State Senate Republicans have landed their top two recruits for two newly-drawn Wake County Senate seats that are critical to GOP efforts to win a supermajority in the Senate in 2022. Senate Republicans hold 28 of 50 N.C. Senate seats and need a net gain of two seats to secure a supermajority to be able...
Now that Democrats have erased the GOP’s veto-proof majorities for the 2019 legislative session, Republican lawmakers could try to rush initiatives through a lame duck legislative session scheduled for Nov. 27, a top political observer says. Democrats gained ground by wiping out Republican legislative delegations in Wake and Mecklenburg counties. Jonathan Kappler, executive director of...
State Democrats accomplished a major goal in Tuesday’s midterm election, breaking the Republican Party’s supermajority in the General Assembly. Unofficial results show the GOP, which has a 75-45 advantage in the 2017 session — three votes more than needed to override a veto by Gov. Roy Cooper with a unified caucus — lost nine seats....
N.C. House District 40 (Wake County) Joe John (one-term incumbent). Democrat. Education: Attended Belmont Abbey College. Earned bachelor’s, master’s, and juris doctorate degrees at UNC-Chapel Hill. Occupation: Retired. Career highlights: chief assistant district attorney, chief District Court judge, Resident Superior Court judge, Court of Appeals associate judge. Acting commissioner N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles. Director...
It’s being called a historic milestone. But just because every state legislative seat will be contested in this year’s general election for the first time in memory doesn’t mean most races will be competitive. “Not every candidate is created equal, nor is every campaign created equal, though you have to have players on the field...
The push to reform North Carolina’s certificate-of-need laws that limit entry into the state’s health care market will continue in the upcoming session, state senators say. An academic researcher also says it’s possible that President-elect Trump’s administration might seek to dissolve the state regulations. Because the incoming administration wants to reform health care, and “does...
A stunning election night ended with several election races — including the contest for governor — unresolved, even as Republicans Donald Trump and Richard Burr scored significant victories and the GOP retained its supermajority status in the General Assembly. In the race for governor, Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper claimed victory just before 1 a.m....
A Durham orthopedic surgeon argues that the State Health Plan for public employees wastes a quarter-billion dollars annually because North Carolina’s certificate-of-need laws force patients to use hospital-based facilities instead of physician-operated outpatient surgery clinics. Dr. Richard Bruch, who is on the North Carolina Orthopaedic Association executive committee, issued that assessment in an invited commentary...
A continuing rift over taxpayer subsidies for renewable energy among House Republicans ignited during debate on a farm bill that includes a provision letting a biofuels company receive $50 million in tax credits. Critics called the provision “crony capitalism” that would cost state taxpayers up to $900,000 per job created. The amendment to Senate Bill...
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...
RALEIGH — A nationally recognized criminal justice reformer is confident North Carolina eventually will overturn a state law allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to be charged as adults, but acknowledges political resistance to the proposal remains. Marc Levin of Right on Crime, said prosecuting more teens who are not charged with violent crimes as juveniles would benefit local law enforcement efforts and reduce taxpayer costs
