns — and some of that was on display during House committee and floor debate on...
Gov. Roy Cooper took three strikes in Wake County Superior Court this week as judges ruled in favor of the General Assembly in a continuing battle over separation of powers. Political analysts say the rulings, while an immediate defeat for Cooper, aren’t the end of the story. The setbacks involved legal fights between Cooper and...
With the nation split down the middle on myriad issues, political parties are operating — or not — in a toxic atmosphere. “Congress needs to return to regular order,” Meredith College political science professor David McLennan said. “It would be nice for the General Assembly to return to some sense of normalcy, too.” He believes...
Republicans want to protect their supermajority in the General Assembly. No surprise there. What does have political analysts talking is how openly GOP leaders have stated that as a goal as they draw new, court-ordered legislative maps. Earlier this year, a federal three-judge panel ordered lawmakers to scrap 28 districts that were racially gerrymandered. The...
